Darwin and Lincoln were born on the same day: 12 February 1809.
The events
- Darwin's On the Origin of Species1859 · London. In November 1859 Charles Darwin published his book on the origin of species by means of natural selection. The theory of evolution explained the diversity of life by natural processes, provoked fierce debate and became the foundation of modern biology.
- American Civil War1861–1865 · Fort Sumter. The war between the Union and the seceded slaveholding states of the Confederacy began with the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861. The Union victory preserved the United States, and the 13th Amendment of 1865 abolished slavery nationwide.
More amazing facts
- 1775 · 1776 In January 1775 Pugachev was executed in Moscow; in April the first shots of the American War of Independence were fired.
- 1776 The Bolshoi Theatre and the United States are the same age: the theatre dates from March 1776, the Declaration of Independence from July of that year.
- 1804 1804: Napoleon crowned himself emperor, while the former slaves of Haiti, having beaten his army, declared independence — the first nation founded by a slave revolt.
- 1815 Two months before Waterloo, in April 1815, Indonesia's Tambora erupted — its ash brought the 'Year Without a Summer' to Europe and North America.
- 1825 1825: the first public steam railway opened in England, and in St Petersburg the Decembrists marched onto Senate Square.
- 1835 · 1859 Darwin spent five weeks on the Galápagos in 1835, but did not publish On the Origin of Species until 24 years later.