# Canonical recap data for Charles Darwin Publishes Origin of Species (1859)
# Source: https://recap.at/1859/origin-species
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slug: origin-species
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1859/origin-species"
title: Charles Darwin Publishes Origin of Species
aliases:
- On the Origin of Species
- The Origin of Species
- Darwin's Origin
- 24 November 1859
subtitle: Charles Darwin Publishes Origin of Species
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1859-01-01
datePrecision: year
year: 1859
decade: 1850
country:
name: United Kingdom
slug: united-kingdom
summaryShort: Charles Darwin Publishes Origin of Species (1859) - United Kingdom.
summaryLong: Charles Darwin Publishes Origin of Species (1859) - United Kingdom.
lede: On November 24, 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, a 490-page book arguing that species evolve over time through a process he called natural selection. The work provided the first scientifically rigorous explanation for the diversity of life on Earth, fundamentally challenging prevailing religious and philosophical views about creation. It became the foundation for modern biology and remains one of the most consequential works of science ever written.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/On_the_origin_of_species_by_means_of_natural_selection_OR_the_preservation_of_favoured_races_in_the_struggle_for_life%2C_2nd_edition._By_Chalres_Darwin%2C_John_Murray%2C_London%2C_1860._National_Museum_of_Scotland.jpg/1280px-thumbnail.jpg"
heroImageCredit: "\"On the origin of species by means of natural selection OR the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life, 2nd edition. By Chalres Darwin, John Murray, London, 1860. National Museum of Scotland\" by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/."
importance: 50
sourceConfidence: 55
keyFacts:
- label: Publication date
  value: November 24, 1859
- label: First edition print run
  value: 1,250 copies
- label: Pages in first edition
  value: "490"
- label: Gestation period
  value: 20+ years (Darwin began work in 1838)
- label: Author age at publication
  value: 50 years old
- label: Price of first edition
  value: 15 shillings
- label: Sold out
  value: Within one day of release
- label: Second edition issued
  value: 1860 (3,000 copies)
timeline:
- date: 1838-09-28
  title: Darwin begins species notebook
  description: Darwin opens his private species notebook in September 1838, beginning 20 years of research that would culminate in Origin.
- date: 1844-07-01
  title: Darwin writes private essay on natural selection
  description: Darwin completes a 230-page manuscript outlining natural selection, shared only with his wife Emma and friend Joseph Hooker, kept confidential for fear of public backlash.
- date: 1858-06-18
  title: Wallace's letter arrives
  description: Darwin receives a letter from naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace sketching nearly identical ideas about natural selection, spurring him to accelerate publication after two decades of hesitation.
- date: 1858-07-01
  title: Darwin-Wallace papers presented
  description: Darwin's colleagues Joseph Hooker and Charles Lyell present joint papers by Darwin and Wallace to the Linnean Society of London, establishing Darwin's priority but receiving little immediate notice.
- date: 1859-11-24
  title: Origin of Species published
  description: John Murray publishes On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in London; the 1,250-copy first edition sells out by day's end.
- date: 1860-02-02
  title: Oxford debate
  description: Bishop Samuel Wilberforce and Thomas Huxley clash over evolution at the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Oxford, becoming a defining public moment for the theory.
- date: 1860-06-01
  title: Second edition released
  description: A revised second edition of 3,000 copies is published; Darwin adds a new chapter clarifying objections and begins his custom of revising each subsequent edition.
- date: 1871-02-24
  title: Descent of Man published
  description: Darwin extends his theory directly to human evolution in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, applying natural selection to mankind.
sources: []
related: []
impactStatement: Darwin's Origin of Species unified biology around a single explanatory principle and triggered a century-long reassessment of humanity's place in nature. The book created immediate intellectual fracture lines-between scientific naturalism and religious doctrine, between established authority and radical empiricism-that still structure debates about evolution, religion, and human nature today.
categories:
- launch
metaDescription: Darwin publishes Origin of Species (1859), laying the scientific foundation for modern biology and evolutionary theory.
comparisonThenNow:
- metric: Scientific acceptance of evolution by natural selection
  thenValue: Highly controversial; majority of religious institutions rejected it; British scientific establishment divided
  thenYear: 1859
  nowValue: Accepted by 97% of biologists; taught in virtually all biology curricula worldwide; endorsed by major scientific organizations
  nowYear: 2024
  note: Pew Research (2019) found 65% of American adults accept evolution, up from ~45% in the 1980s
- metric: Book sales and reach
  thenValue: 1,250 copies in first edition; 6 editions published in Darwin's lifetime; available in ~4 languages
  thenYear: 1859
  nowValue: Estimated 500+ million copies sold or distributed globally; available in 30+ languages; core concepts taught to billions
  nowYear: 2024
- metric: DNA understanding
  thenValue: No knowledge of genes, chromosomes, or molecular mechanisms of inheritance; Darwin worked from observation and breeding experiments
  thenYear: 1859
  nowValue: Complete understanding of DNA structure (Watson, Crick, 1953); molecular basis of evolution confirmed through genetics; phylogenetic trees built from genetic data
  nowYear: 2024
  note: Francis Collins' Human Genome Project (completed 2003) demonstrated genetic common ancestry with 98.8% DNA match to chimpanzees
- metric: Fossil record completeness
  thenValue: Darwin acknowledged major gaps; few transitional fossils known; Origin published before Archaeopteryx discovery was widely recognized
  thenYear: 1859
  nowValue: Thousands of transitional fossils documented; detailed evolutionary sequences for horses, whales, humans, and many other groups
  nowYear: 2024
  note: Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) discovered 1974; Tiktaalik discovered 2004; Homo naledi discovered 2015
consequences:
- title: The Oxford Evolution Debate
  year: 1860
  description: Just seven months after Origin's publication, Bishop Samuel Wilberforce debated Thomas Huxley at the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Wilberforce asked if Huxley descended from monkeys on his grandmother's or grandfather's side; Huxley allegedly replied he'd rather be descended from an ape than a bishop who used rhetoric to obscure truth. The debate became legendary and crystallized the apparent conflict between science and religion in the Victorian mind.
- title: Ernst Haeckel's Monism and Evolutionary Philosophy
  year: 1866
  description: German biologist Ernst Haeckel became Darwin's most enthusiastic European advocate, popularizing evolution through books like The History of Creation. He proposed his recapitulation theory (now discredited) and used evolutionary thinking to construct a monistic philosophy that, unfortunately, would later be misappropriated to justify eugenics and racist hierarchies of human development.
- title: Acceptance by Darwin's Scientific Contemporaries
  year: 1875
  description: By the mid-1870s, most British biologists and geologists had accepted natural selection as the primary mechanism of evolution. The Copley Medal (1864) and other scientific honors affirmed Darwin's standing. Major naturalists like Alfred Russel Wallace (who independently conceived natural selection) and August Weismann conducted experiments supporting Darwin's theory, giving it institutional scientific legitimacy.
- title: Integration into Educational Curricula
  year: 1880
  description: Universities and secondary schools began systematically teaching evolution and natural selection as core biological concepts. Textbooks like Thomas Huxley's Anatomy of Vertebrated Animals incorporated evolutionary frameworks. What had been radical and contested became standard scientific education within a single generation.
- title: Social Darwinism and Eugenics Movements
  year: 1900
  description: Darwin's ideas were grotesquely misapplied to justify social hierarchies, colonialism, and eugenics campaigns. Francis Galton (Darwin's cousin) founded the eugenics movement in 1883; by 1900, governments from Sweden to California were using pseudo-Darwinian logic to justify forced sterilizations. Darwin himself opposed such applications, but the damage was done-his theory became political ammunition for discriminatory policies that would persist into the mid-20th century.
- title: "Modern Synthesis: Genetics Confirms Darwin"
  year: 1942
  description: "Julian Huxley's Evolution: The Modern Synthesis unified Darwin's natural selection with Mendelian genetics and population genetics, creating the framework still used today. Dobzhansky, Mayr, and others showed that small genetic mutations, filtered by natural selection, explained both microevolution and the origin of species-validating Darwin's core insight with 83 years of additional science."
culturalContext:
topMusic:
- title: God Save the Queen
  artist: British National Anthem (arrangement by Henry Carey, established as national anthem 1745; contemporary with Darwin era)
  year: 1859
  note: Britain's anthem during the Origin crisis; the tension between secular science and religious nationalism was culturally acute
topFilms: []
topTVShows: []
zeitgeistNote: "1859 Britain was mid-Victorian industrial boom: railways connecting the nation, British Empire at height, scientific optimism tempered by religious anxiety. Darwin's publication arrived alongside mill culture, urban overcrowding, and Dickens' serialization of A Tale of Two Cities-a society obsessed with questions of progress, change, and what humans owed to tradition. The Origin of Species became the intellectual flashpoint of a generation grappling with modernity itself. By 1859, photography (invented 1839) had made visual documentation of reality possible, subtly reinforcing the scientific empiricism Darwin embodied. Tennyson's In Memoriam (1850) had already explored evolutionary themes poetically; Darwin provided the mechanism."
gallery:
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/Origin_of_Species_title_page.jpg/1280px-Origin_of_Species_title_page.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/Origin_of_Species_title_page.jpg/800px-Origin_of_Species_title_page.jpg"
  caption: On the Origin of Species
  credit: Wikipedia · "On the Origin of Species"
  width: 330
  height: 530
