Difficult to accept: "A Venerable Orang-outang" - a caricature of Charles Darwin as an ape published in The Hornet, a British satirical magazine on 22 March 1871.
Here’s a timeline of dates in the life of Charles Darwin, born 200 years ago on 12 February.
• 1809: Charles Robert Darwin born to wealthy rural family in the western English town of Shrewsbury.
• 1825 to 27: Despairing of his son's poor progress at school, Darwin's father sends him to Edinburgh University to study medicine. He quits after two years, repelled when he has to cut open a human cadaver.
• 1827 to 31: Darwin studies theology at Christ's College, Cambridge, to prepare for life as a country vicar. Scrapes a pass.
• 1831 to 36: Naturalist aboard the survey ship the HMS Beagle, spending 57 months circumnavigating the globe. Darwin takes masses of notes in zoology and geology, writes a 770-page diary and takes home 5,400 specimens as well as live tortoises from the Galapagos Islands.
• 1838: Weaves together the notion of natural selection, that individuals with the most favourable inherited traits gain supremacy in the struggle for survival.
• 1839: Marries his first cousin, Emma Wedgwood. Eventually they have 10 children, although only seven survive to adulthood.
• 1840: Publishes Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle.
• 1842: Develops theory of evolution, which he embodies in a secret essay that he hands to his wife. The document remains unpublished while Darwin works on elaborating his ideas.
• 1858: Darwin receives a letter from a young naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, who while working in Indonesia has separately arrived at a theory of evolution by natural selection that is similar to Darwin's. Both papers are aired and published simultaneously by the Linnaean Society in London.
• 1859: Publishes On the Origin of Species, expounding his theory of evolution by natural selection. The book sparks huge controversy.
• 1860: Landmark debate at Oxford University between pro- and anti-Darwin camps. Both sides claim victory.
• 1871: Publication of The Descent of Man, in which evolutionary theory is applied to humans. Darwin argues that Man and ape are descended from a common ancestor, and is widely scorned and satirised for it.
• 1872 to 81: Publishes further works on the expression of emotions in Man and animals; plant reproduction; and the action of worms, based on research he carried out in his garden at Down House in Kent, southeastern England.
• 1882: Dies after prolonged bouts of mystery illnesses. Buried in pomp at London's Westminster Abbey near Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday and other scientific greats.
Read more about Darwin in our Special Report: Darwin at 200
