🎂 Charles Darwin is born (1809)
Where: Shrewsbury, UK
Nearby on the globe: University of Oxford → 🌍 Open the 3D globe
📅 On This Day: February 12
February 12, 1809: Charles Darwin is born. Charles Darwin was born in 1809 in Shrewsbury, England. Sailing around the world on HMS Beagle, he studied the birds and tortoises of the Galápagos Islands. He explained in On the Origin of Species how living things slowly change over long periods of time: evolution.
✨ More events on this day
- 1637 🔬 Jan Swammerdam was born in Amsterdam; using microscopes, he studied insects in tiny detail and showed how a caterpillar changes into a butterfly.
- 1941 🧭 Japanese explorer Naomi Uemura was born; he climbed the highest peaks of five continents and travelled alone by dog sled to the North Pole.
- 2001 🚀 NASA's NEAR Shoemaker touched down on the asteroid Eros, becoming the first spacecraft ever to land on an asteroid.
🧠 Question of the day
Which ship did Darwin sail around the world on?
- HMS Beagle
- Nautilus
- Titanic
Show the answer
Answer: HMS Beagle
🎂 Landmarks that opened on February 12
Questions
What happened on February 12?
February 12, 1809: Charles Darwin is born. It happened in Shrewsbury, UK.
Which landmarks opened on February 12?
India Gate (inaugurated 1931), Jang Bogo Station (opened 2014).
In the game, the "Today on Earth" panel shows this story on its day, with a question to answer and a place to fly to.