Date  

Event  

1831-36

Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle and his study of the variation of animal life on the Galapogos Islands

ca 1844

Darwin sees how animal breeding and the population theories of Reverend Thomas Malthus can provide a model for evolution and the origin of species.

1855

Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace begin corresponding regarding their respective  theories of evolution

1858

Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace jointly announce their findings on evolution to the Linnean Society of London

1859

Publication of Darwin’s book The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life

1860

Debate between Thomas Henry Huxley and Bishop Samuel Wilberforce

1864

Publication of Herbert Spencer’s Principles of Biology in which he first used the term ‘survival of the fittest’ to describe evolution.

1869

Publication of Francis Galton’s book, Hereditary Genius

1870 to 1900

Codification of Social Darwinism in the writing of Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner and others

1925

Passage of the Butler Act in Tennessee prohibiting the teaching of evolution and Scopes Trial in Dayton Tennessee and the resulting confrontation of William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow

1931

The publication of Ronald A.  Fisher’s book, A Genetical Theory of Natural Selection that cemented the importance of Darwin’s theories.

1957

The launching by the Soviet Union of Sputnik I, the world's first artificial satellite and growing concern in the United States about the quality of science education.

1958

Establishment of the Biological Science Curriculum Study to build the new discoveries in biology and the so-called “new synthesis” into school textbooks.

1959

Conferences and celebrations centered on the Darwin Centennial

1961

Publication of Henry M. Morris and John C. Whitcomb’s book, The Genesis Flood

1963

U.S. Supreme Court rules that schools may not require group prayer or religious devotionals for their students

1980

Publication of Tim LaHaye’s book, The Battle for the Mind outlined the dangers of “secular humanism”

1981

Louisiana and Arkansas pass legislation requiring the “balanced treatment” of scientific creationism and evolution

1987

Supreme Court rejects Louisiana law requiring that scientific creationism be given equal time in schools to evolution.

1991

Publication of Philip E. Johnson’s book, Darwin on Trial in which he attacks the credibility of Darwin’s theories.

1996

Publication of Michael Behe’s book, Darwin’s Black Box that argues that life at the molecular level is too complex to have evolved without some intelligent designer guiding its development

2005

Pennsylvania court rules in the case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District that Intelligent Design is not a scientific theory and that it “cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents.”