Is Charles Darwin Dead or Still Alive? Charles Darwin Birthday and Date of Death

Charles Darwin Death

Charles passed away on April 19, 1882 at the age of 73 in Down House, Downe, Kent, United Kingdom. Charles's cause of death was heart disease.

Charles Darwin Birthday and Date of Death

Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 and died on April 19, 1882. Charles was 73 years old at the time of death.

Birthday: February 12, 1809
Date of Death: April 19, 1882
Age at Death: 73

Charles Darwin - Biography

Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist and geologist, best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, and in a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding.
Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, overcoming scientific rejection of earlier concepts of transmutation of species. By the 1870s, the scientific community and a majority of the educated public had accepted evolution as a fact. However, many favoured competing explanations and it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed in which natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution. Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.

Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history, and he was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey.
In 1882 he was diagnosed with what was called "angina pectoris" which then meant coronary thrombosis and disease of the heart. At the time of his death, the physicians diagnosed "anginal attacks", and "heart-failure". Today it is speculated that Darwin was suffering from chronic Chagas disease. This speculation is based on a journal entry written by Darwin, describing he was bitten by the "Kissing Bug" in Mendoza, Argentina in 1835; and based on the constellation of clinical symptoms he exhibited, including cardiac disease which is a hallmark of chronic Chagas disease. Exhuming Darwin's body is likely necessary to definitively determine his state of infection by detecting DNA of infecting parasite, T. cruzi, that causes Chagas disease.
He died at Down House on 19 April 1882. His last words were to his family, telling Emma "I am not the least afraid of death – Remember what a good wife you have been to me – Tell all my children to remember how good they have been to me", then while she rested, he repeatedly told Henrietta and Francis "It's almost worth while to be sick to be nursed by you".