A joint presentation of papers by Charles…

A joint presentation of papers by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, announcing a theory of evolution by natural selection, are read at London's Linnean Society on July 1, 1858

Darwin’s five-year voyage on the Beagle had established him as a geologist whose observations and theories supported Charles Lyell's uniformitarian ideas, and publication of his journal of the voyage has made him famous as a popular author.

Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he had collected on the voyage, Darwin had investigated the transmutation of species and conceived his theory of natural selection in 1838.

Having seen others attacked as heretics for such ideas, he has confided only in his closest friends and continued his extensive research to meet anticipated objections.

Alfred Russell Wallace,a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist, had sent him an essay describing a similar theory in 1858, causing the two to publish their theories early in a joint publication to the Linnaean Society of London.