NOVEMBER - Events sorted by day of the month:

November 01 1836
A proposal was put forth to admit Charles Darwin as a Fellow of the Royal Geological Society.

November 02 1833
Darwin left Buenos Aires amid much civil unrest in the city and boarded a packet ship to join the Beagle at Montevideo.

November 02 1859
While at Ilkley Spa Darwin received an early copy of his book, "On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection". The title for "Origins" went through a few changes while it was being written:

-- An Abstract of an Essay on the Origin of Species and Varieties through Natural Selection.
-- On the Origin of Species and Varieties by means of Natural Selection.
-- On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection.

November 03 1864
The "X Club" was founded. During this time the church was moving quickly to shore up their defenses of biblical creation and the fixation of species. Radical naturalists, and those already in the transmutation camp, joined forces to counter the church move. They met at the St. George Hotel in London and formed a dining club they called the "X-club". Their purpose was to meet and discuss pure science without the intrusion of the church or any religious views. They met on the first Thursday of every month. The club existed from November 1864 to 1892. Many members of the club had power inside the Royal Society of London. The nine members of the X-Club were -- Joseph Hooker - Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in 1865. Thomas Huxley - Professor of natural history at the Government School of Mines in London. William Spottiswoode - Owner of Eyre and Spottiswoode; the Queen's printers. Edward Frankland - Professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution. John Tyndall - Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution. George Busk - Retired surgeon for the British Navy. Major contributor to many scientific societies. Sir John Lubbock - Knighted in 1865. Had wealth and influence in London society. Thomas Hirst - Professor of Mathematics at University College, London. Herbert Spencer - Not very active in the X-Club. He lived off inheritance from his family and book royalties.

November 04 1869
The journal "Nature" was founded by Joseph Hooker and Thomas Huxley as a voice for the X-Club. 130 years later the journal "Nature" is one of the most popular and well respected science journals in the world.

November 06 1826
Darwin began his second year of medical school at Edinburgh, but now he was alone; his brother, Erasmus, having left Edinburgh for London to study anatomy. Darwin spent a lot of time at the university museum, taking notes on the plants and animals on display there. He also joined the Plinian Society during this time and often attended their scientific debates. These debates were perhaps his first exposure to anti-Christian sentiments. The topics of these debates centered upon the merits of scientific investigation stemming from a an examination of natural causes rather than divine intervention. Darwin also attended Professor Robert Jameson's lectures on Geology, and ironically he found himself dreadfully bored with the subject, and vowed never to read or study geology again.

November 10 1834
H.M.S. Beagle picked up Darwin (now in much better health) and headed south to survey the Chronos Archipelago and the waters around Chiloe Island. Darwin went on a little excursion on the island, hoping to do some geology, but he was not very impressed. The Beagle next surveyed up the coast to the town of Valdivia.

November 11 1836
After spending a week with his fossil specimens at the Royal College of Surgeons, Darwin headed to Shrewsbury for a ten day visit. He also went to see his uncle Josiah at Maer Hall, and to Overton to visit his sister, Marianne, and her husband, Henry Parker. While visiting Maer Hall, his uncle suggested to Darwin that he should publish a book of his five year voyage around the world.

November 11 1838
Charles Darwin proposed to Emma Wedgwood at Maer Hall. Everyone at the house was overjoyed, especially the Wedgwood ladies. The next day Darwin went to Shrewsbury to tell his father and sisters, all of whom were extremely happy for him. Arrangements were made for Darwin and Emma to receive a ú5,000 dowry, plus ú400 a year from Josiah Wedgwood II, along with ú10,000 from his father, Dr. Robert Darwin, which would be invested for the newlyweds. Now Darwin could look forward to not having to work for a living; giving him plenty of free time for his book writing and transmutation research. To get an idea of how well off Darwin and Emma would be, it may be useful to consider the average yearly wages for certain occupations during the Victorian era - Wealthy merchant or banker - ú10,000 a year Physician or lawyer - ú1,500 a year Civil servants - ú500 a year Assuming the ú15,000 they received was invested wisely (most of it was) and brought in an annual yield of 10%, they could expect an annual income of about ú2,000 a year. While this may not seem like a lot today, in the 1830's this amount was considered a small fortune.

November 12 1833
A forth group of specimens was shipped to Cambridge. This load consisted of about two-hundred animal skins, some mice, a jar of fish, insects, rocks, seeds, and of course his big collection of fossils and geological specimens.

November 13 1848
Dr. Robert Darwin died at The Mount, Shrewsbury. Darwin was so ill at the time he could not attend his father's funeral.

November 13 1874
The 2nd edition of "Descent of Man" was published.

November 14 1833
Darwin, having become totally hooked on fossil collecting, explored the Mercedes region of Uruguay where he was told very large specimens could be found. Flooding of the rivers caused much delay, requiring travel by horseback instead of by boat. On the way back to Montevideo he found the head of a fossilized Toxodon, a hippo-like animal. He also found a few other fossil remains near by.

November 15 1835
H.M.S. Beagle arrived at Tahiti, approximately 3,200 miles from South America. They remained at Tahiti for ten days and during this time Darwin went on a two day inland expedition an was awed by the glorious tropical vegetation. He was also impressed with the good work the missionaries had done with the Tahitians, who Darwin had a very high regard for.

November 17 1877
Darwin received an honorary Doctorate of Law from Cambridge University. This was one of the proudest moments of his life.

November 22 1859
"Origin of Species" went on sale to the public today at a price of 15 shillings. 1,250 copies were printed, most of which sold the first day. It was an immediate success and Darwin started the same day editing the work for a second edition.

November 24 1832
Darwin sent his second load of specimens and notes to Revd. Henslow. This collection consisted of the teeth of a Cavia (a large rodent-like creature), the upper jaw and head of a large animal (perhaps a Megatherium), the lower jaw of another large animal, some rodent teeth, several marine shells, an odd looking bird, some snakes and lizards, a toad, many crustaceans, dried plants, fish, some seeds, and naturally lots and lots of beetles.

November 28 1833
He was now back at Montevideo. Ironically, Darwin could not wait to get back onboard the Beagle even if it meant becoming sea-sick again.

November 30 1853
Charles Darwin received the Royal Medal of the Royal Society, the highest honor the society could bestow on a scientist. The medal was awarded for his three volume work on the geology of the Beagle voyage, and for his barnacle research currently in progress. Darwin leaped for joy at this news and was very proud that his peers had come to esteem his work so highly.

November 30 1864
Darwin was awarded the Copley Medal; the highest honor bestowed by the Royal Society. Busk and Falconer, both members of the X-Club, nominated him. Awarding the Copley Medal to Darwin caused much anger among the older Fellows of the Society, most of whom wanted Adam Sedgwick to get the award. It was agreed upon to give Darwin the medal, but only if it was explicitly stated that his "Origin of Species" book was not a contributing factor in their decision. Awarding the Copley Medal to Darwin was a sign of how influential the X-Club had become in Royal Society politics. Darwin was naturally very pleased. As was suspected, the Church of England was not at all happy with this turn of events.

Events some time during this month:

November (early) 1847
Hooker left for the tropics.

November (late) 1838
After all the marriage details were worked out, Darwin returned to London and started house hunting. He continued working with the variation of species and now saw that the methods of nature and breeders were not all that different, but while nature worked on millions of characteristics, breeders worked on only a few. Both, however, weeded out undesirable traits.

November 1836
At some time during this month Darwin severed his friendship with Robert Grant, an old friend and teacher from his Edinburgh days. Grant was very interested in looking over his specimens of coral, but Darwin did not want his years of hard work tainted by a radical evolutionist trouble maker. From this time forward Darwin and Robert Grant parted ways forever.

November 1840
Darwin gave a lot thought to how a bat's wings developed over time and wondered what good half a wing would do. Perhaps wings previously had a different function? Darwin also pondered over fossil evidence for the transmutation of species. At the time there were very few of them in the museums, but he figured in the future enough would be found to provide evidence for one species changing into another.

November 1846
Darwin became consumed with barnacle research, and soon had naturalists from all over the world sending him their collections to examine. He toyed with the idea of publishing a grand work on barnacles, as such a study was very much needed by the scientific community. However, there were ulterior motives for publishing such a treatise; Darwin felt that he needed to establish himself as an expert on species variations before he published his transmutation work, and the humble barnacle would do the trick.

November 1851
Darwin decided to no longer take the water cure in his backyard facility.

November 1872
An amazing 5,000 copies of "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals" were sold by this time.