Darwin at the Natural History Museum, London

On the 24th of November 1859, Charles Darwin published his groundbreaking ‘Origin of Species’. It went on sale for 15 shillings and almost all of the 1,250 copies sold out on the first day.

‘The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection’ – to give it its full title detailed scientific evidence Darwin had collected on his Beagle voyage in the 1830′s and in his observations at home in England.

In simple terms, he showed that species develop from a gradual biological evolution in which nature itself encourages, through natural selection, the propagation of those species which are best suited to their environments.

I’ll let the great science communicator Sir David Attenborough to paint the picture for you in this spectacular clip from the Wellcome Trust.