25th November

Yesterday I mentioned Charles Darwin. He was never quite able to include Man in his natural selection argument, but others did, especially Thomas Huxley who wiped the floor spectacularly with Bishop 'Soapy Sam' Wilberforce of the Church of England in Oxford in 1860. The question of the authority of the Bible was much talked about and today in 1864, the Conservative Party's 'hatchet man', Benjamin Disraeli, famously said, 'Is man an ape or an angel? I, my lord, am on the side of the angels.'

Except that William Gladstone, the Liberal Party and an awful lot of Conservatives, disagreed with that.

In other news ...
The KKK got back together again today in 1915 in Georgia. The original Klan targeted the newly-freed slaves after the Civil War but this one targeted:-

• Blacks
• Jews
• Catholics
• Immigrants
• Communists
• Pacifists
• Darwinians.

The Klan is in decline today because there is almost nobody who is considered fit to join.

24th November

The deeply unpleasant misogynist, John Knox, died today in 1572. Scottish Protestants think he was the best thing since sliced bread but then there were those who thought Adolf Hitler was a pretty good egg too.

In other news ...
Charles Darwin published his Origin of Species today in 1859. Two things to note about this -

1. Of three famous books published in the same year (Darwin's, Samuel Smiles's Self Help and Mrs Beeton's Household Management) only Mrs Beeton went on to make any money.
2. Some people today still regard Darwin's natural selection as a theory only. Didn't they watch Inherit the Wind? 

10th October

Charles Darwin published what he considered to be his major opus today in 1881. It was called Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms with Notes on Their Habits. Just a reminder about other immortal works penned by the greats: Harriet Beecher Stowe's The Outbuilding belonging to a family Relative Whose Name was Thomas: Karl Marx's A List of the Principles and Beliefs of People Who Believe in Complete Equality: Robert Graves's Myself, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus and finally Peter Benchley's The Mandibles of a Large, Pale Predator Fish and Its Homicidal Habits.

Darwin's book was later filmed as Tremors and Its Many Sequels.

In other news ...
Thelonius Monk was born today in 1920. For years I thought his name was Felonius and that he was probably a defrocked priest. His crime? He virtually invented bebop.

'Nuff said.

19th April

James Mollison was born today in 1905. He was a Scottish aviator and if you've never heard of him that's because all his thunder was stolen by his wife, Amy Johnson. He was actually flying with her when they crossed the Atlantic for the first time but he might as well not have bothered.
He got his own back later though, by shortening his Christian name to Jim and singing with the Doors, a band that didn't feature Amy Johnson at all, although experts on the band do say that 'You're Lost, Little Girl' may refer to her.

In other news ...
Charles Darwin, the famous beagle-breeder, owner of a horrendous beard and reluctant evolutionist died today in 1882. His last book came out the previous year and was called On the Formation of Vegetable Moulds. It has now sold 30 million copies worldwide, is available on Kindle for only £23.94 (price set by publisher) and it spawned an opera, a ballet, a radio series and no less than six movies (two in the silent era). There is talk of another remake starring Sly Stallone as 'Lichen' and Gene Hackman as 'Fungus' with a screenplay, inevitably, by Julian Fellowes.