World Darwin Day on 12 February 2026

World Darwin Day is celebrated annually on February 12 in honor of the birthday of Charles Darwin (1809–1882). The day focuses on science, evolution, critical thinking, and the importance of biodiversity. It commemorates Darwin's contribution to our understanding of nature through his theory of evolution. Do you have Darwin stamps in your collection?

Darwin Day

Darwin Day is a holiday commemorating the birthday of Charles Darwin on February 12, 1809. The day is used to highlight Darwin's contributions to science and to promote science in general. Darwin Day is celebrated worldwide. Since his death on April 19, 1882, at the age of 73, sporadically commemorations have been organized in honor of Darwin's work and his life. The events took place at Down House, in Downe on the southern edge of London, where Darwin and members of his family lived from 1842 until the death of his wife, Emma Darwin, in 1896. In 1909, more than 400 scientists and dignitaries from 167 countries gathered in Cambridge to honor Darwin's contributions and to lively discuss recent discoveries and related theories vying for acceptance. This was a much-discussed event of public interest. Also in 1909, on February 12, the New York Academy of Sciences celebrated Darwin's 100th birthday and the 50th anniversary of the publication of at the American Museum of Natural History. On The Origin of SpeciesA bronze bust of Darwin was unveiled. On June 2, 1909, the Royal Society of New Zealand held a “Darwin Celebration”. “There was a very large turnout.” From November 24 to 28, 1959, the University of Chicago held a large celebration in honor of Darwin and the publication of *On the Origin of Species*, the largest event of the Darwin Centennial Celebration. Scientists and academics sometimes celebrated February 12 with “Phylum Feast” events as early as 1972, 1974, and 1989 in Canada. In the United States, Salem State College in Massachusetts has organized an annual “Darwin Festival” since 1980 and registered “Darwin Festival” as a service mark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2005. The Humanist Community of Palo Alto, California, was motivated by Dr. Robert Stephens in late 1993 to begin planning an annual celebration of Darwin Day. The first public Darwin Day event was a lecture by Dr. Donald Johanson (discoverer of the early hominid “Lucy”), sponsored by the Stanford Humanists student group and the Humanist Community on April 22, 1995. The Humanist Community continues its annual celebration. In the early 1990s, the London Evolution Group was founded to bring together evolutionary biologists from the London area, particularly from University College London, the Natural History Museum, London, and Imperial College, but also from other universities and research institutions in and around London. Their first official meeting, named “Darwin’s Birthday Party”, was held in 1994 at the Linnean Society of London. The evolution of this Darwin celebration is described further below. Independently of this, Professor Massimo Pigliucci initiated an annual Darwin Day event at the University of Tennessee in 1997. The event included public lectures and activities, as well as a workshop for teachers intended to help elementary and secondary school teachers better understand evolution and explain it to their students, and to learn how to deal with the pressure often exerted on them by the creationist movement.

2009: 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

In 2009, the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth was commemorated, as well as the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species'. Various events were organized, with the most prominent celebrations in Shrewsbury, at the University of Cambridge, and at the Natural History Museum in London. Darwin's alma mater, Christ's College in Cambridge, commemorated the bicentennial with the unveiling of a life-size bronze statue of the young Darwin, sculpted by their alumnus Anthony Smith. Prince Philip unveiled the statue. In the same year, two well-known evolutionary biologists, Richard Dawkins and Jerry Coyne, published extensive books on the evidence for evolution. In 2009, the Perth Mint in Australia launched a commemorative 1-ounce silver coin, legal tender, featuring Darwin, young and old; the HMS Beagle; and Darwin's signature. The bicentennial was also celebrated with the release of a biopic about Darwin, *Creation*, directed by Jon Amiel and starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly.  

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Darwin Day: https://darwinday.org/