From tadpole to homo sapiens: November 24 is Evolution Day
Where do I come from? Where am I going? The elementary questions of mankind. At least one of them was answered 159 years ago by a certain Charles Darwin: on November 24, 1859, he published his fundamental work On the Origin of Species, in which he explained that all living beings descend from common ancestors and change over fairly long periods of time through natural selection. Not so well received at the time, but all the more so today: the theory of evolution has long since replaced the biblical story of creation in school lessons. Celebrations in honor of this fundamental work of evolutionary biology have been held on November 24 for over a century, but the term "Evolution Day" has only been buzzing around since 1997. On the 150th anniversary of the work, the Giordano Bruno Foundation launched a petition calling for Evolution Day to be recognized as a public holiday for the non-denominational third of Germans. However, Ascension Day was planned as the day for this. Although this did not prevail, we still have every reason to celebrate Evolution Day! After all, we have evolved into Homo Sapiens.