Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859. The book presented evolution by natural selection as a broad explanation for the diversity of living organisms.
The first edition appeared in London on 24 November 1859, published by John Murray. Its full title was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Darwin had delayed publishing his ideas for years while gathering evidence.
Darwin was prompted to publish more quickly after Alfred Russel Wallace independently developed a similar theory. Darwin and Wallace presented their ideas jointly at the Linnean Society of London in 1858. A common mix-up is that Darwin’s 1859 book did not use the phrase “survival of the fittest”; Herbert Spencer coined that expression, and Darwin adopted it in later editions.