24 November 1859
New Moon, 0% lit
On the Origin of Species goes on sale
Darwin's book was published at new moon and sold out its entire print run on the first day.
He had been sitting on the argument for twenty years, and only published when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay containing the same idea. The first edition ran to 1,250 copies.
- Date
- 24 November 1859
- Moon computed for
- 10:00 local time, UTC
- Phase
- New Moon
- Illuminated
- 0%
Source: John Murray publishing records