12th President Zachary Taylor is born in Barboursville, Virginia. Taylor, a 40-year veteran of the United States Army, ran as a Whig in the 1848 election following his acclaimed leadership during the Mexican-American War. Taylor, the last president to own slaves while in office, died in 1850 from an unkown illness.
Major General Joseph Hooker leads a Union assault to capture Lookout Mountain during the Battle of Chattanooga. By seizing Lookout Mountain, Hooker's troops turned the Confederate left flank and reinforced the decisive Union offensive on Missionary Ridge the following day.
British naturalist Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species, the chief proponent of evolutionary biology. While many Americans rejected Darwinism, a supplementary theory called Social Darwinism emerged to support human natural selection.
