Charles Darwin turns 200 - celebrations in the UK

Charles Darwin would have been 200 today, and celebrations are taking place all over the world to celebration the 200th anniversary of the naturalists's birth. No country is taking these celebrations more seriously than the UK.

Darwin Day has a list of over 650 events in 42 countries, with some of them in Britain being a mix of festivals, exhibitions at zoos, films playing at the Natural History Museum in London along with some pea soup made to Darwin's wife's recipe, a 'survival of the fittest' cake eating competition, and admission to the Bristol Zoo is free for anyone with a real or fake beard before noon.

At the Natural History Museum, visitors can also trace Darwin's voyage aboard the HMS Beagle, when he collected some of the most important data of his research. Many of the specimens and artefacts are on display for the first time ever.

Later in the day there will be a wreath laying ceremony at Darwin's grave in Westiminster Abbey.

In Shrewsbury, Shropshire, they are holding a Darwin Festival with tours of where he was born and grew up and where his family lived.