brother from another mother

Here's a bit of interesting information. Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were both born on February 12, 1809. (I know. Your mind is blowing right now.) It's interesting because, typically, when people think of the 19th century, they don't really think about the Civil War or the emancipation or manifest destiny or the Whig Party. They think of Queen Victoria, extravagant fashions, literature, electricity. In one corner you have England and the Enlightenment, and in the other corner you have, well, Robert E. Lee. Realizing that these two men shared a lifetime is bizarre because of where America was during the Victorian age. We weren't exactly an advanced bunch. The overlap of these influential lives just never occurred to me, even though Darwin dealt with issues of slavery in his research. Give me some time, and I'm sure my mind will stop exploding... eventually...