Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor who is considered one of America's leading businessmen. Edison rose from humble beginnings to work as an inventor of major technology including the first commercially viable incandescent light bulb. Thomas Edison's inventions included the telegraph, the universal stock ticker, the phonograph, the first commercially practical incandescent electric light bulb, alkaline storage batteries and the Kinetograph.
Charles Robert Darwin was a naturalist and biologist known for his theory of evolution and the process of natural selection. Darwin's theory of evolution declared that species survived through a process called "natural selection" where those that successfully adapted or evolved to meet the changing requirements of their natural habitat thrived while those that failed to evolve and reproduce died off. Through his observations and studies of birds, plants and fossils. Darwin noticed similarities among species all over the globe along with variations based on specific locations leading him to believe that the species we know today had gradually evolved from common ancestors. Darwin's theory of evolution and the process of natural selection later became known simply as "Darwinism".