Throughout the whole year 2009, the global biological community has celebrated the legacy of Charles Darwin, commemorating the anniversaries of his birth and the publication of "The origin", one of the most influential books of modern history. In this context, the Revista Chilena de Historia Natural inaugurates its new "Special Features" section with four independent essays dealing with the past, present and future of Darwin's ideas. This initial presentation focuses on some loóse ends of this Darwinfest, particularly on some forgotten anniversaries directly or indirectly related with Darwin's, and summarizes the contributions of the three essays following this introduction in the present issue.