On 4th of July 1785, Scottish geologist James Hutton presented his paper on  uniformitarianism  at a meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

 Uniformitarianism 

The Earth’s geologic processes acted in the same manner and with essentially the same intensity in the past as they do in the present and that such uniformity is sufficient to account for all geologic change. This principle is fundamental to geologic thinking and underlies the whole development of the science of geology.

Hutton realised that the processes of erosion, deposition and uplift were connected and operated continuously, driven by the Earth’s internal heat, in a way not previously understood. 

Click on this link to find out more about James Hutton