Creationism is the original theory for life's diversity, there has been some form of 'creationism movement' going on since Darwin first published on the origin of species.
The first backlash came from the scientific community, where the watchmaker analogy was first used, as was irreducible complexity. There was a strong revival of the creationism movement in the 1920's where it became associated with religious fundamentalism, which led into the scopes trial. It wasn't until 1968 however that the Supreme Court ruled the teaching of creation in schools as a violation of the separation of church and state. The Institute for Creation research was founded in the 1970's and that can be considered the beginning of the modern creation movement.
