Has the Theory of Evolution benefited mankind?

I think the greatest benefit of evolution is knowing how we got here. It's one of the fundimental questions that humans have been asking since we've had the ability to ask it. The fossil record for humans is quite clear from the three genera and over a dozen species that separate us from our common ancestor with chimpanzees. Then there's the genetic and molecular biologic evidence which further prove relatedness, especially with protein sequencing and mitochondrial DNA. Philosophically, it puts us in our place and shows us how we really aren't as special as we'd like to think we are. Galileo did a similar thing when he showed that the earth is not the center of the universe. Humans are like any other animal, we just happen to be orders of magnitude more complex because of our large brains.
So, the benefits of knowing how viruses, bacteria, and pests evolve don't even compare to the fact that evolution gives us the answer to one of life's major questions.

I know what the OP was talking about, my point is simply that the tangible and practical benefits are irrelevant in comparison to the contribution to our knowlege of ourselves and how we got here.