This is a 5-star rating that belongs on another list. . .for 'human-changing events' I can only give it a 3. . .but this trial is something that struct a blow against religious dogma that (still) tries to stop science from explaining the universe to us. . .this lesson has been lost on the present administration and a noticeable percentage of its followers. . .Ignore science? Pay the price.

Today is July 21, and on this day, in 1925, in Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.

The conviction was appealed to the Supreme Court of Tennessee. That court found the statute to be constitutional.

Even though the Tennessee high court found the statute to be constitutional, it set aside Scope's conviction because of a legal technicality.

Tennessee required that the jury should have decided the fine, not the judge, as Tennessee judges could not at that time set fines above 50 dollars.

The prosecution did not seek a retrial.

Not until 1968 did the United States Supreme Court rule in Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 (1968) that such bans contravene the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States because their primary purpose is religious.

Having seen the dispositions of some of our Bible Belt friends here on RIA, I understand why Clarence Darrow's most fabled victory is not being received well in terms of quality of ratings.