The Monkey Trial

Today's the anniversary of the Scopes Trial verdict. In 1925 it became illegal in the state of Tennessee to teach evolution, and within the year John Scopes, a sports coach subbing for a biology teacher at the time, was successfully prosecuted. Although also  known as the Monkey Trial, no monkeys were directly involved in the trial: they were outside on the courtroom lawn performing for the amassed global media circus. The trial was reinvented for the McCarthyite era in the play Inherit the Wind.

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