Thursday, July 21, 2005

 

Spotlight: John Scopes was found guilty of teaching Darwinism, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, in a Tennessee high school on this date in 1925. Though Scopes was fined $100, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the verdict on a technicality. The trial, which became known as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was tried by two very famous lawyers, Clarence Darrow for the defense and prosecutor William Jennings Bryan. The ACLU financed the defense. It was only in 1968 that the US Supreme Court overturned a similar law in Arkansas.

Quote: "Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt." – Clarence Darrow

Word of the day: natural selection: a process in nature by which only the organisms most suited to their environment survive and evolve (© )

Today's News:

• London: four more explosions shock the city; no deaths reported (story)
• John G. Roberts: US Supreme Court nominee unlikely to follow Sandra Day O'Connors' footsteps as a swing voter (story)
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: key may be in the white blood cells (story)

Today's History:

• first Battle of Bull Run: was won by the Confederate army's Gen. Stonewall Jackson (1861)
• Aswan Dam: massive project to control floods and droughts in the Nile River region was opened (1970)
• Worldcom: declared bankruptcy shortly after revealing a $4 billion accounting "error" (2002)

Today's Birthdays:

• Ernest Hemingway: Nobelist writer, The Old Man and the Sea (1899-1961)
• Robin Williams: comic and dramatic actor, Good Will Hunting (53)
• Yusuf Islam: singer/songwriter formerly known as Cat Stevens (58)