(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . 07/21 Open Thread - The Scopes Trial [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2025-07-21 On July 21, 1904, Louis Rigolly became the first man to break the 100 mph barrier on land. On July 21, 1925, Malcolm Campbell became the first man to exceed 150 mph on land. It was the Roaring Twenties, we had cars, fast cars even, speedboats, submarines, farm tractors and even airplanes. But, all the same, in between those dates and beyond, time, in Tennessee seemingly remained frozen somewhere around 1600 or thereabouts. The US has always had more than its fair share of thought police, a huge percentage of whom were partisans of some one or another religious sect who wanted to force the entire world to think believe and act in accordance with the "teachings" of their specific thought leader. Though these sects and their respective thought leaders had numerous differences, they also had large areas of agreement and were thus often able to get sundry "blue laws" requiring the victims citizenry to adhere to some behavioral conformity with some putative religious precept. One such law was The Butler Act, a Tennessee law prohibiting the teaching of "human evolution" in public schools, within said state. This brings us to the Scopes Trial or Scopes Monkey Trial as it was often known, which was held in Dayton Tennessee and decided on July 21, 1925. The "Monkey Trial" designation derived from the fact that a great many of the "thought leaders" of the various sects falsely asserted that the theory of evolution held that humans had descended from monkeys and their followers did not bother to look into the matter because it was their practice to go along with whatever their respective thought leader said about pretty much anything and everything. The victim defendant, John Thomas Scopes wasn't at all sure that he had actually taught human evolution in public school in Tennessee,but was willing to state that he had done so, all the same. The trial really wasn't so much about truth and facts, let alone reality as it was about the validity of the law. The defense was initially looking to get the law overturned on the grounds that it violated the First Amendment and then added an argument that evolution didn't necessarily violate the bible, an argument irrelevant to the issue of whether the law was violated as well as to whether the law was constitutional. Scopes was convicted and fined $100, which was big money back in the day. The case was appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court which, of course, upheld the law, though they did use some fatuous arguments in so doing, but, surprisingly tossed out the conviction on a technicality. It seems that the judge set the fine but Tennessee judges couldn't set fines that high, so it should've been done by the jury. It did eventually get overturned by the US Supreme Court but not until 1968, by which time it was moot, the Butler Act having been repealed by Tennessee in 1967. -*- The 1952 Kern County earthquake was a big mother. It says below that it was a 7.3Mw, which stands for moment magnitude, which I can't compare to anything, though, as a Californian, I've been through tons of quakes including some seriously big ones, but I grew up in the Richter Scale universe, not the moment magnitude scale universe. I tried finding a comparison chart to no avail, so I turned to google, specifically, its "AI Overview" and repeatedly asked it what moment magnitude is a __ on the Richter scale and discovered that a 1 Richter is < 1.6 Mw, 2 is n/a, 3 is 3, 4 is 4, 5 is 5, and so on up through 9 is 9, whereupon I got bored. For my simplistic " Huh (or wow), what was that one?" purposes I'm back where I was; 3 and below is meh, 5 is getting pretty big, 7 and 8 are big mothers and somewhere around 9 they veer off into "ginormous". Hope this helps some of my fellow geezers and geezettes. -*- - ********** On this day in history: - 356 BC – The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, was destroyed by arson. 365 – The Crete earthquake shook the Greek island of Crete with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), causing a destructive tsunami that hammered the coasts of Libya and Egypt, especially Alexandria. Many thousands were killed. 1645 – Qing dynasty regent Dorgon issues an edict ordering all Han Chinese men to shave their forehead and braid the rest of their hair into a queue identical to those of the Manchus. 1718 – The Treaty of Passarowitz between the Ottoman Empire, Austria and the Republic of Venice was signed. 1774 – Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca 1865 – In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shot and killed Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first western showdown. 1873 – In Adair, Iowa, the James–Younger Gang pulled off the first successful train robbery in the old west 1904 – Louis Rigolly became the first man to break the 100 mph barrier on land. 1907 – The passenger steamer SS Columbia sank after colliding with the steam schooner San Pedro off Shelter Cove, California presaging, in some ways, the loss of the Titanic years later 1920 – The "Belfast Pogrom" set off two years of violence with the expulsion of thousands of Catholic shipyard, factory and linen mill workers from their jobs. 1925 – In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of teaching human evolution 1925 – Malcolm Campbell becomes the first man to exceed 150 mph on land. 1936 – The Central Committee of Antifascist Militias of Catalonia was constituted, establishing an anarcho-syndicalist economy in Catalonia. 1949 – The United States Senate ratified the North Atlantic Treaty. 1952 – The 7.3 Mw Kern County earthquake struck Southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing 12 and injuring hundreds. 1954 – The Geneva Conference temporarily partitioned Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam. 1959 – NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, was launched 1969 – At 02:56 UTC, astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon 1970 – After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt was completed. 1973 – In Lillehammer, Norway, Mossad agents killed an innocent waiter 1983 – The world's lowest temperature in an inhabited location was recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F). 1990 – Taiwan's military police forced mainland Chinese immigrants into sealed holds of a fishing boat, causing 25 people to die from suffocation. 2011 – NASA's Space Shuttle program ended with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135 2012 – Erden Eruç completed the first solo human-powered circumnavigation of the world. - ********** Some people who were born on this day: The Medium is the message ~~ Marshall McLuhan 1620 – Jean Picard, astronomer 1664 – Matthew Prior, poet and diplomat 1808 – Simion Bărnuțiu, historian, academic, and politician 1810 – Henri Victor Regnault, chemist and physicist 1816 – Paul Reuter, journalist, founded Reuters 1858 – Lovis Corinth, painter 1866 – Carlos Schwabe, Symbolist painter and printmaker 1880 – Milan Rastislav Štefánik, astronomer, general, and politician 1882 – David Burliuk, futurist author and illustrator 1896 – Sophie Bledsoe Aberle, anthropologist, physician and nutritionist 1898 – Sara Carter, singer and songwriter 1899 – Hart Crane, poet 1899 – Ernest Hemingway, novelist, short story writer, and journalist, Nobel Prize laureate 1903 – Russell Lee, photographer and journalist 1911 – Marshall McLuhan, author and theorist 1920 – Isaac Stern, violinist and conductor 1922 – Philomena Franz, author 1922 – Kay Starr, singer 1923 – Rudolph A. Marcus, chemist and academic 1930 – Helen Merrill, singer 1931 – Sonny Clark, pianist and composer 1931 – Plas Johnson, saxophonist 1932 – Kaye Stevens, singer and actress 1933 – John Gardner, novelist, essayist, and critic 1938 – Anton Kuerti, pianist, composer, and conductor 1939 – Jamey Aebersold, saxophonist and educator 1939 – Kim Fowley, singer, songwriter, producer, and manager 1943 – Henry McCullough, guitarist, singer and songwriter 1948 – Cat Stevens, singer,songwriter, and guitarist 1948 – Garry Trudeau, cartoonist 1949 – Hirini Melbourne, singer, songwriter, and poet 1953 – Eric Bazilian, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, and producer 1953 – Jeff Fatt, keyboard player 1955 – Howie Epstein, bass player, songwriter, and producer 1955 – Taco, singer and entertainer 1960 – Amar Singh Chamkila, singer and songwriter 1961 – Jim Martin, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1969 – Emerson Hart, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer 1970 – Michael Fitzpatrick, singer and songwriter 1972 – Korey Cooper, singer and guitarist 1975 – Cara Dillon, singer and songwriter 1978 – Damian Marley, singer, songwriter, and producer 1981 – Paloma Faith, singer, songwriter, and actress 1981 – Blake Lewis, musician 1981 – Romeo Santos, singer and songwriter 1986 – Rebecca Ferguson, singer and songwriter 1998 – Maggie Lindemann, singer and songwriter 2000 – Lia, singer - - ********** Some people who died on this day: O, wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us, An' foolish notion. ~~ Robert Burns 1403 – Henry Percy, soldier, Shakespeare's Hotspur & much more 1796 – Robert Burns, poet and songwriter 1798 – Anthony Perry, rebel leader 1878 – Sam Bass, businessman 1920 – Fiammetta Wilson, astronomer and educator 1944 – Claus von Stauffenberg, soldier who attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler 1948 – Arshile Gorky, painter and illustrator 1966 – Philipp Frank, physicist, mathematician, and philosopher, Vienna Circle member 2005 – Long John Baldry, singer and actor 2014 – Louise Abeita, Isleta Pueblo writer, poet, and educator 2015 – Robert Broberg, singer and songwriter 2015 – E. L. Doctorow, novelist, short story writer, and playwright 2020 – Annie Ross, singer and actress 2023 – Tony Bennett, singer - ********** Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such: Global Hug Your Kids Day Take a Monkey to Lunch Day - ********** - Today's Tunes - Wild Bill - x YouTube Video - Scopes Trial x YouTube Video - Erden Eruç x YouTube Video - Earthquakes x YouTube Video - Sara Carter x YouTube Video - Isaac Stern x YouTube Video - Kay Starr x YouTube Video - Helen Merrill x YouTube Video - Sonny Clark x YouTube Video - Plas Johnson x YouTube Video - Kaye Stevens x YouTube Video - Anton Kuerti x YouTube Video - Jamey Aebersold x YouTube Video - Kim Fowley x YouTube Video - Henry McCullough x YouTube Video - Cat Stevens x YouTube Video - Hirini Melbourne x YouTube Video x YouTube Video - Howie Epstein x YouTube Video - Damian Marley x YouTube Video - Robert Burns x YouTube Video - Long John Baldry x YouTube Video - Annie Ross x YouTube Video - Tony Bennett x YouTube Video - Speaking of monkeys: x YouTube Video - x YouTube Video - ********** - ********** Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. What's on your mind? - Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com Open thread, Scopes Trial, earthquakes, Marshall Mcluhan, Robert Burbs, Cat Stevens, Hirini Melbourne, Long John Baldry [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/21/2333393/-07-21-Open-Thread-The-Scopes-Trial?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/