Tennessee high school science teacher John Scopes was arrested on this day in 1925 for teaching evolution to his students in violation of what was known as the Butler Act. The day before, the American Civil Liberties Union took out an ad in the Chattanooga Times offering to pay the legal fees of someone willing to test a law prohibiting teachers from covering the topic. A group of Dayton, Tenn., locals took them up on it in a bid to improve the town's publicity and met clandestinely in the local drug store. Scopes agreed to be the guinea pig after some back and forth.
His trial was a massive media event and involved several famous attorneys including Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan. It ended with Scopes being found guilty and fined $100. After an appeal, the state Supreme Court upheld the law forbidding the teaching of evolution but tossed out Scopes' conviction, as the judge had set the fine and not the jury.
It's possible Scopes didn't actually break the law. After his trial, he claimed he hadn't really taught the evolution lesson in question and that his lawyers had coached witnesses.
You can learn more about the Scopes trial at this website from Middle Tennessee State University.
