In the segment, Les Sinclair talks with historian Rick Britton about TODAY in US HISTORY: Ninety-five years ago, today—on July 10, 1925—the famous Scopes Monkey Trial began in Dayton, Tennessee. In March of that year, Tennessee lawmakers had made it a misdemeanor to “teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.” The defendant in the case was John Scopes, a young high school science teacher accused of teaching the theory of evolution. Scopes had actually conspired to get charged with this violation, and after his arrest he enlisted the aid of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to organize a defense. Hearing of this coordinated attack on Christian fundamentalism, William Jennings Bryan, the three-time Democratic presidential candidate and a fundamentalist hero, volunteered to assist the prosecution. The great attorney Clarence Darrow agreed to join the ACLU in the defense, and the stage was set for one of the most famous trials in U.S. history. Dayton took on a carnival-like atmosphere. Hordes of spectators and reporters descended on the town. Preachers set up revival tents along the city’s main street, vendors sold Bibles, toy monkeys, hot dogs, and lemonade, and an exhibit displayed a supposed “missing link” (he was actually a very short man with a receding forehead) and two chimpanzees (one of which wore a plaid suit and a fedora). In the courtroom, the judge destroyed the defense’s strategy by ruling that expert scientific testimony on evolution was inadmissible, and then—because of the crowd filling the courtroom—ordered the trial moved to the courthouse lawn. In front of several thousand spectators, Darrow called Bryan as his sole witness in an attempt to discredit his literal interpretation of the Bible. In a searching examination, Bryan was subjected to severe ridicule and forced to make ignorant and contradictory statements. When Bryan snapped that Darrow’s purpose was “to cast ridicule on everybody who believes in the Bible,” Darrow, shot back with: “We have the purpose of preventing bigots and ignoramuses from controlling the education of the United States.” On July 21, in his closing speech, Darrow asked the jury to return a verdict of guilty in order that the case might be appealed. The jury returned with a guilty verdict, and the judge ordered Scopes to pay a fine of $100, the minimum the law allowed. Although Bryan had won the case, he had been publicly humiliated. Five days later, on July 26, he lay down for an afternoon nap and never woke up.