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Science on Trial

Today marks 100 years since the end of the “Scopes Monkey Trial,” when high-school teacher John T. Scopes was convicted of violating a Tennessee law that banned the teaching of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The high-profile trial was argued by two of the most gifted orators of their time, politician William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and renowned lawyer Clarence Darrow for the defense. Although the trial did not ultimately settle the debate over evolutionary theory and creationism, it brought the issue into the spotlight, igniting a dialogue that continues to this day.
What happened at the Scopes Monkey Trial? The Tennessee trial charged high school teacher John T. Scopes with violating state law by teaching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Evolution, Creationism, religion, science, creation, origin. William Jennings Bryan, Clarence Darrow.
The True Story of the Scopes Trial
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The Scopes Trial Proceedings...and Dramatic Climax
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The First Women Leaders

Sixty-five years ago today politician Sirimavo Bandaranaike (pictured below) became the modern world’s first female head of government when she took office in Ceylon (later Sri Lanka). Since then only about one-third of the world’s countries have elected female leaders. Here are a few of those groundbreaking leaders, who also became the first to hold their title.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike, 1960 First head of state

Bandaranaike may have been the first woman head of government, but Khertek Anchimaa-Toka was the first female head of state, serving as head of the parliament of the Tuvan People’s Republic from 1940 to 1944. She focused her efforts on the betterment and education of women in her country. Once elected chairwoman, Anchimaa led Tuva into World War II in 1941 on the side of the Allied powers, largely assisting the Soviet forces. She acted as head of state in Tuva until the country’s inclusion into the Soviet Union by a vote in 1944, afterward becoming deputy chair of the Tuvan executive committee until 1961.

First president

Isabel Perón served as vice president of Argentina from 1973 to 1974 and then succeeded her husband, Juan Perón, in the office of president after his death. She served as president from 1974 to 1976. She wasn’t just Argentina’s first woman head of state, but also the first in all of South America.

First elected president

Perón may have been the first to hold the office of president, but she was unelected. The first woman to be elected president was Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, who won the vote in Iceland in 1980. And with a term length of exactly 16 years, Finnbogadóttir also became the longest-serving woman head of state in any country in history.

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