The Great Monkey Business of 1925! On July 10, 1925, the town of Dayton, Tennessee, became the center of a very loud and very strange legal circus. The Scopes 'Monkey Trial' kicked off, and it was less of a somber proceeding and more of a 1920s-style street fair. ### A Primetime Primate Spectacle High school teacher John T. Scopes was charged with teaching evolution, but the real show was outside. Promoters brought in actual chimpanzees wearing suits and hats to town, while vendors sold 'Monkey Specials' at every soda fountain and biblically-themed lemonade at street corners. ### Sweating It Out The courtroom was so sweltering that the judge eventually moved the trial to the courthouse lawn, making it the first major U.S. trial held under a canopy of trees. There, famous rivals Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan debated the origins of humanity in front of 3,000 spectators and several confused monkeys. Scopes was eventually fined $100, which he never actually paid, but the trial remains one of history's most bizarre media sensations!