Brown went to trial and was executed on December 2, 1859. Early Life John Brown was born on May 9, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut, to Ruth Mills and Owen Brown.

1. The mysterious and wealthy Knights Templar led the Crusades for almost 200 years. But why did the Church reject them as heretics in 1307?Controversial and co.
2. The Amistad Case took place in 1839 when 53 illegally purchased African slaves were being transported from Cuba to the U.S. Aboard the Spanish-built schooner Amistad. En route, the slaves staged a.

Today the theory of evolution is taught in schools across the United States, but that wasn’t the case when teacher John Thomas Scopes went on trial for teaching it to his high school students in Tennessee. In March of 1925, the state had passed a law banning the teaching of evolution because it conflicted with the story of creation in Bible. Scopes’ case was brought to court on July 10—precisely 90 years ago Friday—in what came to be known as the “Scopes Monkey Trial,” one of the most famous trials in U.S. history.

Three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan argued for the prosecution, seeking to prove that Scopes had violated the law. As TIME reported that year, Bryan—who died shortly after the trial ended—had planned for his closing remarks of the trial to be his “greatest speech.” The speech wasn’t actually given during the trial due to legal maneuvering by the defense, but he delivered it to the public after the fact. It included passages like this:

Scopes ended up losing the case and was charged a $100 fine, though the verdict was later overturned on a technicality. But the real star of the trial was Clarence Darrow, Scopes’ skilled lawyer, who poked numerous holes in Bryan’s argument and fundamentalist theory in general. The case marked a turning point in the way evolution was taught in schools and more widely acknowledged in the U.S.

After it was all over, TIME compared the trial to the examination of Socrates in ancient Greece:

Read TIME’s full 1925 post-mortem on the Scopes trial, free of charge, here in the TIME archives: Dixit

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John Brown's Last Speech

On October, 16, 1859, John Brown and nearly two dozen comrades seized the armory at Harper's Ferry in West Virginia, hoping to use its massive arsenal in the struggle to forcibly end slavery. Captured and brought to trial at nearby Charles Town, Brown was found guilty of treason. One month before his execution, John Brown addressed a courtroom in Charlestown, West Virginia, defending his role in the action at Harper's Ferry. Henry David Thoreau, although himself did not favor violence, praised John Brown, and when the fiery preacher was sentenced to death, Ralph Waldo Emerson said: 'He will make the gallows holy as the cross.'

I have, may it please the Court, a few words to say.

Trial Of John Brownmac's History Encyclopedia

In the first place, I deny everything but what I have all along admitted, the design on my part to free the slaves. I intended certainly to have made aclean thing of that matter, as I did last winter, when I went into Missouri andthere took slaves without the snapping of a gun on either side, moved themthrough the country, and finally left them in Canada. I designed to have done thesame thing again, on a larger scale. That was all I intended. I never did intendmurder, or treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite or incite slavesto rebellion, or to make insurrection.

I have another objection; and that is, it is unjust that I should suffer sucha penalty. Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and which I admit hasbeen fairly proved (for I admire the truthfulness and candor of the greaterportion of the witnesses who have testified in this case), had I so interfered inbehalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or inbehalf of any of their friends, either father, mother, brother, sister, wife, orchildren, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what I have in thisinterference, it would have been all right; and every man in this court wouldhave deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment.

This court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see abook kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament.That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, Ishould do even so to them. It teaches me, further, to 'remember them that are inbonds, as bound with them.' I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say, Iam yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believethat to have interfered as I have done as I have always freely admitted I havedone in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it isdeemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends ofjustice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with theblood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked,cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit; so let it be done!

Let me say one word further.

I feel entirely satisfied with the treatment I have received on my trial.Considering all the circumstances. it has been more generous than I expected. ButI feel no consciousness of guilt. I have stated from the first what was myintention and what was not. I never had any design against the life of anyperson, nor any disposition to commit treason, or excite slaves to rebel, or makeany general insurrection. I never encouraged any man to do so, but alwaysdiscouraged any idea of that kind.

Let me say, also, a word in regard to the statements made by some of thoseconnected with me. I hear it has been stated by some of them that I have inducedthem to join me. But the contrary is true. I do not say this to injure them, butas regretting their weakness. There is not one of them but joined me of his ownaccord, and the greater part of them at their own expense. A number of them Inever saw, and never had a word of conversation with, till the day they came tome; and that was for the purpose I have stated.

Now I have done.

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'I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land can never be purged away but with blood.'