Shooting of John Lennon (1980)
John Lennon was an English peace activist and musician who became world-famous as the founder of the Beatles. Lennon was shot and killed in the archway of his Manhattan apartment building by a Beatles fan, Mark David Chapman. Lennon has been posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (in 1997) and twice in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as both a member of the Beatles in 1988 and a solo artist in 1994).
Scopes Monkey Trial (1925)
On July 10, 1925, science teacher John Thomas Scopes was prosecuted for teaching the theory of evolution in a Tennessee high school. The trial pit Christian fundamentalist William Jennings Bryan against the renowned attorney Clarence Darrow. The jury ruled against Scopes, who was forced to pay a substantial fine. 43 years passed before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to punish people for teaching evolution.