The Scopes “Monkey Trial” Puts Evolution on Trial
On July 21, 1925, John T. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100 for teaching evolution in violation of Tennessee’s Butler Act. The trial had been a carefully staged test case that began earlier that month in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee. The trial made explicit the fundamentalist–modernist controversy within the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, with William Jennings Bryan (who dies on July 26) being challenged by the liberal Clarence Darrow. This sensational courtroom drama captured America’s attention and represented the clash between traditional religious values and modern scientific thinking that defined the era.
America’s Deadliest Natural Disaster Strikes Without Warning
On March 18, 1925, the deadliest tornado in United States history moved through Eastern Missouri, Southern Illinois and Southern Indiana, killing 695 people and injuring 2,027 more. With winds of roughly 300 miles per hour, the tornado lasted 3.5 hours and traveled 219 miles. The devastating twister caught communities completely off guard since tornado forecasting was banned at the time. To prevent panic among the public, tornado forecasting was not practiced at the time, and even the word “tornado” had been banned from U.S. weather forecasts since the late 19th century.
Hitler Publishes His Blueprint for Terror
On July 18, 1925, Adolf Hitler published Volume 1 of his personal manifesto Mein Kampf in Germany. He wrote the manifesto in prison, where he was serving a sentence for a failed coup he attempted in 1923. It was a blueprint of his agenda for a Third Reich and a clear exposition of the nightmare that will envelope Europe from 1939 to 1945. The book would eventually become a wild success, with millions of copies sold by the time World War II began.
The Jazz Age Roars at Full Volume
In 1925 the Jazz Age was in full swing. It was the year Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington made their first recordings. The thousands of speakeasies that opened during Prohibition created venues for jazz musicians to make a living and grow the audience for their emerging musical style. Jazz bands played at venues like the Savoy and the Cotton Club in New York City and the Aragon in Chicago; radio stations and phonograph records (100 million of which were sold in 1927 alone) carried their tunes to listeners across the nation. The music became the soundtrack to a generation rebelling against Victorian morals.
F. Scott Fitzgerald Captures the American Dream
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic novel “The Great Gatsby” was published in April. The novel featured themes of class struggle, excess wealth, and the breakdown of the American dream during the Jazz Age in the 1920’s. Initially, sales disappointed Fitzgerald, who had hoped to prove himself as one of America’s greatest authors. The novel did eventually gain widespread recognition during World War II when it was distributed to soldiers for entertainment. It has grown in popularity since then as it has become a standard text in American schools.
America’s First Female Governors Break Barriers
On January 5, Nellie Taylor Ross became the first female Governor in the US, taking office in Wyoming. She won the 1925 governor’s election in Wyoming, taking the position that her husband had held prior to his death not long before the poll. Just twelve days later, Ma Ferguson became the first female governor of Texas. As a progressive Democrat, Ross supported Prohibition, stricter bank regulations, and increased education funding. These groundbreaking achievements came just five years after women gained the right to vote nationwide.
The Grand Ole Opry Begins Broadcasting History
The Grand Ole Opry, one of the longest-lived and most popular showcases for western music, begins broadcasting live from Nashville, Tennessee on November 28, 1925. Originally broadcast from WSM radio in Nashville, Tennessee, it was then known as the “WSM Barn Dance” and was created by George Hay. The show would become a cornerstone of American country music culture for decades to come. This milestone represented the growing influence of radio in connecting Americans across vast distances through shared entertainment.
Economic Prosperity Reaches New Heights
The nation’s total wealth more than doubled between 1920 and 1929, and gross national product (GNP) expanded by 40 percent from 1922 to 1929. This economic engine swept many Americans into an affluent “consumer culture” in which people nationwide saw the same advertisements, bought the same goods, listened to the same music and did the same dances. For the first time, more Americans lived in cities than on farms. The automobile boom was particularly striking, creating an entire economy of service stations, motels, and related businesses.
Television Takes Its First Steps
American engineer Charles Francis Jenkins achieved the first synchronized transmission of pictures and sound, using 48 lines and a mechanical system in “the first public demonstration of radiovision”. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, John Logie Baird was making similar breakthroughs in television technology. In London, John Logie Baird successfully transmitted the first television pictures, in grayscale of course. These early experiments would lay the foundation for the mass media revolution that would transform American culture in the coming decades.
Mount Rushmore Monument Gets Its Start
On Oct. 1, 1925, a dedication of Mount Rushmore as a national memorial with a flag ceremony was held. Carving officially began in 1927, and it wasn’t until 1941 that Mount Rushmore National Memorial was declared a complete project. The dangerous work, led by sculptor Gutzon Borglum, involved nearly 400 people. The monument would honor four presidents – George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. Ninety percent of the mountain was carved using dynamite.
The First Motel Opens for America’s Car Culture
The first motel opened in San Luis Obispo, California on December 12. It was originally called the Milestone Mo-Tel and was located about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles in California. It charged a rate of $1.25 per night. The term motel was created as a way to shorten the phrase Motorists’ Hotel and was used to describe an accommodation that would allow visitors to park their vehicles directly outside their room or chalet. This innovation perfectly captured America’s growing love affair with the automobile.
The New Yorker Magazine Launches
The first issue of “The New Yorker” magazine was published on February 21st. Harold W. Ross was the creator and original editor of the magazine and he remained the editor until his death in 1951. The magazine was originally created as a means to showcase the social culture and events of New York City but as it expanded it became more well known for its short stories, essays, and poetry, among other literary and artistic features. The publication would go on to become one of America’s most prestigious literary magazines.
The Ku Klux Klan Marches on Washington
The first march of the Ku Klux Klan took place in Washington DC on August 8. Millions of people, not just in the South but across the country, joined the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. By the middle of the decade, the KKK had two million members, many of whom believed the Klan represented a return to all the “values” that the fast-paced, city-slicker Roaring Twenties were trampling. This massive demonstration revealed the dark undercurrent of racial hatred that existed alongside the era’s celebrated prosperity and cultural innovation.
Prohibition Fuels Underground Culture
Prohibition forced tens of thousands of saloons throughout the country to shut down, but the demand for drink remained, and thousands of illegal bars, or speakeasies, soon opened. Gangsters, who manufactured or transported liquor in violation of the federal Volstead Act, supplied the liquor, owned the speakeasies, or both. In many New York speakeasies rich people and ordinary folks rubbed shoulders. The illicit club culture promoted integration, leading to what were known as “black and tan” clubs with multiracial crowds, a trend nearly unprecedented for an age in America when segregation was not only the cultural norm but a common government policy.
Mussolini Declares Himself Dictator
On January 3, Benito Mussolini proclaimed himself Il Duce (Dictator). He completed this work in January 1925 when he declared himself dictator with the title of Il Duce. It is generally agreed that moment came in speech Mussolini gave to the Italian parliament on January 3, 1925, in which he asserted his authority. This marked the formal beginning of fascist dictatorship in Italy, setting a dangerous precedent that would influence political developments across Europe in the coming decades.
Looking back at 1925, it’s remarkable how many pivotal moments shaped that single year. From the clash between science and religion in a Tennessee courtroom to the devastating tornado that changed how America thinks about weather prediction, these events created ripples that are still felt today. Who could have predicted that a failed artist’s prison manifesto would become one of history’s most dangerous books, or that the first television broadcast would eventually transform how we see the world?
