CAMILLE BOHANNON

Actor Harrison Ford is 79 today.

President Abraham Lincoln signed into law a
measure calling for the awarding of a U.S. Army
Medal of Honor, in the name of Congress, “to
such noncommissioned officers and privates
as shall most distinguish themselves by their
gallantry in action, and other soldier-like qualities
during the present insurrection.” The previous
December, Lincoln had approved a provision
creating a U.S. Navy Medal of Valor, which was
the basis of the Army Medal of Honor created by
Congress in July 1862.

The first U.S. Army soldiers to receive what would
become the nation’s highest military honor were
six members of a Union raiding party who in 1862
penetrated Confederate territory to destroy bridges, 
and railroad tracks between Chattanooga, Tennessee, 
and Atlanta, Georgia.

On July 11, 1914, in his major league debut, George Herman “Babe”
Ruth pitched seven strong innings to lead the Boston Red Sox over
the Cleveland Indians, 4-3.

2016 Topps MLB Babe Ruth Debut Medallion.

George Herman “Babe” Ruth
(February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948)

In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called Scopes Monkey Trial began
with John Thomas Scopes, a young high school science teacher,
accused of teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee state
law.

The law, which had been passed in March, made it a misdemeanor
punishable by fine to “teach any theory that denies the story of the
Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead
that man has descended from a lower order of animals.” With local
businessman George Rappleyea, Scopes had conspired to get
charged with this violation, and after his arrest the pair enlisted
the aid of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to organized
a defense.

Hearing of this coordinated attack on Christian fundamentalism,
William Jennings Bryan, the three-time Democratic presidential
candidate and a fundamentalist hero, volunteered to assist the
prosecution. Soon after, the great attorney Clarence Darrow
agreed to join the ACLU in the defense, and the stage was set
for one of the most famous trials in U.S. history

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