A Charlie Brown Christmas is a animated television special.
It is the first TV special based on the comic strip Peanuts,
by Charles M. Schulz.

The special aired on this day in 1965 for the first time and
CBS executives, unhappy with the music, the pacing, lack 
of a  laugh track and Linus reading a Bible verse (from Luke)
almost refused to air it.        

       
However, contrary to their collective apprehension, A
Charlie Brown Christmas received high ratings and
acclaim from critics. It received an Emmy, a Peabody
Award, and became an annual presentation

   
    

Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz 
(November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000)

William Franklin Graham Jr.
(November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018)

Billy Graham was a evangelist, ordained Southern Baptist minister,
and civil rights advocate whose broadcasts and world crusades
featuring live sermons became well known in the mid-to-late 20th century. Throughout his career, spanning over six decades,
Graham rose to prominence as an evangelical Christian figure
in the United States and abroad. He died Feb. 21 at his home in
Montreat. He was 99.

Cyrus Ingerson Scofield (August 19, 1843 – July 24, 1921)

Scofield was an American theologian, minister, and writer whose
best-selling annotated Bible popularized dispensationalism and
futurism among fundamentalist Christians.

1917 edition of the Scofield Bible.

    
Evangelist Billy Graham with his son Franklin.

On July 14, 1952, William Franklin Graham III was born in
North Carolina’s Appalachian Mountains. At that time, his         
father Billy Graham’s international ministry was growing—
and the evangelist founded the Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association.

On January 10, 1982, Franklin Graham was ordained before
3,000 people at Grace Community Church in Tempe, Arizona.

William Franklin Graham III is 73 years old today.

July 10, 1925: 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 the Butler Act, a Tennessee state law.

The law, 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.”

The trial became a national spectacle, with prominent figures
like Clarence Darrow defending Scopes and William Jennings
Bryan assisting the prosecution.

John Thomas Scopes(1900 – 1970) the teacher
on trial for teaching evolution.

Defense attorney Clarence Darrow, left, and
prosecutor William Jennings Bryan speak
with each other during the trial.