--- title: Evolution Day and Charles Darwin: Celebrate with the Scopes Trial description: Plus, TIME's original coverage of the anti-evolution arguments of the 1925 Scopes trial canonical: https://time.com/3602107/darwin-evolution-day/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-24T18:00:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:19:16.523Z article:section: History og:title: Evolution Day and Charles Darwin: Celebrate with the Scopes Trial og:description: Plus, TIME's original coverage of the anti-evolution arguments of the 1925 Scopes trial og:url: https://time.com/3602107/darwin-evolution-day/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc6918aef216c5f9/69876a8b06f2c1f3bd3326ad/darwin.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Darwin og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Evolution Day and Charles Darwin: Celebrate with the Scopes Trial twitter:description: Plus, TIME's original coverage of the anti-evolution arguments of the 1925 Scopes trial twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc6918aef216c5f9/69876a8b06f2c1f3bd3326ad/darwin.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # On Evolution Day, Remember That Darwin Knew He'd Meet Resistance  by [Jeffrey Kluger](/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Nov 24, 2014 6:00 PM CUT  A statue of Darwin in the Natural History Museum, London A statue of Darwin in the Natural History Museum, LondonPhilippe Lissac—Godong / Getty Images  by [Jeffrey Kluger](/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Nov 24, 2014 6:00 PM CUT **Correction appended, Nov. 24, 2014, 5:49 p.m.** Time was, “Darwin” was just a guy’s name. It was not a noun (Darwinism) or an adjective (Darwinian). And it certainly wasn’t a flash point for debate between folks who prefer a Scriptural view of the history of life and those who take a more scientific approach. That started to change 155 years ago today, on Nov. 24, 1859, when Charles Darwin’s seminal work—_On the Origin of Species_—was published. Darwin knew that by supporting an empirical theory of evolution as opposed to the Biblical account of Creation he was asking for trouble. Two weeks before the book’s publication, he sent letters to 11 prominent scientists of his day, asking for their support—or at least their forbearance—and acknowledging that for some of them, that would not be easy. To the celebrated French botanist Alphonse de Candolle he wrote: --- > “” --- And to American Asa Gray, another botanist, he conceded: --- > “” --- But the whirlwind came anyway. Speaking of Darwin in 1860, the Bishop of Oxford asked: “Was it through his grandfather or his grandmother that he claimed his descent from a monkey?” The battle raged in the U.S. in the summer of 1925, with the trial of John Scopes, a substitute school teacher charged with violating a Tennessee statute forbidding the teaching of evolution in schools. But Darwin and his theory of evolution endured, so much so that Nov. 24 is now recognized as Evolution Day. As if serendipity and circumstance were conspiring to validate that decision, it was on another Nov. 24, in 1974, that the fossilized remains of Lucy, the _australopithecus_ who did so much to fill in a major gap in human evolution, were found in Ethiopia. In honor of Lucy and Evolution Day and Darwin himself, check out TIME’s coverage of the florid anti-evolution closing argument of prosecuting attorney and three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan during the Scopes trial, as quoted in the magazine’s Aug. 10, 1925 issue: --- > “” --- Bryan died mere days after the trial ended but, as the historical record shows, his strenuous efforts paid off—sort of. Scopes was duly convicted. His sentence for teaching what most of the world now accepts as science: $100. **_Read the full text of that story, free of charge,_** [**_here_**](http://time.com/3602563/education-dixit/ "undefined") **_in the TIME archives, or in its original format, in the TIME Vault:_** [Dixit](http://time.com/vault/issue/1925-08-10/page/20/ "undefined") **_Correction:_** _The original version of this article misstated the date of Darwin Day. Darwin Day is typically celebrated on February 12._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3602107/darwin-evolution-day/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3602107/darwin-evolution-day/"},"headline":"On Evolution Day, Remember That Darwin Knew He'd Meet Resistance","datePublished":"2014-11-24T18:00:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:19:16.523Z","description":"Plus, TIME's original coverage of the anti-evolution arguments of the 1925 Scopes trial","url":"https://time.com/3602107/darwin-evolution-day/","keywords":["Evolution","Science topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc6918aef216c5f9/69876a8b06f2c1f3bd3326ad/darwin.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jeffrey Kluger","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc6918aef216c5f9/69876a8b06f2c1f3bd3326ad/darwin.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Darwin","caption":"127035224","creditText":"Philippe Lissac—Godong / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3602107/darwin-evolution-day/","name":"On Evolution Day, Remember That Darwin Knew He'd Meet Resistance"}}]}] ```