On This Day, July 21: Monkey Trial ends with guilty verdict in Tennessee
July 21 (UPI) -- On this date in history:
In 1861, the first major military engagement of the Civil War occurred at Bull Run Creek, Va.
In 1918, a German U-boat fired on the town of Orleans, Mass., on Cape Cod peninsula, damaging a tug boat and sinking four barges, and severely injuring one man. It was the only place in the United States to receive an enemy attack during World War I.
In 1925, the so-called Monkey Trial, which pitted Clarence Darrow against William Jennings Bryan in Dayton, Tenn., in one of the great confrontations in legal history, ended with John Thomas Scopes convicted and fined $100 for teaching evolution in violation of state law.
In 1969, U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, lifted off from the moon in the Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle and docked with the command module Columbia piloted by Michael Collins.
In 1970, after 11 years of construction, the massive Aswan High Dam across the Nile River in Egypt was completed, ending the cycle of flood and drought in the Nile River region but triggering an environmental controversy.
In 2000, a report from special counsel John Danforth cleared U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and the government of wrongdoing in the April 19, 1993, fire that ended the Branch Davidian siege near Waco, Texas.
File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI
In 2007, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final installment in the best-selling series, sold more than 8.3 million copies on its first day in bookstores.
In 2011, Greece continued efforts to climb out of a financial chasm with a second bailout pledge from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund worth $157 billion. Earlier, the nation dealt with its debt crisis with the help of a $146 billion loan package.
In 2024, President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid in the 2024 presidential race, formally endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris. Former President Donald Trump defeated Harris in November 2024 to win his second term in office.
File Photo by Melina Mara/UPI
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
German minister backs Gaza statement signed by 28 countries
German Development Minister Reem Alabali Radovan expressed regret on Tuesday that Germany had not joined the 28 countries demanding an immediate end to the war in Gaza, in a statement issued the previous day. The Social Democratic politician said the demand in the joint letter was "understandable," in comments to the Rheinische Post newspaper. "I would have wished for Germany to join the signal from the 29 partners," Alabali Radovan said. The letter was signed by 28 countries and the European Union. "What is happening in Gaza right now is unbelievable. Innocent children are dying. People are starving," she added. "What is needed now – not at some point – is an immediate and sustainable ceasefire." On Monday, the foreign ministers of 25 countries, including Italy, France, Austria, Britain, Belgium and Canada, as well as EU Crisis Management Commissioner Hadja Lahbib, signed a joint statement calling for the war in Gaza to "end now." Greece, Cyprus and Malta also joined the initiative. Germany - which for historic reasons sees its fate existentially tied to that of Israel - is not among the signatories. "The Israeli government's aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity," the letter states. German Foreign Minister shares criticism Despite not signing the statement, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul expressed his concern on X about the "catastrophic humanitarian situation" in Gaza. He said he had telephoned with his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar, adding: "We urgently call on Israel to implement the agreements with the EU to enable humanitarian aid." Brussels has not published details of the conditions agreed with Israel for the provision of aid to Gaza. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she had also spoken with Saar, telling him that "the killing of civilians seeking aid in Gaza is indefensible." "All options remain on the table if Israel doesn't deliver on its pledges," she wrote on X. Alabali Radovan further stated: "The civilian population in Gaza must not keep being crushed between the fronts. Children, families, the elderly – they need water, food, medical care and security." She appealed to the Israeli government: "International law must be observed! Allow aid deliveries to pass through unhindered! Permit safe humanitarian corridors and unimpeded access for the UN and humanitarian organizations!" Solve the daily Crossword
UPI
35 minutes ago
- UPI
Tariffs, uncertainty 'paralyzing' for farmers
July 22 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump's tariff negotiations have the agriculture industry facing uncertainty and soybean farmers are among those most affected. The price of soybeans continues to decline while the cost of growing rises. The United States has lost its footing in the global soybean market, due in part to Trump's tariff policies during his first term. Current trade negotiations have some in the industry asking for assurances. "When there's uncertainty in the market it's paralyzing," Caleb Ragland, president of the American Soybean Association and ninth-generation farmer, told UPI. "It tends to make people, when in doubt, do nothing. Don't buy, don't invest." Soybeans are the largest single agriculture commodity exported by the United States. China is the biggest buyer of U.S. soybeans but the share of the crop it purchases has declined significantly since Trump placed tariffs on the country in 2018, according to the University of Illinois' Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics. Prior to that, about a third of its soybeans were imported from the United States. Tariffs caused China to look elsewhere for soybean imports, dragging down the price of U.S. soybeans. Brazil has been the beneficiary of this change, upping its share of the Chinese soybean market from about 45% to about 70% and raising its prices. The United States accounts for about a 20%-25% share of Chinese soybean imports. One reason that China is crucial to the soybean market is that it raises more pigs than any other country. The soybean is a key source of protein in livestock feed. The largest soybean producing states are Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. China has routinely had about a 3% tariff on U.S. soybean imports. The effective tariff is now 23% in response to tariffs imposed by Trump earlier this year. "We lost our number one market for ag exports overnight," Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, told UPI. Glauber is the former chief economist for the USDA. He served in the role for 22 of his 30 years with the USDA. Among his responsibilities was operating as the chief ag negotiator. "When I was the chief negotiator, that was in the context of WTO negotiations, which are really textual -- arguing over wording in documents," Glauber said. "What the Trump administration has been talking about are these framework documents with no details. It's a very different thing to think about. These things aren't very longterm, unlike the [North American Free Trade Agreement]. Those are long-running agreements." Tariffs have always been a negotiating tool, Glauber said, but for decades the United States has worked to reduce tariffs. Multilateral and bilateral trade agreements, such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the World Trade Organization, created mechanisms for trade partners to resolve disputes and maintain relationships. At times, tariffs would be increased, but within the guardrails of long-standing and long-term agreements. "The Trump administration destroyed that," Glauber said of the World Trade Organization. In 2019, Trump blocked the appointment of members to the World Trade Organization's appellate body, rendering it unable to settle trade disputes. The United States' proactive approach to fostering trade has largely hit a standstill since Trump first entered office in 2017, Glauber said. Former President Joe Biden did not raise tariffs but he also did not eliminate tariffs on China that were implemented by the Trump administration. As U.S. exports like soybeans lose demand, the prices farmers can sell them for also decreases. Soybeans hit record prices during the former President Barack Obama's second term before hitting a lull throughout Trump's first term. Prices rose again under former President Joe Biden, peaking at $16.88 per bushel in June 2022. The price has steadily declined since, falling to around $10 per bushel in July, down about 40%. The Chicago Board of Trade is a key marker that farmers across the United States monitor to evaluate their risks and offer a benchmark for crop prices. Farmers will measure the prices offered above or below those futures prices reported by the Chicago Board of Trade at their local elevators to determine when to sell. If a crop is sold to a grain elevator at a certain price, the seller locks that price in. For example, if a crop is sold in July at the October future price, they will receive that price in October. If prices are higher, they will have missed out on potential profit. If it is lower, they will be protected from that lower price. Ragland farms soybeans, corn and wheat on his family farm in Magnolia, Ky. Farming is the sole source of income for him, his wife Leanne and their three sons. This year's crop marks his 21st grown on his own farm. Soybeans are planted in the spring and harvested in the fall, beginning in the end of August through September. The next two months will be critical for farmers like Ragland, as there will be more clarity about the true economic impact of Trump's trade policies on the ag industry. "It's been speculation up to this point and anticipation by the market but we have not truly been in the middle of actively sending the lion's share of our crop since all this tariff announcement has been made and all the back and forth that has happened with it," Ragland said. "If we don't have some surety in our markets here in the next 30, 45 days, it is going to lead to more significant price drops, we believe. There is very, very weak demand right now from what we hear for exports due to all the uncertainty in the market." The agriculture community is experiencing economic hardships across the board and tariffs are a part of that. Chapter 12 bankruptcy filings, used to reorganize a farm operation in order to repay debts, were up sharply in the first quarter of 2025. In the first quarter of the year there were nearly twice as many Chapter 12 bankruptcy filings than in the first quarter of 2024, the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture reported last week. Farmers may be the first to feel the sting of a downturn in grain prices but they are not alone. Implement dealers, equipment manufacturers and businesses in rural communities are also affected. "They say $1 made in agriculture usually floats around six to eight times in the local community," Ragland said. "That means small businesses and stores and everything else in rural communities are hurting as well. All of this has a very detrimental effect on rural America." "I would also note a lot of these areas we're talking about are the ones that were very large supporters of President Trump," Ragland continued. "We want to respectfully appeal to the administration that we need surety, we need certainty, we need trade deals to be made now and not potentially in the future because the farm economy is in a very difficult spot." According to Ragland, commodity prices are not meeting the cost of production as they are currently. Inflation has aggravated the financial position of farmers like him as fertilizer prices, insurance premiums and equipment costs have risen. The effects Ragland and other producers are dealing with not only disrupt their current crop. It also makes planning for the future more difficult. "The plans I have for this crop here in 2025, a lot of those plans started taking place a year or two ago," Ragland said. "We rotate crops. Sometimes there's fertilizer applied that would be utilized a year or two in the future by the crops. The wheat that we just harvested in June was planted in October of 2024. The seed I planted to grow that crop had to be planned ahead for in the fall of 2023. It's a long-term process, the decisions we have to make."
Washington Post
38 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Over 1,400 were killed in sectarian violence in coastal Syria in March, committee says
DAMASCUS, Syria — More than 1,400 people, most of them civilians, were killed in several days of sectarian violence on Syria 's coast earlier this year , a government committee tasked with investigating it said Tuesday. The violence was the first major incident to emerge after the ouster of longtime President Bashar Assad in December. It said there was no evidence that Syria's new military leaders ordered attacks on the Alawite community there, to which Assad belonged. Nearly 300 people suspected of committing crimes including murder, robbery, torture and looting and burning of homes and businesses were identified during the four-month investigation and referred for prosecution, and 37 people have been arrested, officials told journalists. They didn't say how many suspects were members of security forces. The committee's report came as Syria reels from a new round of sectarian violence in the south, which again has threatened to upend the country's fragile recovery from nearly 14 years of civil war . The violence on the coast began on March 6 when armed groups loyal to Assad attacked security forces of the new government, killing 238 of them, the committee said. In response, security forces descended on the coast from other areas of the country, joined by thousands of armed civilians. In total, some 200,000 armed men mobilized, the committee said. As they entered neighborhoods and villages, some — including members of military factions — committed 'widespread, serious violations against civilians,' committee spokesperson Yasser al-Farhan said. In some cases, armed men asked civilians whether they belonged to the Alawite sect and 'committed violations based on this,' the spokesperson said. The committee, however, found that the 'sectarian motives were mostly based on revenge, not ideology,' he said. Judge Jumaa al-Anzi, the committee's chair, said that 'we have no evidence that the (military) leaders gave orders to commit violations.' He also said investigators had not received reports of girls or women being kidnapped. Some rights groups, including a United Nations commission, have documented cases of Alawite women being kidnapped in the months since the violence. There have been ongoing, although scattered, reports of Alawites being killed, robbed and extorted since the violence. Tens of thousands of members of the minority sect have fled to neighboring Lebanon. There have been echoes of the coastal violence in the new clashes in southern Sweida province over the past two weeks. Those clashes broke out between Sunni Muslim Bedouin clans and armed groups of the Druze religious minority, and government security forces who intervened to restore order ended up siding with the Bedouins. Members of the security forces allegedly killed Druze civilians and looted and burned homes. Druze armed groups launched revenge attacks on Bedouin communities. Hundreds have been killed, and the U.N. says more than 128,500 people have been displaced. The violence has largely stopped as a ceasefire takes told. The committee chair said the violence in Sweida is 'painful for all Syrians' but 'beyond the jurisdiction' of his committee. 'Time will reveal what happened and who is responsible for it,' he said. ___ Associated Press writer Malak Harb in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
