Today In History

In 1925: John T. Scopes was arrested in Tennessee for teaching evolution.

In 1945: In the only fatal attack of its kind during World War II, a Japanese balloon bomb exploded in Oregon, killing the pregnant wife of a minister and five children.

In 1961: Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became America’s first space traveler as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight in a capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.