Books in Monumental Milestones: Great Events of Modern Times series

One of the most famous trials in U.S. history took place in a tiny town in Tennessee in 1925. Dayton was the site of what became known as the Scopes Monkey Trial. The defendant, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating a recently passed state law. This law made it illegal to teach the theory of evolution. Under most circumstances, few people would have paid any attention. Several of Dayton s leading citizens saw a chance to put their town on the map. They were successful. Two of the country s most famous people William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow soon became involved. Dozens of reporters poured into Dayton from all over the country. It was the first trial to receive live media coverage. Scopes was found guilty. He had to pay a small fine. But the issues about evolution that the trial raised are still debated today.

The United States and the Soviet Union were the two main nations that defeated Nazi Germany in World War II. Yet their systems of government were completely different. These differences soon developed into the Cold War. Both sides became bitter enemies. But there was no actual fighting. That situation nearly changed in 1961. The Soviets secretly installed missiles with nuclear warheads in Cuba. These missiles could reach many cities in the United States. When President John F. Kennedy learned about these weapons, he confronted Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. The world teetered on the brink of a nuclear war. This is the story of that chilling event.

Under the cover of darkness, a team of burglars broke into the Democratic National Committees headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. By a fluke, they were discovered by an observant security guard and arrested. At first glance it appeared nothing more than a random break-in. But when two Washington Post reporters began digging deeper into the background of the burglars, the trail led higher and higher and eventually straight to the White Houseand into the Oval Office.As the Watergate scandal unraveled, it turned into one of the United States greatest Constitutional crises, pitting the judicial system against a paranoid President who believed he was above the law. When secret tapes of conversations between President Richard Nixon and his top aides were discovered, it proved that the White House was running a shadow government, leaving Nixon no choice but to resign or face certain impeachment. The Watergate scandal is a story of the dangers of unchecked power and the importance of a free press to be the publics eyes and ears.

War broke out in Korea early on the morning of June 25, 1950. Korea long known as the Land of the Morning Calm surrendered its tranquillity to the Communist forces of North Korea. At 4:00 a.m., amid torrential rains and the thunder of big guns, some 90,000 North Korean troops poured across the 38th parallel separating the North and South. Only about one-third of South Korea s army of 95,000 troops stood forth to meet the surprise attack. The North Koreans easily overwhelmed their southern neighbors. Seoul, the South Korean capital, fell to the invaders in three days. The United States, under the banner of the United Nations, rushed military forces to the defense of South Korea s embattled army. But the North Korean aggressors pressed relentlessly southward. By August 4, the UN defenders clung desperately to a tiny foothold at the southern tip of the peninsula known as the Pusan Perimeter hoping for reinforcements or a miracle.

In the early hours of August 2, 1990, one hundred thousand mechanized troops of Saddam Hussein s Iraqi army roared and rumbled across the border into Kuwait. By noon of August 4, the tiny, oil-rich nation belonged to the Iraqi invaders. When informed of Iraq s unprovoked aggression, U.S. President George H. W. Bush said, This will not stand. In defense of Saudi Arabia and stability in the Middle East, he drew a line in the sand. Operating under the umbrella of the United Nations, President Bush assembled a multinational coalition and prepared for war. Over the next five months, Saddam refused to accept UN diplomatic efforts for Iraq s complete withdrawal from Kuwait. He ignored a UN ultimatum to withdraw by January 15, 1991. On January 17, at approximately 3:00 a.m., Iraqis reaped the lethal consequences of their leader s aggression and defiance. A huge coalition air armada struck Baghdad and ushered in a new era of high-tech warfare.

Chuck Yeager loved to fly. His determination led him to be a fighter and test pilot. He flew as often as he could in any craft he could. Eventually, he became the expert on military aircraft. He knew just what each plane could do, and more importantly, what it couldnt. As important as knowing how far he could push a plane, he also knew when to pull back. His pioneering efforts in breaking the sound barrier made modern aviation and space exploration possible.

In the 1930s, Hitler’s Germany became the most powerful — and feared — country in Europe. Hitler was determined to control the entire continent. After the shocking attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on Japan. In turn Germany declared War on America, igniting World War II. The biggest concern for America and the Allies was that Hitler was working on a nuclear “super bomb.” Believing the fate of the world hung in the balance, President Franklin Roosevelt approved a top secret project known as the Manhattan Project to create the first atomic weapon. In a race against the clock and under the direction of Robert J. Oppenheimer, scientists from all over the world working at the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico spent four years developing what would become the world’s most deadly weapon. The decision to use the bomb on Japanese citizens ended World War II but began a controversy that rages to this day.

The formation of the State of Israel in 1948 is one of the most important events in recent history. About 3,000 years ago, Israel was a powerful nation. But it soon fell from power and in the second century CE most Jews were forced out of their homeland. Many went to Europe, where they were subject to prejudice and persecution for centuries. By far the worst case was the Holocaust, in which six million Jews died. Their suffering accelerated a move toward the development of a Jewish state in what came to be called Palestine. However, Palestine was the home to hundreds of thousands of Arabs. Conflict between the two sides was inevitable. Open warfare broke out after the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. Though the Israelis achieved their independence, the region has never known true peace.

Blitzkrieg Hitler s lightning war tactic combined devastating air attacks with swiftly moving ground forces. The Germans tested their theories of air-ground coordination in the 1936 39 Spanish Civil War, a proving ground for German and Soviet weapons and tactics. In September 1939, Hitler launched his first blitzkrieg in Poland and captured the Polish capital of Warsaw in twenty-seven days, igniting World War II. Hitler turned his attention to the west in the spring of 1940. Using both seaborne and airborne assault troops, along with blitzkrieg tactics, Germany overwhelmed Norway and Denmark, then rolled across the Low Countries and France in fewer than four months of actual fighting including Poland. Hitler s blitzkrieg tactics lost their magic in the sand of North Africa and in the mud and snow of the Soviet Union from 1942 to 1945. Allied forces took the final measure of Hitler s lightning war in the Ardennes Forest, during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944.

The disaster in the Indian Ocean started with a massive undersea earthquake off the coast of Indonesia. What followed was a surge of water called a tsunami that killed thousands of people in nearly a dozen countries. Water rose up miles inland and destroyed everything in its path. Children were ripped from their parents’ arms, husbands and wives were lost to each other forever. This is their story. But more importantly, this is a story of hope, of how people woke up to destroyed cities and missing children and did not give up. They showed what they were made of by licking their wounds and then trying to find their lives again. This is also the story of how the world responded with the biggest humanitarian effort in history. Countries from all over the world sent money, food, water, soldiers, and doctors. Nothing like this has ever happened in our world before, and although the world responded in a big way, hopefully it will never happen again.

The Arctic, the far, frozen north, can be a very dangerous place for people to visit. The Arctic is almost always bitter cold, with temperatures that can go far below -50°F and be in total darkness for four months out of a year. Terrible storms sweep across the ice and snow, and great crevasses, perilous openings in the ice, can swallow the unlucky traveler. By the early 1900s, many expeditions had tried to reach the farthest point north, the North Pole, but all of them had failed. Many explorers had died. Tales spread that no one could reach the North Pole. They warned that the land was cursed. But in the early twentieth century, two men decided to brave the Arctic again. They were Americans Robert Peary and Matthew Henson. And they were determined to do what no one had ever done. They were going to reach the North Pole.