Today 100 Years Ago: Headlines from 22 May 1925

Looking Back a Century

Every morning in 2025 feels turbo-charged by news alerts, livestreams, and AI summaries. But imagine cracking open a paper edition of The New York Times or Le Figaro exactly a hundred years ago today. What would leap off the front page on (or within a day of) 22 May 1925? Let’s rewind the clock.

1. Dayton, Tennessee—A Young Teacher Becomes the Face of Evolution

On 21 May 1925, a Dayton grand jury returned a true bill against 24-year-old substitute teacher John T. Scopes for the crime of teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to high-schoolers. The Butler Act—Tennessee’s brand-new statute banning instruction “denying the story of Divine Creation” —had been on the books for barely two months when Scopes intentionally poked the bear.

In the moment
• Local shopkeepers fanned themselves in the sticky Southern heat as newsboys shouted, “SCIENCE ON TRIAL!”
• Town boosters, hungry for tourism dollars, offered free room and board to any big-city reporter willing to ride the rails down.
• Scopes, gangly and soft-spoken, reportedly played tennis the afternoon he was indicted, telling friends: “Whatever happens, keep smiling.”

Why it mattered
The indictment set the stage for the Scopes “Monkey” Trial that summer—a courtroom drama starring William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow, broadcast by radio to millions. The trial crystalised an enduring fault line between religious fundamentalism and scientific modernity.

2025 flash-forward
• Today, CRISPR gene-editing labs share TikToks, while school boards still spar over curriculum.
• Tennessee’s Butler Act? Repealed—only in 1967.
• This week, educators in several U.S. states debate whether AI-generated lessons violate “original work” requirements—proof the classroom remains our culture-war arena.

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2. Paris, France—The World Falls in Love with Art Deco

Stroll the Seine on 22 May 1925 and you’d wander straight into a riot of color, chrome, and couture: the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes was one month into its six-month run. Though it had officially opened on 28 April, late-May crowds were swelling—Americans fresh off ocean liners, Japanese diplomats sketching pavilion ideas, and Parisians soaking in la modernité.

In the moment
• The “Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau,” designed by Le Corbusier, stunned visitors with its white cube minimalism, a smack in the face to the era’s frilly historicism.
• The Soviet pavilion—red, angular, and daring—hinted that Russia’s young revolutionary state was equally eager to compete in design.
• Flappers in beaded dresses snapped Kodak brownies beside sleek Citroën Type B14 taxis.

Why it mattered
Historians later coined the term “Art Deco” from this very exposition. Its marriage of geometry, luxury materials, and machine-age optimism would ripple into everything from Chrysler Building spires to the zig-zag motifs on 1920s movie palaces.

2025 flash-forward
• Art Deco’s crisp lines are back—visible in retro-inspired phone UIs and the hottest Dubai condo towers.
• A century on, Paris plans a 2025 “Neo-Deco” festival in the same neighborhood, this time featuring augmented-reality overlays.
• Yet nothing quite matches the thrill of 1925 spectators watching electric fountains dance for the very first time.

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