From the Scopes Monkey Trial to the (alleged) death of Elvis

We’re starting 2025 with some old-timers who, despite being in their 90s, are still entertaining folks, keeping us from wallowing around with nothing happenin’.Among ’em are singers Willie Nelson (91), still touring; Pat Boone (90), selling bathtubs, and Frankie Valli...

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While U.S. flags remain at half-staff honoring the 39th U.

S. President, Jimmy Carter (100), who died Sunday in his hometown, Plains, Georgia, lookie here: Your scribe keyed “2025” correctly on first stab. While this keyboard blazes hot, let’s see where it takes us from where we are.



Ricky Adams We’re starting 2025 with some old-timers who, despite being in their 90s, are still entertaining folks, keeping us from wallowing around with nothing happenin’. Among ’em are singers Willie Nelson (91), still touring; Pat Boone (90), selling bathtubs, and Frankie Valli (90), performing/likely bailing out former bandmates. Actors/entertainers Mel Brooks (98), Carol Burnett (91), Ellen Burstyn (92), Michael Caine (91), Joan Collins (91), Robert Duvall (94 on Sunday), Clint Eastwood (94), Barbara Eden (93), Johnny Gilbert (96), Shirley Jones (90), Shirley MacLaine (90), Rita Moreno (93), Kim Novak (91), Eva Marie Saint (100), William Shatner (93) and Dick Van Dyke (99) are still among us.

And don’t forget astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who turns 95 January 20. Hmmm. Happenings 100 years ago, in 1925, included: Paris World’s Fair; “The Great Gatsby” published; Scopes Monkey Trial; Benito Mussolini rose to power in Italy; Calvin Coolidge was U.

S. President; “The Death of Floyd Collins,” was year’s top song; “The Merry Widow” was No. 1 movie; Audie Murphy was born; and Coffee County High School’s football team went 9-0-1.

Events in 1935 included: Elvis’s birth in Tupelo, Mississippi; Franklin D. Roosevelt was president; Richard Hauptmann tried for kidnapping/killing Charles Lindbergh’s son; Amelia Earhart became first pilot to solo from Hawaii to California; Bibb Graves was Alabama Governor; FBI killed Ma Barker’s gang; first polygraph machine tested; “Monopoly” invented; Persia became Iran; musician Herb Alpert born; WPA established; Boulder Dam completed; Alabaman Jesse Owens set world’s long-jump record; and CCHS went 9-0-0. In 1945: FDR inaugurated fourth time; Battle of Iwo Jima fought, U.

S. flag raised; Adolph Hitler hid out in bunker; Audie Murphy wounded; FDR (stroke) and Hitler (suicide) died; Harry Truman became president; European concentration camps liberated; two atomic bombs dropped over Japan ended World War II; United Nations formed; and CCHS football was 9-0-0. In 1955: WCIQ TV Channel 7 in Mt.

Cheaha, nation’s first PBS station, began broadcasting; “Scrabble” first marketed; U.S. President Dwight D.

Eisenhower held first televised presidential press conference; Russia ended state of war with Germany; McGuire Sisters’ “Sincerely” hit No.1; Eisenhower sent first advisors to Vietnam; R. Adams got polio vaccination/began Gingerbread House Kindergarten; Elvis first appeared on TV; “Peter Pan” aired on live TV; “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” by Bill Hayes reached No.

#1; and Enterprise High School went 8-2 in Peanut Stadium’s last season. In 1965, U.S.

President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaimed “Great Society”; Malcolm X killed; Bloody Sunday in Selma; Marines became first armed U.S.

troops in Vietnam; Civil Rights riots in Montgomery; first manned Gemini capsule launched; “My Fair Lady” won eight Oscars; “In Cold Blood” killers convicted; young men burned draft cards; Ed White first American to spacewalk; Bob Dylan played electric guitar in public; first Subway Restaurant opened; and EHS was 9-1. Hmmm. So, today’s words have led to this: Few newsworthy events have happened since 1965, except for vicious rumors claiming Elvis died in August 1977.

On another day we’ll breeze through the last 50 years. Wait, we already did that ..

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