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Trial of the century is an idiomatic phrase used to describe certain well-known court cases, especially of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. It is often used popularly as a rhetorical device to attach importance to a trial and as such is not an objective observation.
Apr 11, 2024 · On the night of June 12, 1994, O.J. Simpson ’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman were stabbed to death outside of her house in Los Angeles. Their murders and the subsequent ...
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- Trial of Socrates
- Trial of Galileo
- Salem witch trials
- The Trial of Lizzie Borden
- Black Sox Scandal
- Scopes Monkey Trial
- Sacco-Vanzetti Case
- The Trial of Charles Manson
- The Trial of O.J. Simpson
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The spectacle of the driven prosecutor, the impassioned defense attorney, and the accused, whose fate hangs in the balance, has received ample treatment in literature, on stage, and on the silver screen. More than once such events have been excitedly referred to as "the trial of the century!" But which one really steals the scene? Here, Britannica profiles 10 significant, scandalous, or sensational trials in history.
This list was adapted from a post that originally appeared on the Britannica Blog.
Reviled by those he sought to serve, Socrates was tried as a threat to Athenian democracy in 399 BCE, formally on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth. He was ultimately condemned to death by poisoning (the poison probably being hemlock). As depicted in Plato‘s Apology, Socrates’ trial and death raise vital questions about the nature of demo...
As one of the most prominent proponents of the Copernican model of the solar system, Galileo faced trial at the hands of the Inquisition in 1633. During his first appearance before the Inquisition, he was confronted with an edict recording that he was forbidden to discuss the Copernican theory. In his defense Galileo produced a letter from Cardinal...
Between May and October 1692, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony town of Salem was overrun with hysteria over suspected witches. Stimulated by voodoo tales told by a West Indian slave, Tituba, a few young girls claimed they were possessed by the devil and subsequently accused three Salem women, including Tituba, of witchcraft. As Tituba and other accu...
More than a century after her acquittal on charges of brutally axe murdering her parents, Lizzie Borden remained in the popular consciousness thanks to the nursery rhyme “Lizzie Borden took an axe; And gave her mother forty whacks; And when she saw what she had done; She gave her father forty-one.” So, what happened? On August 4, 1892, Lizzie’s fat...
One of the darkest hours in baseball history occurred in 1921, when eight members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox were indicted on charges of having thrown that year’s World Series, in what was dubbed the Black Sox Scandal. The accused players were pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude (“Lefty”) Williams, first baseman Arnold (“Chick”) Gandil, shortstop ...
The 1925 “Scopes Monkey Trial” pitted two of the most skilled orators of the era, William Jennings Bryan (for the prosecution) and Clarence Darrow (for the defense), against each other in a debate over the teaching of Charles Darwin‘s theory of evolution. In March 1925 the Tennessee legislature had declared unlawful the teaching of any doctrine den...
This case involved the controversial murder trial in Massachusetts that extended over seven years (1920–27) and resulted in the execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. The trial resulted from the murders in South Braintree, Massachusetts, on April 15, 1920, of F.A. Parmenter, paymaster of a shoe factory, and Alessandro Berardelli, the gu...
Charles Manson spent much of his youth in juvenile reformatories in West Virginia before heading out to California in 1967. There, by 1968, he had become the leader of the “Family,” a communal religious cult dedicated to studying and implementing his eccentric religious teachings, which were drawn from science fiction as well as the occult and frin...
O.J. Simpson was a Hall of Fame football star and actor (and famed rental car pitchman for Hertz) who would forever be associated with a brutal double murder, a low-speed freeway chase in a Ford Bronco watched live by millions on television, and a brilliant trial defense by an all-star team that included Alan Dershowitz and Johnnie Cochran. On June...
Explore 10 significant, scandalous, or sensational trials in history, from Socrates to O.J. Simpson. Learn about the facts, the controversies, and the outcomes of these legal dramas that captivated the public.
- Harry Atkins
- Lizzie Borden trial (1893) If ‘trial of the century’ is a term that emerged from sensationalistic news coverage, then the trial of Lizzie Borden undoubtedly played a big part in defining it.
- Leopold and Loeb trial (1924) Another landmark trial that reflected the American public’s growing fascination with courtroom drama. Like Lizzie Borden’s trial 30 years earlier, the Leopold and Loeb trial of 1924 centred on an act of shocking violence: the senseless murder of a 14-year-old boy with a chisel.
- The Nuremberg trials (1945-1946) One of the most significant trials in modern history, the Nuremberg Trials of 1945-1946 saw former Nazi officers tried as war criminals by the International Military Tribunal.
- Rosenbergs espionage trial (1951) Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were a Jewish-American couple tried in 1951 for being suspected Soviet spies. As an engineer for the US Army Signal Corps, Julius passed confidential information relating to the Manhattan Project to the USSR.
Sep 15, 2020 · The infamous trials throughout the early 20th century provide great theater for the masses. A look at these trials gives a snapshot of the issues of class, wealth, status, and race that pervade the time period.
Nov 13, 2009 · John T. Scopes was convicted of teaching evolution in Tennessee, but the trial became a media spectacle and a public relations victory for evolutionists. Learn about the key players, the legal issues and the legacy of the "Trial of the Century".
The “trial of the century” Lindbergh baby kidnapping. Charles Lindbergh testifying at the murder trial of Bruno Hauptmann, January 1935. The case against Hauptmann mounted quickly. The day after his arrest, more than $13,000 in gold ransom certificates was discovered in Hauptmann’s garage, and he was later identified by Condon as “John.”
