1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,599 Speaker 1: Hey y'all, Eve's here. We're doubling up today with two 2 00:00:02,640 --> 00:00:05,360 Speaker 1: events in history, one from me and one from former 3 00:00:05,400 --> 00:00:09,760 Speaker 1: host Tracy V. Wilson. One with the show Welcome to 4 00:00:09,760 --> 00:00:12,280 Speaker 1: this Day in History Class from how Stuff Works dot 5 00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:14,280 Speaker 1: com and from the desk of Stuff You Missed in 6 00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:16,840 Speaker 1: History Class. It's the show where we explore the past 7 00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:19,040 Speaker 1: one day at a time with a quick look at 8 00:00:19,079 --> 00:00:26,320 Speaker 1: what happened today in history. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 9 00:00:26,440 --> 00:00:31,200 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and it's December. The discovery of 10 00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:34,640 Speaker 1: the pilt Down Man was announced at the Geological Society 11 00:00:34,640 --> 00:00:39,360 Speaker 1: of London on this day. In the word discovery should 12 00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:42,520 Speaker 1: probably go in quotation marks because the pilt Down Man 13 00:00:42,840 --> 00:00:48,000 Speaker 1: was a hoax or a fraud, depending on exactly what happened, 14 00:00:48,159 --> 00:00:52,760 Speaker 1: which isn't totally clear. In February of nineteen twelve, Sir 15 00:00:52,920 --> 00:00:55,720 Speaker 1: Arthur Smith Woodward, who was the Keeper of Geology at 16 00:00:55,760 --> 00:00:58,760 Speaker 1: the British Museum which is now called the Natural History Museum, 17 00:00:58,760 --> 00:01:02,040 Speaker 1: he got a letter from his friend Charles Dawson, and 18 00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:05,759 Speaker 1: in addition to being a solicitor, Dawson was an amateur 19 00:01:05,840 --> 00:01:09,520 Speaker 1: archaeologist and he told Woodward he had found something really 20 00:01:09,640 --> 00:01:14,560 Speaker 1: exciting in some gravel beds and pilt down Sussex. He 21 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:17,640 Speaker 1: said that some workers had been digging in this pit 22 00:01:17,760 --> 00:01:20,039 Speaker 1: and they had dug up something that they described as 23 00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:22,920 Speaker 1: being kind of like a coconut, along with some other fragments, 24 00:01:22,959 --> 00:01:26,160 Speaker 1: and they had thrown them away. Dawson had gone and 25 00:01:26,200 --> 00:01:28,240 Speaker 1: retrieved all of this stuff and dug up some of 26 00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:31,479 Speaker 1: the things, and had several pieces of skull and jaw 27 00:01:31,520 --> 00:01:35,959 Speaker 1: bone before writing this letter to Woodward. This set of 28 00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:41,080 Speaker 1: remains looked kind of human, but not exactly. He compared 29 00:01:41,120 --> 00:01:44,280 Speaker 1: it to another find that had been dug up in 30 00:01:44,319 --> 00:01:48,880 Speaker 1: Germany five years or so before. So the two men, 31 00:01:49,280 --> 00:01:52,560 Speaker 1: Dawson and Smith Woodward went back to the pit. They 32 00:01:52,560 --> 00:01:56,240 Speaker 1: did a lot more excavating before having that Geological Society 33 00:01:56,280 --> 00:01:59,320 Speaker 1: of London meeting, and when they got to the meeting, 34 00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:03,400 Speaker 1: they had an ape like mandible or job bone. Two 35 00:02:03,400 --> 00:02:06,400 Speaker 1: of its molars were there and had significant wear on them. 36 00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:09,720 Speaker 1: There were also the pieces of the brain case of 37 00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:12,920 Speaker 1: a skull, which seemed a lot more human than the 38 00:02:12,960 --> 00:02:17,120 Speaker 1: mandible part did. They also found some stone tools and 39 00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:21,520 Speaker 1: fragments of other non human mammal fossils. The coloring of 40 00:02:21,560 --> 00:02:23,480 Speaker 1: all of this was very similar to what was in 41 00:02:23,520 --> 00:02:27,079 Speaker 1: the gravel bed. Their conclusion was that these fossils were 42 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:32,680 Speaker 1: at least five hundred thousand years old. Everyone was really 43 00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:36,640 Speaker 1: excited about this. People considered it to be a very 44 00:02:36,680 --> 00:02:39,920 Speaker 1: major find, not just because it seemed to be evidence 45 00:02:40,040 --> 00:02:43,080 Speaker 1: of a transitional fossil in the human family tree, but 46 00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:46,919 Speaker 1: also because it meant that England was a very important 47 00:02:46,919 --> 00:02:50,840 Speaker 1: place when it came to human evolution. A lot of 48 00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:54,880 Speaker 1: papers were written about this fine basically a huge chunk 49 00:02:54,960 --> 00:03:00,520 Speaker 1: of scientific literature. This chunk of literature was generally regulous 50 00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:05,000 Speaker 1: and uncritical of the find itself. It wasn't really looking 51 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:07,519 Speaker 1: into whether the find was legitimate, but into what the 52 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:12,080 Speaker 1: find meant. There were some doubters though, right from the start, 53 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:14,680 Speaker 1: but things didn't really start to fall apart for the 54 00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:19,880 Speaker 1: Piltdown Man for about ten years. First, in n six 55 00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:22,680 Speaker 1: it was discovered that those gravel beds where the fossils 56 00:03:22,680 --> 00:03:24,840 Speaker 1: had been found were not nearly old enough to have 57 00:03:25,480 --> 00:03:30,200 Speaker 1: five hundred thousand year old fossils in them. Then people 58 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:32,960 Speaker 1: started finding fossils in other parts of the world that 59 00:03:33,080 --> 00:03:37,760 Speaker 1: showed a very different track of human evolution, and then 60 00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:41,320 Speaker 1: in the nineteen forties, people started to develop isotopic testing, 61 00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:45,400 Speaker 1: and that quickly proved that these bones were nowhere near 62 00:03:46,040 --> 00:03:49,040 Speaker 1: five hundred thousand years old. It was more like maybe 63 00:03:49,600 --> 00:03:53,200 Speaker 1: fifty thousand years old at most, and that was from 64 00:03:53,240 --> 00:03:58,080 Speaker 1: the very earliest generation of these sorts of tests. Those 65 00:03:58,120 --> 00:04:01,400 Speaker 1: tests got better, and when they got better, the findings 66 00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:04,360 Speaker 1: got more precise, and when the findings got more precise, 67 00:04:05,200 --> 00:04:08,360 Speaker 1: the bones were even newer, more like about six hundred 68 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:12,160 Speaker 1: years old, not anywhere in the vicinity of five thousand 69 00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:18,000 Speaker 1: at all. Further analysis showed that this jaw bone was 70 00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:22,360 Speaker 1: not from a human ancestor. It was from a young orangutan, 71 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:26,320 Speaker 1: and all these various pieces had been meticulously altered to 72 00:04:26,400 --> 00:04:29,080 Speaker 1: look like they were genuine. They had been stained to 73 00:04:29,160 --> 00:04:33,360 Speaker 1: match the material and the gravel beds, the mohlers had 74 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:37,320 Speaker 1: been artificially worn down, and the other mammal fossils that 75 00:04:37,360 --> 00:04:40,839 Speaker 1: had been found they were genuine, but they weren't actually 76 00:04:40,880 --> 00:04:44,960 Speaker 1: mammals that lived in that area. It became clear that 77 00:04:45,120 --> 00:04:47,919 Speaker 1: someone had done this on purpose, and a lot of 78 00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:52,039 Speaker 1: people were extremely embarrassed and very worried about what this 79 00:04:52,240 --> 00:04:56,040 Speaker 1: said about the state of science and what damage it 80 00:04:56,120 --> 00:04:59,440 Speaker 1: might have done to people's understanding of science. So we 81 00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:02,080 Speaker 1: know a lot more today about exactly how these hoax 82 00:05:02,200 --> 00:05:04,800 Speaker 1: remains were doctored to look real, but there are still 83 00:05:04,839 --> 00:05:08,920 Speaker 1: some doubts about exactly who the hoaxer was. It's generally 84 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:12,360 Speaker 1: pinned on Charles Dawson, with the idea that he was 85 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:16,760 Speaker 1: trying to bolster his own career, but it's possible that 86 00:05:16,839 --> 00:05:20,360 Speaker 1: he might have been the dupe of some other person's deception. 87 00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:23,680 Speaker 1: You can learn more about this in the December sixteen 88 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:27,360 Speaker 1: episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class. Thanks to k. C. P. 89 00:05:27,480 --> 00:05:30,359 Speaker 1: Grimman Chandler Mays for their audio work on the show. 90 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:32,680 Speaker 1: You can subscribe to the Stay in History Class on 91 00:05:32,720 --> 00:05:36,000 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, Google podcast, I Heart Radio app and where 92 00:05:36,120 --> 00:05:38,480 Speaker 1: Reals you get podcast, and you can tune in tomorrow 93 00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:50,440 Speaker 1: for a very famous Christmas story. Hey I'm Eves, and 94 00:05:50,480 --> 00:05:53,600 Speaker 1: you're listening to This Day in History Class, a podcast 95 00:05:53,680 --> 00:06:06,000 Speaker 1: that proves history is always happening. The day was December eighteen, 96 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:09,960 Speaker 1: eighteen ninety two. The ballet The Nutcracker premiered at the 97 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:14,320 Speaker 1: Marinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia. The ballet has since 98 00:06:14,360 --> 00:06:18,200 Speaker 1: been performed many times around the world, and Pyoder Iliot 99 00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:23,279 Speaker 1: Tchaikovsky's score is one of his most famous compositions. Prussian 100 00:06:23,320 --> 00:06:26,440 Speaker 1: author E. T. A. Hoffman wrote the story The Nutcracker 101 00:06:26,480 --> 00:06:30,120 Speaker 1: and the Mouse King, which was first published in eighteen sixteen. 102 00:06:30,880 --> 00:06:33,400 Speaker 1: In the story, a seven year old girl named Marie 103 00:06:33,440 --> 00:06:37,039 Speaker 1: stall Bomb gets a Nutcracker doll for Christmas. When she 104 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:39,400 Speaker 1: falls asleep after getting her presence, on the night of 105 00:06:39,480 --> 00:06:43,000 Speaker 1: Christmas Eve, the Nutcracker leads her dolls in battle against 106 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:47,000 Speaker 1: the mouse King. In the end, Marie breaks occurs that 107 00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:50,240 Speaker 1: was on the Nutcracker, and he comes alive and takes 108 00:06:50,240 --> 00:06:53,080 Speaker 1: Marie to the doll kingdom, where she marries him and 109 00:06:53,160 --> 00:06:57,919 Speaker 1: becomes Queen. French author Alexandra Dumas adapted the story in 110 00:06:57,960 --> 00:07:04,320 Speaker 1: eighteen forty four. In Ivan Savaloshki, the director of Moscow's 111 00:07:04,360 --> 00:07:08,719 Speaker 1: Imperial Theaters, commissioned Russian composer Tchaikovsky to compose a ballet 112 00:07:08,839 --> 00:07:13,040 Speaker 1: and an opera. The opera he composed was Iolanta, a 113 00:07:13,120 --> 00:07:16,400 Speaker 1: lyric opera in one act. It was his eleventh opera 114 00:07:16,480 --> 00:07:19,240 Speaker 1: and the last one he completed, and the ballet was 115 00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:23,480 Speaker 1: The Nutcracker, his last ballet. Tchaikovsky was not too happy 116 00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:26,480 Speaker 1: with using the story of the Nutcracker as the subject 117 00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:29,720 Speaker 1: of a ballet, but by March he had composed some 118 00:07:29,800 --> 00:07:33,560 Speaker 1: of the scenes. Tchaikovsky was a fan of the celesta, 119 00:07:33,640 --> 00:07:36,240 Speaker 1: a keyboard instrument, and he decided to use it in 120 00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:39,760 Speaker 1: the symphonic ballot the Voyevoda as well as The Nutcracker. 121 00:07:40,800 --> 00:07:43,160 Speaker 1: The celesta is famously featured in the dance of the 122 00:07:43,200 --> 00:07:46,920 Speaker 1: sugar Plum Ferry in Act two. Of the ballet selections 123 00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:49,640 Speaker 1: were first performed as an orchestral suite. In March of 124 00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:53,800 Speaker 1: eight nine two, Pyodor Jurgensen published the full score of 125 00:07:53,800 --> 00:07:57,680 Speaker 1: the ballet and the piano arrangements by Sergege tan Yebev. 126 00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:03,200 Speaker 1: That same year, I N. Sevlowski and Marius Petipa based 127 00:08:03,200 --> 00:08:05,920 Speaker 1: the libretto or the text of the ballet on Duma's 128 00:08:06,040 --> 00:08:10,120 Speaker 1: version of The Nutcracker. The ballet premiered along with Io 129 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:14,320 Speaker 1: Lanta at the Imperial Marinsky Theater on December eighteen, eighteen 130 00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:18,920 Speaker 1: ninety two. Ricardo Drigo was the conductor, and lev Ivanov 131 00:08:19,080 --> 00:08:23,320 Speaker 1: produced the ballet. Some of the principal performers were Stanislava 132 00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:27,880 Speaker 1: Blinska as Clauda, Sturge Lagat as the Nutcracker, Prince and 133 00:08:28,120 --> 00:08:34,000 Speaker 1: Tomfacedkolkin as jossel Meyer. Previously, Tchaikovsky and Petipa worked on 134 00:08:34,040 --> 00:08:37,480 Speaker 1: The Sleeping Beauty together and it was a success. So 135 00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:41,360 Speaker 1: The Nutcracker opened to a full house, but the ballet 136 00:08:41,400 --> 00:08:45,040 Speaker 1: got poor reactions. Tchaikovsky wrote that it was staged well, 137 00:08:45,160 --> 00:08:47,600 Speaker 1: but the audience did not like it and was bored. 138 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:52,280 Speaker 1: Critics thought the choreography and libretto were lackluster, and years later, 139 00:08:52,400 --> 00:08:55,319 Speaker 1: the turbulence and danger caused by the Russian Revolution of 140 00:08:55,400 --> 00:08:58,800 Speaker 1: nineteen o five lad dancers in the Marinsky Theater to 141 00:08:58,840 --> 00:09:03,200 Speaker 1: flee Russia. Though the original production of the ballet was unsuccessful, 142 00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:06,360 Speaker 1: Tchaikovsky compiled a suite of eight numbers from the ballet 143 00:09:06,400 --> 00:09:10,200 Speaker 1: for concert performance that was successful. As performances of The 144 00:09:10,240 --> 00:09:13,360 Speaker 1: Nutcracker began to be staged throughout the West, the ballet 145 00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:17,959 Speaker 1: itself grew more popular. It's spread to Hungary, England, the US, 146 00:09:18,160 --> 00:09:22,200 Speaker 1: and other places in Europe and North America. Many movies 147 00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:26,199 Speaker 1: have since used the Nutcrackers music, including Disney's nineteen forty 148 00:09:26,200 --> 00:09:29,880 Speaker 1: film Fantasia, and more people have seen the Nutcracker than 149 00:09:29,920 --> 00:09:33,520 Speaker 1: any other ballet. It's a Christmas time favorite for many 150 00:09:33,559 --> 00:09:37,080 Speaker 1: ballet companies around the world, and plenty of productions have 151 00:09:37,160 --> 00:09:42,000 Speaker 1: made the libretto and choreography their own. I'm each Jeffcote 152 00:09:42,040 --> 00:09:44,680 Speaker 1: and hopefully you know a little more about history today 153 00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:48,560 Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. Spend some of your daily social 154 00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:53,439 Speaker 1: media time with us at t D I h C Podcast, 155 00:09:54,480 --> 00:09:56,560 Speaker 1: and if you would like to write me a letter, 156 00:09:57,040 --> 00:09:59,679 Speaker 1: you can scan it, turn it into a PDF, and 157 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:02,840 Speaker 1: send it to us via email at this Day at 158 00:10:02,840 --> 00:10:06,720 Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you 159 00:10:06,720 --> 00:10:14,640 Speaker 1: again tomorrow. For more podcasts from I Heeart Radio, visit 160 00:10:14,640 --> 00:10:17,320 Speaker 1: the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 161 00:10:17,360 --> 00:10:18,199 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.