1
00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:03,640
Speaker 1: Hey, y'all, Eve's here. Today's episode contains not just one,

2
00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:07,080
Speaker 1: but two nuggets of history. Consider it a double feature.

3
00:00:07,400 --> 00:00:11,000
Speaker 1: Enjoy the show. Welcome to this Day in History class,

4
00:00:11,360 --> 00:00:24,720
Speaker 1: where we bring you a new tipbit from history every day.

5
00:00:26,360 --> 00:00:30,840
Speaker 1: The day was April one, nineteen sixty. From Cape Canaveral, Florida,

6
00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:34,680
Speaker 1: NASA and its partners launched the weather satellite TIROS one

7
00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:39,800
Speaker 1: short for Television Infrared Observation Satellite at six forty in

8
00:00:39,840 --> 00:00:44,880
Speaker 1: the morning Eastern Standard time. That day, TYROS one sent

9
00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:49,959
Speaker 1: back the first ever television picture from space. In nineteen sixty,

10
00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:53,280
Speaker 1: the space race was gaining momentum as the United States

11
00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:56,720
Speaker 1: and the Soviet Union competent for dominance in space flight advancement.

12
00:00:57,720 --> 00:01:00,880
Speaker 1: The nations were launching satellites and lunar robes and sending

13
00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:05,120
Speaker 1: humans into space. The Tyro's program began in this climate.

14
00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:08,480
Speaker 1: At the time, it still was not clear how effective

15
00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:12,480
Speaker 1: satellite observations were, so scientists were test with developing a

16
00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:17,760
Speaker 1: meteorological satellite information system that could reliably forecast weather and

17
00:01:17,840 --> 00:01:22,039
Speaker 1: help people make important weather based decisions like disaster warnings.

18
00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:26,560
Speaker 1: TYROS one, the satellite that kicked off the Tyro's program

19
00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:30,120
Speaker 1: was the first satellite launched for remote sensing of Earth.

20
00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:35,120
Speaker 1: It's launch marked the first time Earth scientists could continuously

21
00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:38,600
Speaker 1: view the whole planet and observe weather conditions from space.

22
00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:43,279
Speaker 1: TYROS one was designed to test the feasibility of using

23
00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:47,120
Speaker 1: television pictures to monitor Earth's cloud cover and weather patterns

24
00:01:47,160 --> 00:01:51,880
Speaker 1: from satellites. It had two TV cameras to photograph cloud cover,

25
00:01:52,440 --> 00:01:54,320
Speaker 1: one with a wide angle view and the other with

26
00:01:54,400 --> 00:01:58,440
Speaker 1: a narrow angle view. The cameras were slow scan devices

27
00:01:58,480 --> 00:02:01,880
Speaker 1: that took a snapshot once re ten seconds. Once the

28
00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:04,320
Speaker 1: pictures were taken, they were sent back to a ground

29
00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:07,840
Speaker 1: receiving station or stored in a tape recorder on board

30
00:02:07,880 --> 00:02:11,280
Speaker 1: for playback later. Depending on the location of the satellite,

31
00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:15,640
Speaker 1: TYROS one wasn't always pointed at Earth, and it could

32
00:02:15,639 --> 00:02:19,800
Speaker 1: only function in daylight. There were two Commands and Data

33
00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:24,600
Speaker 1: Acquisition or c d A stations for TYROS one, one

34
00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:27,320
Speaker 1: at the Army Signal Corps Lab in Bell mart New Jersey,

35
00:02:27,639 --> 00:02:29,760
Speaker 1: and the other at the U. S. Air Force facility

36
00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:34,880
Speaker 1: at Kinda Point, Hawaii. In addition to these, and engineering

37
00:02:34,919 --> 00:02:37,280
Speaker 1: and backup station was at the r c A plant

38
00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:41,600
Speaker 1: in Heightstown, New Jersey, where Tyrose was built. Once the

39
00:02:41,639 --> 00:02:44,359
Speaker 1: pictures were received at the c d A station. They

40
00:02:44,360 --> 00:02:47,520
Speaker 1: were recorded on thirty five millimeter film, so prints in

41
00:02:47,639 --> 00:02:52,320
Speaker 1: large projections could be made. Using the prints and projections,

42
00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:56,600
Speaker 1: a hand drawn cloud analysis called the NEF analysis was made,

43
00:02:56,919 --> 00:02:59,400
Speaker 1: and then a fact fimily was sent to the US

44
00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:03,359
Speaker 1: whether be World National Meteorological Center near Washington, d C.

45
00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:09,440
Speaker 1: The launch of Tyrose one was scheduled for five AM,

46
00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:12,359
Speaker 1: but it was an hour late, according to NASA administrator T.

47
00:03:12,639 --> 00:03:16,080
Speaker 1: Keith Glennon. Glennon said in the book The Birth of

48
00:03:16,160 --> 00:03:20,000
Speaker 1: NASA The Diary of T. Keith Glennon, it was a

49
00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:23,720
Speaker 1: picture taken obliquely looking westward from New Jersey towards the

50
00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:27,360
Speaker 1: center of the country, and revealed a psychlonic disturbance that

51
00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:31,679
Speaker 1: was actually in being at that time. Naturally, everybody was excited.

52
00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:36,839
Speaker 1: The first pictures taken were presented to US President Dwight D. Eisenhower,

53
00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:39,800
Speaker 1: who scolded Glennon for getting the first photo on April

54
00:03:39,760 --> 00:03:44,080
Speaker 1: Fool's Day. Tyros one died from an electrical failure in

55
00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:48,600
Speaker 1: mid June nineteen sixty after working for only seventy eight days,

56
00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:54,400
Speaker 1: but during its time in operation, it transmitted nineteen thousand

57
00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:57,480
Speaker 1: three dred and eighty nine pictures that were used in

58
00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:02,880
Speaker 1: weather operations, and the tie Rose project continued. The initial

59
00:04:02,920 --> 00:04:06,800
Speaker 1: Tyro series ran until nineteen sixty seven, when Tyros TAN

60
00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:11,880
Speaker 1: was deactivated. After that, NASA and the National Oceanic and

61
00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:17,480
Speaker 1: Atmospheric Administration launched a next generation satellite series with technological

62
00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:23,560
Speaker 1: improvements like higher resolution imaging. Now, weather satellites and meteorological

63
00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:28,919
Speaker 1: observation are far more sophisticated. I'm each step Coote, and

64
00:04:28,920 --> 00:04:31,960
Speaker 1: hopefully you know a little more about history today than

65
00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:36,800
Speaker 1: you did yesterday. Here's a note on that first TV

66
00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:40,560
Speaker 1: picture from space. So there's a picture that goes around

67
00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:43,760
Speaker 1: that's commonly labeled as the first picture, but it's not

68
00:04:43,920 --> 00:04:46,719
Speaker 1: actually the first picture. It's the one that was taken

69
00:04:46,760 --> 00:04:50,719
Speaker 1: on the afternoon of April two. That April second picture

70
00:04:50,760 --> 00:04:53,520
Speaker 1: showed a fuzzy, black and white image of Maine in

71
00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:58,880
Speaker 1: Canada's maritime provinces. It's not quite clear why this misidentification happened,

72
00:04:59,120 --> 00:05:01,560
Speaker 1: but it could be because it was selected as the

73
00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:07,520
Speaker 1: best photo for public relations and then misinterpreted by the media.

74
00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:10,760
Speaker 1: If you haven't gotten your fill of history after listening

75
00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:14,880
Speaker 1: to today's episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Instagram

76
00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:20,520
Speaker 1: and Facebook at t d i h C Podcast. Thank

77
00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:33,560
Speaker 1: you again for listening, and we'll see you tomorrow. Hey, y'all,

78
00:05:33,640 --> 00:05:37,320
Speaker 1: it's Eves and welcome to another episode of This Day

79
00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:40,480
Speaker 1: in History Class, a show that uncovers a little bit

80
00:05:40,520 --> 00:05:50,920
Speaker 1: of history every day. The day was April one, nine

81
00:05:52,760 --> 00:05:57,800
Speaker 1: environmental and political activists when Gary Mattai was born. Mattai

82
00:05:58,120 --> 00:06:01,320
Speaker 1: was the first African woman to in the Nobel Prize.

83
00:06:02,400 --> 00:06:05,280
Speaker 1: Mattai was born in neary Kenya and raised in an

84
00:06:05,279 --> 00:06:08,880
Speaker 1: area that was known as the White Highlands. She was

85
00:06:08,920 --> 00:06:14,440
Speaker 1: the daughter of Kicku subsistence farmers, and she had five siblings.

86
00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:17,000
Speaker 1: Her older brother convinced her parents that she should go

87
00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:20,000
Speaker 1: to school rather than focus on work around the house,

88
00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:24,560
Speaker 1: so she went to the Ae Primary School, St. Cecilia's

89
00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:30,800
Speaker 1: Intermediate School, then Laredo Limuru Girls School. After finishing school

90
00:06:30,839 --> 00:06:33,760
Speaker 1: there and getting a scholarship, she went to the US

91
00:06:33,920 --> 00:06:38,320
Speaker 1: to study at Mount Saint Scholastica College in Kansas. At

92
00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:42,200
Speaker 1: the time, the Kennedy administration was funding East Africans to

93
00:06:42,279 --> 00:06:46,120
Speaker 1: study at American colleges as colonialism in East Africa was

94
00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:50,160
Speaker 1: ending and many Kenyans went to study at US universities.

95
00:06:51,320 --> 00:06:55,000
Speaker 1: Mattai got her bachelor's degree in biology in nineteen sixty four,

96
00:06:55,400 --> 00:06:59,479
Speaker 1: then her master's from the University of Pittsburgh. By the

97
00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:02,440
Speaker 1: time she returned to Kenya, the country had gained its

98
00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:06,560
Speaker 1: independence from the British Empire and become an independent republic.

99
00:07:07,640 --> 00:07:11,119
Speaker 1: Matti was recruited to be a research assistant in zoology

100
00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:14,080
Speaker 1: at the University of Nairobi, but she was denied the

101
00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:17,520
Speaker 1: position because of what she believed to be gender discrimination.

102
00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:22,400
Speaker 1: Soon though, the university hired her as a research associate

103
00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:27,160
Speaker 1: in the Department of Veterinary Anatomy. In nineteen see, she

104
00:07:27,240 --> 00:07:30,559
Speaker 1: got her doctorate from the University of Nairobi. She worked

105
00:07:30,560 --> 00:07:33,680
Speaker 1: her way up at the institution, becoming a senior lecturer,

106
00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:37,600
Speaker 1: then chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy, then an

107
00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:42,000
Speaker 1: assistant professor. The research she took on made her more

108
00:07:42,080 --> 00:07:46,080
Speaker 1: aware of the environmental issues of Kenya, especially those in

109
00:07:46,200 --> 00:07:51,640
Speaker 1: rural areas. Mattia married a Nairobi businessman in nineteen sixty nine,

110
00:07:52,040 --> 00:07:56,000
Speaker 1: and the couple eventually had three kids together. They ended

111
00:07:56,080 --> 00:07:59,240
Speaker 1: up getting a divorce in the nineteen eighties, but his

112
00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:03,560
Speaker 1: involvement in politics and advocacy for finding jobs for unemployed

113
00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:07,080
Speaker 1: people led her to link her work and interest to

114
00:08:07,240 --> 00:08:11,720
Speaker 1: employment opportunities. But Tai started a business called environl Care,

115
00:08:12,120 --> 00:08:15,320
Speaker 1: which involved people planting trees as a way to help

116
00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:19,320
Speaker 1: the environment and create jobs. The business did not last,

117
00:08:19,560 --> 00:08:21,840
Speaker 1: but it did help lead her to a new tree

118
00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:26,360
Speaker 1: planting project called Save the Land Harambai, which turned into

119
00:08:26,440 --> 00:08:30,080
Speaker 1: the Green Belt Movement. The Green Belt Movement was focused

120
00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:35,720
Speaker 1: on tree planting for poverty reduction and environmental conservation. Throughout

121
00:08:35,800 --> 00:08:40,960
Speaker 1: her life, Mattai remained dedicated to environmental causes. Deforestation was

122
00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:45,520
Speaker 1: causing soil runoff and water pollution. It was increasing poverty,

123
00:08:45,640 --> 00:08:49,040
Speaker 1: reducing the amount of vegetation livestock had to eat, and

124
00:08:49,080 --> 00:08:52,960
Speaker 1: causing children to have to eat more processed foods. Mattai

125
00:08:53,080 --> 00:08:56,160
Speaker 1: aimed to combat these effects through the Green Belt Movement,

126
00:08:56,480 --> 00:09:00,280
Speaker 1: which planted millions of trees, gave small pay it's to

127
00:09:00,360 --> 00:09:04,560
Speaker 1: people who planted and preserved trees, and provided services like

128
00:09:04,640 --> 00:09:09,520
Speaker 1: workshops on family planning and nutrition. The organization spread to

129
00:09:09,600 --> 00:09:13,920
Speaker 1: countries across the African continent and soon extended its influence

130
00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:18,199
Speaker 1: to other nations around the world. Mattai was also active

131
00:09:18,240 --> 00:09:21,920
Speaker 1: in politics In nineteen eighty nine, she protested against the

132
00:09:21,960 --> 00:09:26,479
Speaker 1: construction of an enormous office tower in Nairobi, leading investors

133
00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:30,520
Speaker 1: to withdraw their support from the project. She opposed the

134
00:09:30,559 --> 00:09:34,079
Speaker 1: one party state and the leadership of Kenyan President Daniel

135
00:09:34,120 --> 00:09:38,440
Speaker 1: arap Moi. Her opposition and outspokenness did earn her the

136
00:09:38,480 --> 00:09:42,280
Speaker 1: ire of Moe and other government officials who disliked the

137
00:09:42,320 --> 00:09:47,080
Speaker 1: green belt movements pro democracy positions. Still, Mattai was elected

138
00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:49,840
Speaker 1: to parliament in Kenya in two thousand and two and

139
00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:54,720
Speaker 1: was appointed Assistant Minister for Environment, Natural Resources in Wildlife.

140
00:09:55,840 --> 00:09:58,320
Speaker 1: In two thousand and four, Mattai got the Nobel Peace

141
00:09:58,360 --> 00:10:02,679
Speaker 1: Prize for her quote CAD attribution to sustainable development, democracy

142
00:10:02,800 --> 00:10:07,040
Speaker 1: and peace. She died from complications of ovarian cancer in

143
00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:11,480
Speaker 1: two thousand eleven. I'm Eve Jeff Cote and hopefully you

144
00:10:11,520 --> 00:10:14,880
Speaker 1: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

145
00:10:15,760 --> 00:10:17,000
Speaker 1: And if you want to send us a note on

146
00:10:17,040 --> 00:10:20,080
Speaker 1: social media, you can do so on Facebook, Twitter, or

147
00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:24,440
Speaker 1: Instagram at t d I h C podcast. You can

148
00:10:24,480 --> 00:10:27,360
Speaker 1: also send us an email at this day at iHeart

149
00:10:27,400 --> 00:10:30,559
Speaker 1: media dot com. Thanks again for listening to the show

150
00:10:30,640 --> 00:10:38,320
Speaker 1: and we'll see you tomorrow for more podcasts from iHeart Radio,

151
00:10:38,440 --> 00:10:41,080
Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you

152
00:10:41,120 --> 00:10:42,240
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.