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Speaker 1: Hey there, history fans. We're off this week so I

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Speaker 1: can catch up after the holidays. But don't worry, We've

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Speaker 1: got plenty of classic shows to tide you over. Please

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Speaker 1: enjoy these flashback episodes from the TDI HC Vault, and

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Speaker 1: be sure to meet me back here next Tuesday for

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Speaker 1: a brand new episode.

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Speaker 2: Hello everyone, eves here. If you've been listening to the

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Speaker 2: last several episodes, then you know that I've been speaking

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Speaker 2: to you from the comfort of my own home. I'm

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Speaker 2: still at home enjoying the beginning of the new year.

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Speaker 2: But it's another day, and you know that means there's

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Speaker 2: more history to tell, So let's get into another episode.

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Speaker 2: The day was January second, nineteen forty two. Thirty three

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Speaker 2: members of a Nazi spy ring headed by Frederick also

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Speaker 2: known as Fritz Duquine were sentenced to serve time in prison.

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Speaker 2: Before the US entered World War II in December of

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Speaker 2: nineteen forty one, Germany was already conducting espionage in the US.

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Speaker 2: German American spies had managed to gather important information from

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Speaker 2: military and industrial sites. William Siebold was one of many

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Speaker 2: people of Nazi Germany enlisted to be spies on US soil.

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Speaker 2: Seebald was born in Germany and fought for his birth

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Speaker 2: country in World War One, but after the war ended,

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Speaker 2: he moved to the US and became a citizen there.

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Speaker 2: He worked in industrial and aircraft plants in the US

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Speaker 2: and South America, but when he took a trip to

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Speaker 2: Germany to visit his family in nineteen thirty nine, the

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Speaker 2: Nazis recruited him through threats and intimidation to work as

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Speaker 2: a spy when he returned to the US. Concerned about

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Speaker 2: the safety of his family in Germany, Sebold agreed and

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Speaker 2: started his training to become a spy. He made it

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Speaker 2: back to the US in February of nineteen forty, using

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Speaker 2: the alias Harry Sawyer and the Koto name tramp Sea Bowl.

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Speaker 2: Seemed like an ideal recruit, but while he was in Germany,

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Speaker 2: he told officials at the American consulate in Cologne that

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Speaker 2: he was willing to cooperate with the US Federal Bureau

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Speaker 2: of Investigation. When he got back to New York City,

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Speaker 2: he posed as a diesel engineering consultant. The FBI helped

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Speaker 2: him set up a business office in Manhattan where he

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Speaker 2: would meet with spies who would give him information to

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Speaker 2: pass to the Gestapo or Nazi Germany's secret police. The

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Speaker 2: office was decked out with hidden microphones, cameras, and a

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Speaker 2: two way mirror. The FBI also built Seabold, a shortwave

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Speaker 2: radio transmitting station on Long Island. From there, FBI agents

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Speaker 2: sent messages to Germany and received messages from the Nazis

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Speaker 2: through that communication line. Germany was unaware that their messages

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Speaker 2: were being monitored by US agents. One spy who visited

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Speaker 2: Sea Bowl's Manhattan office was Frederick Jubert Duquaine, who ran

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Speaker 2: a large German spy ring. Dukane was a South African

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Speaker 2: boar and a US citizen with a long history of

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Speaker 2: hating the British. As a German spy, Ducane gathered information

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Speaker 2: about US and British shipping records and US military technology.

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Speaker 2: Over the course of several meetings, he revealed to Sea

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Speaker 2: Bowl plans for a type of bomb being made in

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Speaker 2: the US, and he told Seaboled how fires could be

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Speaker 2: started in industrial plants. For sixteen months, the FBI worked

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Speaker 2: with Sea bul to collect a ton of information on

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Speaker 2: Nazi spies working in the US, Mexico, and South America.

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Speaker 2: In June of nineteen forty one, the FBI rounded up

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Speaker 2: a band of Nazi spies. Nineteen members of the spy

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Speaker 2: ring pled guilty that December, the remaining fourteen members were

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Speaker 2: found guilty at trial, and on January second of the

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Speaker 2: next year, all thirty three people in the Spy Ring

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Speaker 2: were sentenced to prison. Ducane got eighteen years in prison

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Speaker 2: on espionage charges and a two thousand dollars fine for

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Speaker 2: violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The Act, past in

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Speaker 2: nineteen thirty eight, requires anyone who does political or advocacy

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Speaker 2: work on behalf of foreign entities to disclose their relationship

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Speaker 2: with the foreign entity and any relevant activities in finances.

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Speaker 2: After the German spies were convicted, the US government relocated

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Speaker 2: Sea Bowl to California and gave him a new identity.

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Speaker 2: Diagnosed with manic depression, he was committed to Napa State

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Speaker 2: Hospital in nineteen sixty five. He died of a heart

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Speaker 2: attack five years later. I'm Eve Chefcote and hopefully you

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Speaker 2: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 2: If you have any burning questions, you can send them

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Speaker 2: to us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram at TDIHC podcast,

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Speaker 2: and if you would prefer, you can send them to

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Speaker 2: us via email at this Day at iHeartMedia dot com.

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Speaker 2: Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you here again

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Speaker 2: the same time tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that gives a quick look it's something that happened

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Speaker 1: a long time ago. Today I'm Gabe Lucier, and in

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Speaker 1: this episode, we're examining one of the least popular policies

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Speaker 1: of one of America's least popular presidents. The day was

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Speaker 1: January twod nineteen seventy four. President Richard Nixon established a

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Speaker 1: maximum speed limit of fifty five miles per hour on

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Speaker 1: every highway in the United States, known as the Emergency

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Speaker 1: Highway Energy Conservation Act, the law was primarily intended to

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Speaker 1: conserve the nation's fuel supply in response to the ongoing

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Speaker 1: fuel crisis of the nineteen seventies. The results were a

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Speaker 1: mixed bag, but the law remained in effect regardless for

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Speaker 1: more than two decades. Prior to Nixon's law, each state

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Speaker 1: had the right to set its own speed limits for

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Speaker 1: all the roads within its borders. This had resulted in

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Speaker 1: highway speed limits that ranged from forty miles per hour

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Speaker 1: all the way up to eighty miles per hour. Cars

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Speaker 1: are less fuel efficient when driven at higher speeds, but

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Speaker 1: following World War II, the US wasn't worried about its

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Speaker 1: gas supply like other industrialized nations. The country helped itself

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Speaker 1: to inexpensive Middle Eastern oil from nineteen fifty until the

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Speaker 1: early nineteen seventies. The gravy train finally ground to a

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Speaker 1: halt in nineteen seventy three. The Arab nations of OPEK,

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Speaker 1: the organization of the petroleum exporting Countries, took exception to

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Speaker 1: the West support of Israel in the recent Yam Kippur

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Speaker 1: War also known as the Ramadan War. In protest, the

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Speaker 1: group abruptly ceased all oil shipments to the United States,

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Speaker 1: as well as Japan and Western Europe. When OPEK eventually

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Speaker 1: started selling again, it raised its oil prices to four

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Speaker 1: times what they had been previously. The embargo struck a

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Speaker 1: major blow to American and European economies, highlighting just how

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Speaker 1: dependent the West had become on foreign oil. The sweeping

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Speaker 1: energy crisis led to gas shortages and desperate attempts at

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Speaker 1: fuel conservation and rationing. Nixon's federal law on speed limits

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Speaker 1: was part of the American government's response to the OPEC

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Speaker 1: oil embargo. It was hoped that by forcing people to

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Speaker 1: drive slower, less gasoline would be wasted. Of course, Congress

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Speaker 1: recognized that a fifty five mile per hour speed limit

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Speaker 1: would go over well in some states, especially the western ones,

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Speaker 1: which had the longest, straightest, and dullest rural highways in

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Speaker 1: the country. That is why Congress enacted the law, along

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Speaker 1: with an ultimatum to the states, comply with the national

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Speaker 1: speed limit or give up all of your funding from

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Speaker 1: the Department of Transportation. With their federal highway money on

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Speaker 1: the line, most states lowered their speed limits right away,

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Speaker 1: but even if a state grudgingly complied with the law,

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Speaker 1: how to enforce it was still up to them. For example,

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Speaker 1: in Nevada, state police only issued full speeding tickets to

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Speaker 1: drivers going more than seventy miles per hour. Anything less

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Speaker 1: and the offender was just given a five dollars fine

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Speaker 1: for energy wasting. Of course, the big question is whether

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Speaker 1: the national speed limit actually reduced fuel consumption as intended.

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Speaker 1: The answer to that is still up for debate. The

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Speaker 1: law did curb petroleum consumption by over one hundred and

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Speaker 1: sixty thousand barrels per day, but that only represents a

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Speaker 1: drop in demand of about one or two percent, hardly

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Speaker 1: enough to solve an energy crisis. Part of the reason

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Speaker 1: the savings were so slight was that by the time

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Speaker 1: Nixon's law took effect, twenty one states had already adopted

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Speaker 1: maximum speed limits of fifty five miles per hour or less.

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Speaker 1: That means a large portion of the country was already

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Speaker 1: driving super slowly on the highway, so the national speed

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Speaker 1: limit didn't reduce their fuel consumption any further. It also

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Speaker 1: didn't help that the lower speed limit only impacted highway driving,

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Speaker 1: which is already better for fuel economy than driving at

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Speaker 1: lower speeds on congested roads and side streets. The law

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Speaker 1: didn't save as much gas as the government had hoped,

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Speaker 1: but the fifty five mile per hour speed limit remained

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Speaker 1: in place even after the oil crisis had ended. By

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight, studies showed a steady decline in highway

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Speaker 1: fatalities in the years since the lower speed limit was introduced.

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Speaker 1: Some analysts pointed out that the reduction in deaths was

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Speaker 1: more likely due to a general decrease in recreational driving

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Speaker 1: because of high cost and scarcity of gas, but the

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Speaker 1: government insisted it was actually due to the national speed limit.

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Speaker 1: The Department of Transportation even launched a publicity campaign using

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Speaker 1: the slogan fifty five Saves Lives. Take a listen fifty.

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Speaker 3: Five saves lives. Since nineteen seventy four, fifty five has

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Speaker 3: been the single biggest factor in reducing highway deaths by

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Speaker 3: more than thirty six thousand people. One of them could

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Speaker 3: be used fifty five Saves Lives.

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Speaker 1: By the nineteen eighties, the American public still widely approved

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Speaker 1: of the national speed limit, even if most motorists didn't

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Speaker 1: abide by it themselves. But the law still had many

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Speaker 1: vocal detractors, and one of the most prominent was rock

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Speaker 1: star Sammy Hagar, the future lead singer of the band

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Speaker 1: Van Halen. In nineteen eighty four, Hagar was pulled over

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Speaker 1: while driving through New York State. He had been going

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Speaker 1: seven miles over the national speed limit, and when the

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Speaker 1: cop said he gave tickets for anything over sixty, the

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Speaker 1: musician replied, quote, I can't drive fifty five. As the

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Speaker 1: cop wrote out the ticket, Hagar began scribbling down the

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Speaker 1: lyrics for what ultimately became his first hit song. It

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Speaker 1: was titled you Guessed It. I can't drive fifty five.

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Speaker 1: The song captured the sentiments of a growing number of citizens,

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Speaker 1: not to mention state government and industries. In nineteen eighty seven,

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Speaker 1: Congress acknowledged the backlash by raising the speed limit to

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Speaker 1: sixty five miles per hour on all rural interstate highways.

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Speaker 1: Then in nineteen ninety five, the law was scrapped altogether

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Speaker 1: and the right to determine speed limits was handed back

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Speaker 1: to the individual states. After more than twenty years, the

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Speaker 1: long strange experiment was finally over. It was a sad

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Speaker 1: day for some, after all, small towns along the highways

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Speaker 1: had made a fortune off of speeding fines and fees,

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Speaker 1: and those in the radar detector business had sold more

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Speaker 1: units than they likely ever would again. But for everyone else,

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Speaker 1: the law's repeal was a welcome return to the days

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Speaker 1: of sensible speeding, to a time when daily commutes went

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Speaker 1: by a little faster and nobody wrote rock songs about

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Speaker 1: speed limits. I'm Gabe Lues and hopefully you now know

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Speaker 1: a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: You can learn even more about history by following us

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and

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Speaker 1: if you have any comments or suggestions, you can always

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Speaker 1: drop me a line at this Day at iHeartMedia dot com.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank

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Speaker 1: you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow

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Speaker 1: for another day in History class. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,

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Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

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Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.