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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey guys, I hope you enjoy these classic

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Speaker 1: episodes from the t D I h C Vault. I'm

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Speaker 1: currently researching a new crop of stories for next year,

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Speaker 1: so be sure to join me again on January second

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Speaker 1: when we return with all new episodes. Talk to you soon.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to This Day in History Class from how Stuff

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Speaker 1: Works dot com and from the desk of Stuff you

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Speaker 1: Missed in History Class. It's the show where we explore

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Speaker 1: the past one day at a time with a quick

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Speaker 1: look at what happened today in history. Hello and welcome

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Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Christoper ociotis your temporary host, sitting

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Speaker 1: in for Tracy V. Wilson this week. Today is December four,

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Speaker 1: and Roald Amondson reached the South Pole on this day

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Speaker 1: in nineteen eleven. Born in what's now Norway in eighteen

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Speaker 1: seventy two, Amonson was born into a nautical family, a

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Speaker 1: family of captains and shipbuilders ship owners. His mother wanted

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Speaker 1: him to be a doctor, so Ammonson attended university with

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Speaker 1: that intent, but when she passed away when he was

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Speaker 1: in his early twenties, he dropped out and took to

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Speaker 1: the Seas as a polar explorer. He explored Antarctica with

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Speaker 1: a Belgian team in the final years of the nineteenth century,

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Speaker 1: and about five years later was the first to make

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Speaker 1: a successful expedition through Canada's Northwest Passage, which connects the

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Speaker 1: Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. He was inspired by Robert Peary

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Speaker 1: reaching the North Pole in nineteen o nine. In fact,

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Speaker 1: he wasn't just inspired, He'd had actually been planning his

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Speaker 1: own track to the North Pole, so instead Amonson decided

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Speaker 1: to head for the South Pole. He set off on

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Speaker 1: June third, and though he was planning to head south,

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Speaker 1: he knew the plan all along, but he allowed people

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Speaker 1: who financed his trip to believe he was going to

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Speaker 1: the North Pole. The same held true for his crew,

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Speaker 1: but when they reached the Portuguese archipelago of Madera, he

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Speaker 1: let them know about the change in plans, and six

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Speaker 1: months later they arrived at the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.

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Speaker 1: The crew set up base and named it Framheim, and

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Speaker 1: spent months prepared for the trek to the Pole. Amonson

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Speaker 1: had learned much from the Inuit people while exploring the

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Speaker 1: North Pole and adopted some of their sealskin technology, rather

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Speaker 1: than relying on wool clothing. For example. The first attempt

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Speaker 1: for the poll took place in September of nineteen eleven,

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Speaker 1: but it didn't work out and the team that departed

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Speaker 1: had to turn back a month later. For the second time,

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Speaker 1: Amonson and four others set out. This was on October nineteenth,

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Speaker 1: nineteen eleven. They took four sledges and fifty two dogs,

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Speaker 1: and the plan was actually to eat some of the

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Speaker 1: dogs along the way, and nearly after crossing ice and

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Speaker 1: snow for two months straight, Amonson and his team arrived

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Speaker 1: at the South Pole on December fourteenth, nineteen eleven. Now

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Speaker 1: it was another month and a half back to their

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Speaker 1: base camp, then a few months onto Australia, where he

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Speaker 1: finally announced his successful expedition. You can read Amonson's own

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Speaker 1: account of the journey in his nineteen twelve book The

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Speaker 1: South Pole, An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition. In

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Speaker 1: the from nineteen twelve, now Amondson was called brave, he

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Speaker 1: was called prepared, he was called smart, But in his

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Speaker 1: own words he attributed the success of the expedition to preparation.

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Speaker 1: In his own words, he wrote, I may say that

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Speaker 1: this is the greatest factor the way in which the

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Speaker 1: expedition is equipped, the way in which every difficulty is

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Speaker 1: foreseen and precautions taken for meeting or avoiding it. Victory

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Speaker 1: awaits him who has everything in order. Luck people call it.

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Speaker 1: Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take

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Speaker 1: the necessary precautions in time. This is called bad luck. Now,

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Speaker 1: speaking of defeat, here's the thing I haven't told you yet.

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Speaker 1: Emmonson wasn't the only explorer trying to reach the South Pole.

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Speaker 1: There's another character crucial to this story, and that's a

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Speaker 1: British man by the name of Robert Falcon Scott. In fact,

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Speaker 1: Scott and Amonson were in a heated competition to make

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Speaker 1: it to the South Pole first, and you know that

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Speaker 1: Amonson was the first person to reach the pole. Scott's

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Speaker 1: tale of failure, though, is fascinating in its own right

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Speaker 1: and includes English pride, ponies devoured by Orca, and tens

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Speaker 1: of thousands of cigars good stuff. In fact, if you'd

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Speaker 1: like to learn more about the race to the South Pole,

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Speaker 1: give a listen to the September twenty two, two thousand

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Speaker 1: ten episode of our Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast,

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Speaker 1: which is aptly titled The Race to the South Pole.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to Casey Pegruman, Chandler Mays for their audio work

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Speaker 1: on this show, and you can subscribe to This Day

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Speaker 1: in History Class on Apple Podcasts, the I Heart Radio app,

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Speaker 1: or any place you like to find podcasts. Make sure

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Speaker 1: to listen tomorrow when we delve into the death of

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Speaker 1: an American cultural leader and icon of resistance. Hi. I'm

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Speaker 1: Eves and you're listening to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that makes time travel a little bit easier.

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Speaker 1: The day was December nine. A patent was issued for

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Speaker 1: the cathode, a tube amusement device, a predecessor to early

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Speaker 1: video games. German scientists Carl Ferdinand Braun invented the first

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Speaker 1: cathode ray tube scanning device. In A cathode ray tube,

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Speaker 1: or CRT, is a vacuum tube that produces images when

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Speaker 1: an electron beam hits a phosphorescent surface. American engineer Allen B.

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Speaker 1: Dumont made the first long lasting, commercially practical CRT for

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Speaker 1: television in nineteen thirty one. He started his company, Allen B.

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Speaker 1: Dumont Laboratories, and before the end of the decade, the

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Speaker 1: company was manufacturing some of the earliest commercial television receivers

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Speaker 1: with the improved CRT s. He also established the Dumont Network,

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Speaker 1: a TV network used to help promote his TV sales.

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Speaker 1: Physicist Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. Had begun researching the cathode

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Speaker 1: ray tube while he was getting his doctorate in physics

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Speaker 1: at Cornell University, and he was hired as research director

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Speaker 1: at Dumont Laboratories in New Jersey. During World War Two,

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Speaker 1: Dumont Laboratories shifted its focus to wartime technology like radar.

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Speaker 1: Sel ray Man was also an engineer at Dumont, and

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Speaker 1: he and Goldsmith were likely inspired by radar displays when

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Speaker 1: they developed the design for the cathode ray tube amusement device.

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Speaker 1: The device was made up of resistors, a saw tooth generator,

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Speaker 1: and a CRT. The game simulated firing missiles at targets.

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Speaker 1: The player would use a knob to aim the beam

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Speaker 1: generated by the CRT at a target on the screen. Targets,

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Speaker 1: like pictures of airplanes, had to be placed manually on

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Speaker 1: the screen with a piece of paper. They filed the

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Speaker 1: patent for the amusement device in January of ninety seven,

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Speaker 1: and the application was granted on December fourteenth nine. The

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Speaker 1: patent said that quote, the game can be made more

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Speaker 1: spectacular and the interest theory in both from the players

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Speaker 1: and the observer standpoint can be increased by making a

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Speaker 1: visible explosion of the cathode ray beam take place when

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Speaker 1: the target is hit. That could be done by defocusing

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Speaker 1: the beam. It was the first known time in history

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Speaker 1: when people proposed using a CRT to play a game,

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Speaker 1: but the device was never manufactured and it had no

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Speaker 1: significant influence on the development of the video game industry.

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Speaker 1: It's not clear exactly why the game was never actually built,

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Speaker 1: but it could have been because Dumont lacked the resources

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Speaker 1: to fund the project. The Cathode ray tube amusement device

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Speaker 1: was not the first video game, a title that some

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Speaker 1: have awarded it. There was no video signal, no computer,

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Speaker 1: and no software program. It was a simple electro mechanical device.

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Speaker 1: All that said, the invention is notable in its anticipation

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Speaker 1: of early video games, and it's considered the earliest recorded

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Speaker 1: interactive electronic game. I'm Eave, jeffco and hopefully you know

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

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Speaker 1: No any fellow history buffs who would enjoy the show

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Speaker 1: you can share it with them. We're on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at t B I h C Podcast. If

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Speaker 1: emails your thing, send us a note at this Day

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Speaker 1: at I heeart media dot com. Thanks for listening. We'll

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Speaker 1: see you here again tomorrow with another episode. Hello, and

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Speaker 1: welcome to This Day in History Class, the show that

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Speaker 1: pays tribute to people of the past by telling their stories.

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Speaker 1: Today I'm Gabe Louisier, and today we're talking about Wilma Mankiller,

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Speaker 1: a social activist whose dedication and vision helped secure a

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Speaker 1: brighter future for the Cherokee Nation. The day was December

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five. Wilma man Killer took office as Principal

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Speaker 1: Chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. She was the

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Speaker 1: first woman to be elected leader of a major Native

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Speaker 1: American tribe. She served in the role for ten years,

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Speaker 1: and under her leadership, the nation's education, health care, and

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Speaker 1: housing services were greatly improved. If you're curious about her

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Speaker 1: distinctive surname, you wouldn't be the first. She was asked

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Speaker 1: about it all the time at meetings, conferences, and press events.

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Speaker 1: As she would explain, probably more often than she'd have liked.

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Speaker 1: Man Killer is a translation of a Cherokee term that

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Speaker 1: refers to a high military rank, like captain or major.

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Speaker 1: One of Wilma's ancestors had been a warrior who guarded

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Speaker 1: his village, and the term of respect that signified his

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Speaker 1: role later became the family surname. Of course, no one

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Speaker 1: in the Cherokee Nation would think twice about her last name,

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Speaker 1: but outside of Oklahoma, it tended to raise a few eyebrows,

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Speaker 1: a fact that Wilma would occasionally use to her advantage.

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Speaker 1: In she told The New York Times quote, some people

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Speaker 1: do earn their names in native culture. I didn't, but

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Speaker 1: I don't always tell people that. Sometimes I just say

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Speaker 1: that man Killer is my name, and that I earned it,

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Speaker 1: and I let him wonder. Wilma Pearl man Killer was

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Speaker 1: born on November eighteenth nine in Tallaquah, Oklahoma, the capital

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Speaker 1: of the Cherokee Nation. She was the sixth of eleven children,

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Speaker 1: and though her family's rural home lacked electricity and indoor plumbing,

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Speaker 1: she later recalled that she never felt poor growing up there.

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Speaker 1: That began to change in nineteen fifty six, when a

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Speaker 1: ten year old Wilma was uprooted from her ancestral home

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Speaker 1: and moved to a poverty stricken neighborhood in San Francisco.

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Speaker 1: Her father, who was a full blooded Cherokee, had enrolled

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Speaker 1: in the Bureau of Indian Affairs relocation program. On the

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Speaker 1: face of it, the federal program was meant to address

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Speaker 1: the growing issue of poverty on tribal lands. Rural families

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Speaker 1: were to be relocated to big, modern cities where they

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Speaker 1: could theoretically have better living conditions. However, in reality, the

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Speaker 1: program often left families worse off. Many struggled to find

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Speaker 1: jobs and to adapt to a new way of living.

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Speaker 1: Worst of all, the move separated Native people from the

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Speaker 1: tribal communities they had known all their lives. Wilma later

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Speaker 1: recalled the day her family moved to San Francisco, saying, quote,

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Speaker 1: I remember as we drove to the train, I felt

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Speaker 1: so sad. I wasn't excited at all. I was trying

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Speaker 1: to memorize retree and what the school looked like, which

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Speaker 1: flowers were blooming in my grandfather's front yard, all those

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Speaker 1: sorts of things. Over a hundred years earlier, in the

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Speaker 1: eighteen thirties, federal troops had forced the Cherokee, including Wilma,

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Speaker 1: Mankiller's great grandfather to leave their homes in the Southeast

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Speaker 1: and relocate to Oklahoma. Wilma likened the traumatic event to

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Speaker 1: her own government sponsored relocation, calling it quote my own

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Speaker 1: little trail of tears. As a teenager growing up in

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Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties, Wilma found a place among student activists

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Speaker 1: in the Bay Area protest movement. She got married in

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three and had two children, both daughters, by

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Speaker 1: the time she was twenty. Despite her hectic home life,

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Speaker 1: Wilma still found time for social work, like helping the

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Speaker 1: Black Panther Party and its mission to feed children and

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Speaker 1: the elderly. Then, in nineteen sixty nine, a historic event

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Speaker 1: changed Wilma's life and cemented her role as a lifelong activist.

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Speaker 1: In November of that year, a group of Native Americans

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Speaker 1: seized control of the federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in

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Speaker 1: the San Francisco Bay. They claimed the island by right

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Speaker 1: of discovery, citing an old treaty that gave Native people

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Speaker 1: the right to occupy unused land in the United States.

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Speaker 1: The Alcatraz Prison had been closed in nineteen sixty three,

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Speaker 1: meaning that according to the treaty, the land was up

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Speaker 1: for grabs. The occupation of Alcatraz stretched on for nineteen

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Speaker 1: months and grew to include thousands of Native American protesters.

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Speaker 1: The movement highlighted what it called a trail of broken

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Speaker 1: treaties that had stripped Native Americans of the majority of

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Speaker 1: their homelands. News of the occupation led Wilma to reckon

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Speaker 1: with the grief of her own family's relocation and the

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Speaker 1: effect it had on her sense of identity. She decided

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Speaker 1: to join the cause and began making frequent visits to

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Speaker 1: the island. She later explained, quote, when Alcatraz occurred, I

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Speaker 1: became aware of what needed to be done to let

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Speaker 1: the rest of the world know that Indians had rights too.

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Speaker 1: More than anything, it was like coming home, and I

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Speaker 1: felt that I was where I should be. In the end,

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Speaker 1: the movement proved successful, affecting several positive changes in federal

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Speaker 1: policy and sparking a new wave of Native American activism.

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Speaker 1: Wilma Mankiller was among the many people inspired by the occupation,

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Speaker 1: and she committed her life to empowering Native communities. From

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Speaker 1: then on, she became the director of the Native American

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Speaker 1: Youth Center in Oakland, where she made it her mission

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Speaker 1: to instill pride for native heritage and the children growing

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Speaker 1: up there. She also helped California's Pit River Tribe in

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Speaker 1: its legal battle with an energy company that was encroaching

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Speaker 1: on tribal lands. In nineteen seventy seven, Wilma divorced her

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Speaker 1: first husband and moved back to her family land in

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Speaker 1: Oklahoma along with her two daughters. There, she founded the

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Speaker 1: Community Development Department for the Cherokee Nation and successfully launched

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Speaker 1: a clean water and housing project that revitalized a tribal

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Speaker 1: community in Belle, Oklahoma. She gained recognition for the success

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Speaker 1: and was asked to be the running mate of Ross

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Speaker 1: Swimmer in his nineteen eighty three bid to be Principal Chief.

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Speaker 1: Wilma was targeted for her gender during the campaign, including

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Speaker 1: several death threats, but she and Swimmer won anyway. Two

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Speaker 1: years later, Swimmer stepped down to take a position in

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Speaker 1: the federal government. Wilma ran the first of two successful

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Speaker 1: campaigns for the top spot of Principal Chief in nineteen

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Speaker 1: eighty five. Five years later, she secured a second term

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Speaker 1: by winning eighty three per cent of all votes cast.

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Speaker 1: During her time as chief, Wilma worked to break down

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Speaker 1: the economic and social barriers that had kept many of

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Speaker 1: her people in poverty for generations. Her policies doubled annual

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Speaker 1: tribal revenue, growing the nation's yearly budget to a healthy

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Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty million dollars by the end of

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Speaker 1: her tenure. She put much of that money right back

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Speaker 1: into the community, overhauling the tribal health care system and

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Speaker 1: expanding educational resources. By the time Wilma left office, in

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Speaker 1: membership in the Cherokee Nation had grown from seventy two

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Speaker 1: thousand members to over a hundred and seventy thousand. Wilma

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Speaker 1: man Killer was inducted into the National Women's Hall of

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Speaker 1: Fame in nineteen nine. Five years later, President Bill Clinton

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Speaker 1: awarded her the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal

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Speaker 1: of Freedom. She passed away from pancreatic cancer on April

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Speaker 1: six at the age of sixty four. Her life was

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Speaker 1: lived in service to others, safeguarding customs and traditions while

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Speaker 1: also charting a path forward for her people. Despite her

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Speaker 1: many achievements, Wilma Mankiller took a modest approach to her legacy.

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Speaker 1: When asked what she hoped future generations would take from

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Speaker 1: her story, she replied, I hope that when I leave

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Speaker 1: it will just be said I did what I could.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gabe Lousier and hopefully you now know a little

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Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. You can

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Speaker 1: learn even more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at t d i HC Show. You can

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Speaker 1: also rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, and

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Speaker 1: if you have any comments or suggestion, you can send

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Speaker 1: them my way at this day at I heart media

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Speaker 1: dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show,

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Speaker 1: and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here

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Speaker 1: again tomorrow for another day in History class. For more

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Speaker 1: podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.