1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:03,239 Speaker 1: Hey, history enthusiasts, you get not one, but two events 2 00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:06,840 Speaker 1: in history today on with the show Welcome to this 3 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:09,680 Speaker 1: Day in History Class, where we bring you a new 4 00:00:09,720 --> 00:00:22,600 Speaker 1: tidbid from history every day. The day was April second, 5 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:26,599 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine. In the Soviet city of Spurt Looks 6 00:00:26,960 --> 00:00:31,720 Speaker 1: or modern day Yukaterinburg, people began getting sick with fevers, coughing, 7 00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:36,000 Speaker 1: and vomiting. A deadly plume of anthrax spores have been 8 00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:40,360 Speaker 1: released from a military microbiology facility, causing at least sixty 9 00:00:40,400 --> 00:00:43,440 Speaker 1: four people to die in ninety people to be hospitalized. 10 00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:47,280 Speaker 1: At least that's what was revealed to have happened after 11 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:51,440 Speaker 1: the incident. For years, the Soviet Union claimed that meat 12 00:00:51,479 --> 00:00:55,639 Speaker 1: tainted with anthrax was responsible for the outbreak and denied 13 00:00:55,800 --> 00:01:00,000 Speaker 1: that an accident had happened. The anthrax league, which caused 14 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:03,200 Speaker 1: an epidemic that lasted into May, has been called the 15 00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:08,920 Speaker 1: biological chernobyl Anthrax is an infectious disease caused by the 16 00:01:08,959 --> 00:01:13,959 Speaker 1: bacterium Bacillus anthrax is. The bacterium produces spores that can 17 00:01:14,040 --> 00:01:17,959 Speaker 1: lie dormant in soil for decades. People can be infected 18 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:21,760 Speaker 1: in a few ways. Cutaneous antax occurs when a person 19 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:26,040 Speaker 1: touches an affected animal or animal product. People can get 20 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:30,000 Speaker 1: a gastrial intestinal anthrax infection from eating an infected animal, 21 00:01:30,760 --> 00:01:34,440 Speaker 1: but the deadliest type of antax infection is pulmonary or inhalation, 22 00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:37,800 Speaker 1: which has a fatality rate in people who are not 23 00:01:37,840 --> 00:01:42,600 Speaker 1: treated with antibiotics. When a person breathes in a high 24 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:47,080 Speaker 1: concentration of anthrax spores, the bacteria multiply and produced toxins. 25 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:51,040 Speaker 1: Then the infected person starts to experience symptoms like a 26 00:01:51,080 --> 00:01:56,160 Speaker 1: shortness of breath, cough body eggs, fever, bloody, vomiting, and fainting. 27 00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:00,280 Speaker 1: Because antax spores are easily found and produced in our 28 00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:05,320 Speaker 1: microscopic they are an ideal weapon for bioterrorists. The spurret 29 00:02:05,360 --> 00:02:09,200 Speaker 1: Loft leak wasn't an act of bioterrorism. It was accidental, 30 00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:14,280 Speaker 1: but it harmed and killed many people. Nonetheless, in nineteen 31 00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:19,000 Speaker 1: seventy two, most countries signed the Biological Weapons Convention, which 32 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:23,600 Speaker 1: banned the development, production, and use of biological weapons. The 33 00:02:23,639 --> 00:02:27,240 Speaker 1: Soviet Union was one of the signatories, but the convention 34 00:02:27,400 --> 00:02:30,480 Speaker 1: didn't fan bio weapons defense research, and it did not 35 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:35,760 Speaker 1: institute a compliance and monitoring body. In October nineteen seventy nine, 36 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:39,400 Speaker 1: a newspaper in West Germany random report that said there 37 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:42,120 Speaker 1: had been a germ accident that cost thousands of deaths 38 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:46,040 Speaker 1: in the Soviet Union, and in early nineteen eighty that 39 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:49,280 Speaker 1: same paper reported that in April nineteen seventy nine, there 40 00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:52,840 Speaker 1: had been an explosion at a secret military installation near 41 00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:57,120 Speaker 1: spurt Loofs that released anthrax spores into the air. There 42 00:02:57,160 --> 00:02:59,920 Speaker 1: was word that Soviet military had made efforts to decon 43 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:04,520 Speaker 1: hminate the area. Once the scores were released, the news 44 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:08,280 Speaker 1: spread around the world. In U s intelligence soon discovered 45 00:03:08,320 --> 00:03:10,799 Speaker 1: that there were signs of an accident at the bioweapons 46 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:15,560 Speaker 1: facility Compound nineteen and spurt looksk Plus. The Soviet Defense 47 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:20,560 Speaker 1: Minister Ustinov had visited the city at that time. The 48 00:03:20,680 --> 00:03:23,520 Speaker 1: US accused the Soviet Union of violating the ban on 49 00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:27,240 Speaker 1: the use of biological weapons, and in return, the Soviet 50 00:03:27,320 --> 00:03:30,440 Speaker 1: Union accused the US of intensifying tensions between the two 51 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:35,720 Speaker 1: states and waging psychological warfare on the Soviet Union. The 52 00:03:35,760 --> 00:03:38,960 Speaker 1: Soviets maintained that tainted meat was the reason an anthrax 53 00:03:39,040 --> 00:03:43,920 Speaker 1: outbreak had happened, and many Western scientists believed them doubting 54 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:47,040 Speaker 1: the accusation that there had been an accidental antrox release, 55 00:03:47,560 --> 00:03:52,080 Speaker 1: including biologist Matthew Messelsson, who the CIA assigned to examine 56 00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:56,920 Speaker 1: the evidence from intelligence sources. The Soviet Union held strong 57 00:03:57,080 --> 00:04:00,080 Speaker 1: to their story that meat had been tainted, and the 58 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:04,080 Speaker 1: Reagan administration continued to accuse the Soviet Union of violating 59 00:04:04,120 --> 00:04:10,000 Speaker 1: the Bioweapons Convention. But finally, in nine after the Soviet 60 00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:13,880 Speaker 1: Union had dissolved, Russian President Boris Yelson admitted to US 61 00:04:13,920 --> 00:04:17,200 Speaker 1: President George H. W. Bush that the outbreak was in 62 00:04:17,279 --> 00:04:20,440 Speaker 1: fact a bioweapons accident, and it did originate at the 63 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:25,880 Speaker 1: military facility. Yeltsen said, he told Bush the following, we 64 00:04:25,960 --> 00:04:29,279 Speaker 1: are still deceiving you, Mr Bush. We promised to eliminate 65 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:33,800 Speaker 1: bacteriological weapons, but some of our experts did everything possible 66 00:04:33,839 --> 00:04:37,160 Speaker 1: to prevent me from learning the truth. It was not easy, 67 00:04:37,200 --> 00:04:40,400 Speaker 1: but I outfoxed them. I caught them red handed. I 68 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:44,039 Speaker 1: found two test sites. They are inoculating tracts of land 69 00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:49,520 Speaker 1: with anthrax, allowing wild animals to go there and observing them. 70 00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:52,479 Speaker 1: Yeltsen promised to give the families of the people who 71 00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:55,760 Speaker 1: had died in the outbreak pensions, and said that Russia 72 00:04:55,800 --> 00:04:59,640 Speaker 1: would follow the Bioweapons Convention, but more information about the 73 00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:04,080 Speaker 1: Soviet it's biological warfare operations came out a year after 74 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:06,920 Speaker 1: signing the nineteen seventy two convention. The Soviet Union had 75 00:05:06,960 --> 00:05:11,719 Speaker 1: created Biopreparat, a civilian program that employed fifty thousand people 76 00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:17,600 Speaker 1: across fifty two facilities to manufacture biowarfare agents. The program's 77 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:21,400 Speaker 1: deputy director, whose name is now Ken Alabek, defected to 78 00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:24,560 Speaker 1: the US in ninet and told what he had heard 79 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:29,000 Speaker 1: about the incident in the book Biohazard. According to Alabek, 80 00:05:29,520 --> 00:05:33,599 Speaker 1: Compound nineteen produced tons of powdered antox every year to 81 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:38,400 Speaker 1: release from ballistic missiles. According to this account, a technician 82 00:05:38,480 --> 00:05:41,640 Speaker 1: had removed a clogged filter and it wasn't replaced until 83 00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:45,400 Speaker 1: too late. A breeze carried anto scores to a nearby 84 00:05:45,520 --> 00:05:49,520 Speaker 1: ceramics factory, infecting the workers, who were mostly men, and 85 00:05:49,640 --> 00:05:52,880 Speaker 1: killing many of them within a week. To make the 86 00:05:52,920 --> 00:05:57,160 Speaker 1: tainted meat lie look more credible, the Soviets shot stray dogs, 87 00:05:57,640 --> 00:06:01,440 Speaker 1: arrested black market food vendors, and bathed victims bodies and 88 00:06:01,520 --> 00:06:08,920 Speaker 1: chemical disinfectants. The KGB disposed of hospital records and pathological reports, 89 00:06:08,960 --> 00:06:12,400 Speaker 1: but all the activity just spread the spores. More people 90 00:06:12,440 --> 00:06:14,560 Speaker 1: within two and a half miles of the factory were 91 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:18,800 Speaker 1: infected and died, and animals even farther than that were affected. 92 00:06:20,839 --> 00:06:25,239 Speaker 1: Yelsen let international inspectors into Spurt Lofts to investigate the incident, 93 00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:28,800 Speaker 1: as the Soviets had refused to let investigators in when 94 00:06:28,800 --> 00:06:33,400 Speaker 1: the news first broke. Autopsy slides of the infected victims 95 00:06:33,440 --> 00:06:38,280 Speaker 1: showed evidence not of intestinal anthrax, but of inhalation anthrax, 96 00:06:38,560 --> 00:06:41,920 Speaker 1: which can take weeks to show symptoms, and the families 97 00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:45,760 Speaker 1: affected all lived down whend of the bioweapons facility, which 98 00:06:45,800 --> 00:06:49,279 Speaker 1: pointed to an air assault of inhalation anthrax being the culprit. 99 00:06:51,320 --> 00:06:55,479 Speaker 1: In New research suggested that the anthrax strain at Spurt 100 00:06:55,560 --> 00:06:59,400 Speaker 1: Lofts was close to natural strains, so the facility was 101 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:04,640 Speaker 1: probably not genetically engineering anthrax that was antibiotic or vaccine resistant. 102 00:07:06,880 --> 00:07:09,440 Speaker 1: I'm Eaves, Jeff Coote, and hopefully you know a little 103 00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:13,440 Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. Get more 104 00:07:13,520 --> 00:07:17,600 Speaker 1: notes from history on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at T 105 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:22,320 Speaker 1: D i h C podcast. Tune in tomorrow for another 106 00:07:22,360 --> 00:07:37,840 Speaker 1: day in History. Hey everyone, I'm Eves and welcome to 107 00:07:37,880 --> 00:07:40,840 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class a podcast that really takes 108 00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:44,120 Speaker 1: the heart the phrase you learn something new every day. 109 00:07:52,040 --> 00:07:58,200 Speaker 1: The day was April twod Irish mercenary Patrick Murphy accidentally 110 00:07:58,280 --> 00:08:01,600 Speaker 1: dropped two bombs over the board town of Naco, Arizona. 111 00:08:02,640 --> 00:08:05,400 Speaker 1: The bombing of Naco marked the first time the US 112 00:08:05,640 --> 00:08:09,720 Speaker 1: was hit with aerial bombs by foreign agent. Starting in 113 00:08:09,760 --> 00:08:14,679 Speaker 1: early March of nine, General Jesus Maria Agieri and General 114 00:08:14,720 --> 00:08:19,280 Speaker 1: Gonzalo Escobar led a rebellion against the government in northern Mexico. 115 00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:23,960 Speaker 1: The Escobar Rebellion, as the conflict is known, aimed to 116 00:08:24,080 --> 00:08:29,440 Speaker 1: overthrow Mexican President Portez Hill. Escobar accused Hell's administration of 117 00:08:29,480 --> 00:08:33,160 Speaker 1: corruption and being an instrument of the former president Plutarko 118 00:08:33,280 --> 00:08:37,640 Speaker 1: Elias Cays. The rebellion took place largely in the North 119 00:08:37,720 --> 00:08:42,640 Speaker 1: Mexican states, including Sonora. The governor of Sonora, Falsto to Pete, 120 00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:46,960 Speaker 1: supported the rebellion against the federal government. To Pete sent 121 00:08:47,080 --> 00:08:50,400 Speaker 1: his armies to invade Naco, a Sonora border town that 122 00:08:50,520 --> 00:08:53,480 Speaker 1: at the time was held by federal troops who supported 123 00:08:53,520 --> 00:08:57,840 Speaker 1: President Hell. Sonora was important because it was an international 124 00:08:57,880 --> 00:09:02,280 Speaker 1: port of entry and a key railroad option. Many residents 125 00:09:02,280 --> 00:09:07,000 Speaker 1: of Naco Sonora fled to American Naco anticipating the rebel attack. 126 00:09:07,720 --> 00:09:11,640 Speaker 1: Others fortified their homes. The siege of Naco began in 127 00:09:11,720 --> 00:09:16,400 Speaker 1: late March of both sides began carrying out air attacks. 128 00:09:16,840 --> 00:09:20,319 Speaker 1: Rebels bombed mostly on the outskirts of Naco Sonora, and 129 00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:24,600 Speaker 1: they also bombed the Southern Pacific Railroad yards, but they 130 00:09:24,640 --> 00:09:28,600 Speaker 1: were also hitting the US side of Naco. One of 131 00:09:28,640 --> 00:09:32,520 Speaker 1: the American mercenaries that the rebels hired was Patrick Murphy. 132 00:09:32,559 --> 00:09:35,440 Speaker 1: Before he turned up in Arizona, Murphy had been charged 133 00:09:35,520 --> 00:09:39,200 Speaker 1: with manslaughter in Alabama after his mechanic died in a 134 00:09:39,240 --> 00:09:43,199 Speaker 1: plane crash. Murphy had a small biplane that he used 135 00:09:43,240 --> 00:09:46,360 Speaker 1: to carry out bombings for the anti government cause. He 136 00:09:46,440 --> 00:09:49,080 Speaker 1: stopped his plane with bombs made of dynamite and scrap 137 00:09:49,160 --> 00:09:53,400 Speaker 1: metal stuffed into cylinders. Some of the rebels bombs did 138 00:09:53,480 --> 00:09:57,840 Speaker 1: hit trenches in Mexico, but others fell in Naco, Arizona. 139 00:09:58,080 --> 00:10:00,920 Speaker 1: On April second, two of Murphy's bombs fell on the 140 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:05,200 Speaker 1: U s side. A photographer and a reporter were wounded, 141 00:10:05,679 --> 00:10:09,880 Speaker 1: glass shattered, and buildings. Murphy's bombing runs also damaged a 142 00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:13,240 Speaker 1: post office and a car though nobody died from them. 143 00:10:13,280 --> 00:10:16,880 Speaker 1: On the U S side, an article and the Independent 144 00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:20,560 Speaker 1: Record out of Helena, Montana referenced the April second bombing, 145 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:24,640 Speaker 1: saying the following in retaliation for the bombing of Naco, 146 00:10:24,720 --> 00:10:29,600 Speaker 1: Sonora this morning by rebels to Douglas bombing planes from 147 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:34,160 Speaker 1: General Abe Lardo Rodriguez's air squadron flew over the rebel 148 00:10:34,240 --> 00:10:39,040 Speaker 1: camp southeast of Naco at noon today, dropping explosives. The 149 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:44,120 Speaker 1: aviators reported by telephone to Rodriguez's headquarters at Mexicali, LC 150 00:10:44,440 --> 00:10:48,720 Speaker 1: across the line. From here, reporters and spectators gathered at 151 00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:52,080 Speaker 1: the border to observe the rebellion, but by early April, 152 00:10:52,400 --> 00:10:56,480 Speaker 1: Murphy's plane was shot down by a Mexican soldier. He 153 00:10:56,679 --> 00:10:59,880 Speaker 1: escaped two rebel lines, then headed to the US, where 154 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:03,680 Speaker 1: he was arrested by American authorities for violations of US 155 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:08,600 Speaker 1: neutrality laws, along with other American mercenaries. He was taken 156 00:11:08,600 --> 00:11:12,040 Speaker 1: to jail in Nogalis, Arizona, but none of the Americans 157 00:11:12,080 --> 00:11:16,200 Speaker 1: were ever prosecuted. The rebels were defeated in the siege 158 00:11:16,200 --> 00:11:20,480 Speaker 1: of Naco, and the Escobar rebellion was suppressed by late April. 159 00:11:21,640 --> 00:11:24,440 Speaker 1: What happened to Murphy after he left jail is unknown. 160 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:28,120 Speaker 1: I'm Eve Chef Code and hopefully you know a little 161 00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:31,880 Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. If you 162 00:11:31,880 --> 00:11:33,920 Speaker 1: want to hit us up on social media, you can 163 00:11:33,920 --> 00:11:37,240 Speaker 1: do so at t D I h C. Podcast. You 164 00:11:37,280 --> 00:11:39,880 Speaker 1: can also send us an email at this Day at 165 00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:43,560 Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot com. I hope you enjoyed the show and 166 00:11:43,640 --> 00:11:49,760 Speaker 1: we'll be back tomorrow with another episode. 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