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Speaker 1: Hey, y'all. We're rerunning two episodes today, which means you

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Speaker 1: might hear two hosts. Enjoy the show. Welcome to this

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Speaker 1: Day in History Class from how Stuff Works dot Com

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Speaker 1: and from the desk of Stuff You Missed in History Class.

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Speaker 1: It's the show where we explore the past one day

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Speaker 1: at a time with a quick look at what happened

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Speaker 1: today in history. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm

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Speaker 1: Tracy B. Wilson, and it's August twenty seven. The Battle

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Speaker 1: of Ambo snow Galus took place on the stay in

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen, on the border between the United States and Mexico.

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Speaker 1: There are two cities, both named no Galus. One is

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Speaker 1: in Arizona and the other is in Sonora, and together

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Speaker 1: they're called Ambo snow Gallus, which just means both no Galus.

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Speaker 1: They've both existed since about eighteen eighty and for the

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Speaker 1: first few decades of their existence, all you had to

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Speaker 1: do to cross the border from one to the other

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Speaker 1: was just walk across the street. That started changing in

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Speaker 1: en thanks to the Mexican Revolution, which made things at

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Speaker 1: the border a lot more tense. Although the Revolution was

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Speaker 1: being fought mostly in Mexico, all the American cities along

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Speaker 1: the border were very scared about the idea of violence

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Speaker 1: spilling over and affecting them. This wasn't an unwarranted fear.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes that did happen. Things got even more tense with

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Speaker 1: World War One. There were more and more rules about

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Speaker 1: crossing the border and who could cross, and when they

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Speaker 1: could and what they could carry. And this was especially

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Speaker 1: true for Mexicans coming into the United States. It went

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Speaker 1: from a place where you could just walk across the

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Speaker 1: street wherever you want to make an international border crossing

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Speaker 1: to one where there were only two authorized points to

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Speaker 1: cross the border, and if you were Mexican, only specific

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Speaker 1: number of times you could do it. In August night,

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Speaker 1: Zephyrino Guild Madrid was crossing back into Sonora from Arizona.

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Speaker 1: He was a carpenter, He was well known in the area.

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Speaker 1: He had already stepped onto Mexican soil when an American

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Speaker 1: border agent told him to turn around and have the

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Speaker 1: bulky package that he was carrying inspected. A guard on

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Speaker 1: the Mexican side told him he didn't need to pay

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Speaker 1: any attention to that American guard. He was already in Mexico.

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Speaker 1: He didn't need to turn back Gila Madrid wasn't sure

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Speaker 1: what to do, so he froze, and then a soldier

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Speaker 1: on the American side pointed his rifle at him to

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Speaker 1: encourage him to come back. Somebody it's not clear who

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Speaker 1: fired shot Gila Madrid understandably hit the deck. The Mexican guards,

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Speaker 1: thinking he had been killed, returned fire, wounding an American soldier,

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Speaker 1: and then the American border agents fired back, killing two

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Speaker 1: Mexican guards, and things really escalated from there. This led

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Speaker 1: two hours of gunfire on both sides. On the Arizona side,

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Speaker 1: it was mostly coming from the United States Army. On

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Speaker 1: the Sonora side, it was mostly coming from civilians who

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Speaker 1: had taken up sniper positions using their personal rifles in

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Speaker 1: their homes and on roofs, because most of the men

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Speaker 1: who were stationed at the Mexican Federal Army garrison were

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Speaker 1: away fighting rebels in the Mexican Revolution. No Gallas Sonora

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Speaker 1: Mayor Felix by Penelosa came out with an improvised white

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Speaker 1: flag and he was shot and killed. A call from

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Speaker 1: the Mexican console to the subdistrict commander of the United

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Speaker 1: States led to his kitting a particularly rude brush off Finally,

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Speaker 1: acting Mayor Hayesu's Palmer raised a white flag over the

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Speaker 1: No Galas Sonora Customs House at about seven forty five pm.

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Speaker 1: Although there were still several incidents of shooting after that point,

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Speaker 1: more than twenty people were killed alther the number may

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Speaker 1: really be much higher, and afterwards he investigated what had happened.

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Speaker 1: Brigadier General de Rossi Cavil advised that a temporary fence

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Speaker 1: that had been put up to try to make things

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Speaker 1: a little easier on the border guards be made permanent.

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Speaker 1: This became the first permanent barrier along the border between

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Speaker 1: the United States and Mexico. It started out as barbed wire,

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Speaker 1: and over the years that has been replaced with chain link,

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Speaker 1: and then corrugated deal and now a series of concrete

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Speaker 1: reinforced steal rods with gaps in between, which cost about

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Speaker 1: twelve million dollars. You can learn more about this, including

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Speaker 1: more of the context and the aftermath, and an attempt

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Speaker 1: to blame this whole thing on German agents in the

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Speaker 1: August episode of Stuff You Miss in History Class, and

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Speaker 1: you can subscribe to This Day in History Class on

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Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, and wherever else you get your podcasts.

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Speaker 1: You can tune in tomorrow for a murder that reinvigorated

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Speaker 1: the civil rights movement. Hi again, Welcome to this day

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Speaker 1: in history class where history waits for no one. The

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Speaker 1: day was August three, the eruption of Krakatau, called Era

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Speaker 1: in the Sound dis Strait in Indonesia peaked. It was

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Speaker 1: one of the deadliest volcanic eruptions in modern history. Krakatile

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Speaker 1: is about halfway between Java and Sumatra. It's on the

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Speaker 1: convergence of the Eurasian and Indo Australian tectonic plates. More

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Speaker 1: than a thousand years ago in prehistoric times and eruption

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Speaker 1: formed a caldera in the area. The remnants of that

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Speaker 1: caldera eventually turned into the islands of Lung for Latin

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Speaker 1: and Krakatau. In eighteen eighty three, there were three volcanic

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Speaker 1: cones on Krakatau, Herba Watan the northernmost and most active,

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Speaker 1: Dannon near the middle of the island, and Ricatta, the

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Speaker 1: largest and southernmost one. Before the eight eighty three eruption

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Speaker 1: of Krakatau, there had only been one other confirmed eruption

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Speaker 1: of the caldera. That eruption occurred in sixteen eighty, travelers

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Speaker 1: documented an earthquake at sea. After a long period of

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Speaker 1: tranquility on the island, but in May there was volcanic

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Speaker 1: activity and Batavia, then the capital of the Dutch East

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Speaker 1: Indies but now corresponds with Jakarta. People began hearing explosions

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Speaker 1: and feeling tremmors as clouds formed. By the end of May,

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Speaker 1: the volcanic activity had died down, but around mid June

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Speaker 1: the activity started back up. On the afternoon of Sunday, August,

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Speaker 1: the initial blast in a series of violent explosions occurred.

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Speaker 1: Herbo Watsons sent a cloud of gas and debris miles

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Speaker 1: into the air. Debris might have clogged the neck of

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Speaker 1: Purple Watton and an earlier eruption and pressure then built

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Speaker 1: up below the blockage. Once the sea water touched the

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Speaker 1: hot lava, then the resulting hot steam could have forced

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Speaker 1: lava flows out at high speeds. The next day, the

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Speaker 1: eruption reached its week people as far away as Perth,

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Speaker 1: Australia heard explosions. In fact, there is evidence that the

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Speaker 1: sound of the explosions traveled around the world, and the

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Speaker 1: sound is considered to be the loudest one ever recorded

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Speaker 1: in modern history. It was also heard in the Andaman

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Speaker 1: and Nicobar Islands and on the island of Rodriguez in

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Speaker 1: the Indian Ocean. Ash was sent fifty miles or eight

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Speaker 1: kilometers into the sky. Miles of rock fragments were sent

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Speaker 1: flying into the air. Herba, Watton, and Dannon plunged into

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Speaker 1: the caldera, sinking hundreds of feet below sea level. All

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Speaker 1: the ash in the air made the region around the

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Speaker 1: eruption dark for a couple of days, and the effects

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Speaker 1: that the gases had on the atmosphere caused vivid sunsets

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Speaker 1: around the world. The eruption killed more than thirty six

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Speaker 1: thousand people. Not many people died as a direct result

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Speaker 1: of the eruptions, as it was likely that no one

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Speaker 1: lived on cracking. How many people were killed by tefra

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Speaker 1: or volcanic rock fragments. Others died by the hot volcanic

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Speaker 1: gases the explosions released, but way more people died because

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Speaker 1: of the tsunamis that were triggered when the island collapsed

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Speaker 1: into the caldera. Tsunamis as far away as Hawaii and

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Speaker 1: South America were documented. Coastal towns in Java and Sumatra

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Speaker 1: were hit the hardest when in a hundred and twenty

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Speaker 1: foot wave caused most of the estimated number of deaths.

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Speaker 1: News about the eruption tsunamis and all the devastation spread quickly.

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Speaker 1: The Krakatile eruption measured a six on the Volcanic Explosivity Index,

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Speaker 1: with the largest eruptions in history given an eight. It

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Speaker 1: took several years after the eruption for plant and animal

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Speaker 1: life to re establish itself in the Krakatil Archipelago. The

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Speaker 1: eruption also likely caused a drop in average global temperatures

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Speaker 1: for several years. At their interruption began on the sea

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Speaker 1: floor in the same area in n a new volcanic

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Speaker 1: home reached sea level and soon became its own small island,

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Speaker 1: and that Krakataw. I'm Eve Jeff Coo and hopefully you

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

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Speaker 1: If you haven't gotten your fill of history after listening

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Speaker 1: to today's episode, you can follow us on Twitter, Instagram,

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Speaker 1: and Facebook at t D I h C podcast. We'll

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Speaker 1: see you here in the same place tomorrow. 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,