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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class. It's a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello everyone, I'm Eves and welcome to This

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Speaker 1: Day in History Class, a show that will convince you

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Speaker 1: that history can be fascinating even when you expected not

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Speaker 1: to be. Today is June four. The day was June fourth.

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Speaker 1: Suffragette Emily Davison was trampled by a horse at the

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Speaker 1: epsom Derby. She died four days later. The intentions of

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Speaker 1: her actions leading to the accident have been a topic

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Speaker 1: of debate. In nineteen o six, Davison joined the Women's

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Speaker 1: Social and Political Union. The w s p U was

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Speaker 1: a militant political organization that campaigned for women's suffrage in

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Speaker 1: the UK. At the time, Davidson was thirty four years

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Speaker 1: old and worked as a governess, but she soon left

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Speaker 1: her job to work for the movement full time. Davidson

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Speaker 1: was a devout Christian and advocate hate it for socialism.

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Speaker 1: As a feminist in Suffragette, she was militant and often confrontational.

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Speaker 1: She was arrested and imprisoned several times. She went to

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Speaker 1: jail for the first time in nineteen o nine after

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Speaker 1: marching to see Prime Minister H. H. Asquith with a

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Speaker 1: group led by suffragette Dora Marston. She and several other

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Speaker 1: women ended up being charged with obstruction and assaulting the police.

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Speaker 1: Davidson was later in prison for throwing stones at people

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Speaker 1: and setting pillar boxes on fire. While in prison, she

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Speaker 1: would go on hunger strikes and was forcefit. In nineteen twelve,

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Speaker 1: she jumped from a prison balcony and protest of her treatment,

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Speaker 1: and injured her head in vertebrae. When June fourteen, Davidson

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Speaker 1: attended the derby, she had two WSPU flags which bore

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Speaker 1: the colors purple, white and green. She found a spot

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Speaker 1: at Tattenham Corner, the last bin before the final straight.

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Speaker 1: As the horses came around Tattenham Corner, Davidson deduct under

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Speaker 1: the railing and onto the track. When she made it

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Speaker 1: onto the track, King George, the fifth horse, struck her.

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Speaker 1: Davidson was not unconscious and the horse fell and through

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Speaker 1: office jockey Herbert Jones. The incident was caught on camera.

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Speaker 1: Davidson and Jones were taken to the hospital. Jones had

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Speaker 1: a concussion and was soon sent home, but Davidson never

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Speaker 1: regained consciousness and died from a fracture at the base

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Speaker 1: of her skull on June eight. Davidson's funeral on June

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Speaker 1: four involved a procession of thousands of people. The WSPU

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Speaker 1: pegged her as a martyr, while the media questioned her

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Speaker 1: mental stability and pointed to her reputation as a militant

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Speaker 1: surfra jet. Opinion is divided on whether Davison intended to

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Speaker 1: die or just wanted to disrupt the derby. Some historians

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Speaker 1: say that she was trying to attach a flag to

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Speaker 1: the horse. Other people believed that she was trying to

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Speaker 1: cross the tracks and something that she was trying to

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Speaker 1: pull the horse down. At the time, david Sin was

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Speaker 1: carrying a return train ticket from EPSOM and had made

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Speaker 1: plans with her sister for the near future. Some people

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Speaker 1: point to this fact as evidence that she did not

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Speaker 1: intend to die by suicide that day. When World War

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Speaker 1: One broke out in n w SPU founder Emmiline Pankers

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Speaker 1: suspended the organization's militant activities and focused on recruiting women

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Speaker 1: to the war effort. I'm Eve Jeffcote, 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: and if you have any comments, are suggestions or time.

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Speaker 1: Whereas you want to send us, you can send them

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Speaker 1: to this Day at iHeart media dot com. You can

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Speaker 1: also hit us up on social media where at T

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Speaker 1: D I h C podcast. Hope you enjoyed the show

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Speaker 1: and we'll be back tomorrow with another episode. For more

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