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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 V. Wilson, and it's August three. Jesse Owens won

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Speaker 1: his first of four gold medals at the Berlin Olympic

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Speaker 1: Games on this day in ninety six. The International Olympic

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Speaker 1: Committee had given Berlin the Games back in one sort

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Speaker 1: of as a post World War One gesture of welcoming

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Speaker 1: Germany back into the world community. But Adolf Hitler became

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Speaker 1: Chancellor of Germany after that point, and by the time

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Speaker 1: the Berlin Olympics were approaching, he had become a dictator

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Speaker 1: and Germany had passed the anti Semitic Nuremberg Laws. These

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Speaker 1: laws and on going suspicions of human rights abuses in

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Speaker 1: Germany led to calls for a boycott of the games

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Speaker 1: or to have the games moved. After Olympic officials visited

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Speaker 1: Berlin a very tightly controlled visit put their minds at ease,

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Speaker 1: and the games went on as planned, but a lot

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Speaker 1: of athletes did elect not to participate, and in Germany,

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Speaker 1: a lot of athletes were not allowed to participate, especially

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Speaker 1: if they were Jewish, and the United States that one

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Speaker 1: of the criticisms that people brought up about this boycott

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Speaker 1: was that it was kind of hypocritical. People were refusing

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Speaker 1: to go to Berlin to participate in the games because

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Speaker 1: of Germany's treatment of its Jewish population. But in the

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Speaker 1: United States, black athletes were being segregated into their own teams,

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Speaker 1: into separate athletic facilities, sometimes not allowed to compete at all.

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Speaker 1: And that brings us to Jesse Owens. Jesse Owens grew

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Speaker 1: up in poverty as the child of sharecroppers. He had

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Speaker 1: an amazing athletic ability from a very young age. Though

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Speaker 1: he was known as the fastest man in America, and

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Speaker 1: he had reached this point in spite of racing discrimination

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Speaker 1: all through his life. That included not being able to

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Speaker 1: stay with the rest of his team when he traveled

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Speaker 1: with the Ohio State University track team, and he wasn't

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Speaker 1: even allowed to live on campus because Ohio State University

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Speaker 1: had no housing for black students. At the Berlin Olympics,

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Speaker 1: though he won the one hundred, two hundred, four hundred

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Speaker 1: meter relay and long jump in the four hundred meter relay,

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Speaker 1: there was actually a pair of two Jewish American athletes

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Speaker 1: who were supposed to be on that team, Sam Stoller

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Speaker 1: and Marty Glickman. They were swapped out at the last minute,

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Speaker 1: and instead Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe ran in their place.

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Speaker 1: Stoler and Glickman always asserted that anti Semitism played a

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Speaker 1: part in this decision. There were rumors that the German

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Speaker 1: team had come up with some people that might actually

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Speaker 1: beat the Americans regardless, though by the Olympic Committee saw

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Speaker 1: fit to comment on it, saying we regret this injustice

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Speaker 1: and feel it was an injustice. A lot has been

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Speaker 1: made to the fact that Adolf Hitler didn't Jesse Owen's

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Speaker 1: hand at the Olympics, but this is a little bit

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Speaker 1: of a historical misunderstanding. It's true that Adolf Hitler didn't

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Speaker 1: shake Jesse Owens's hand, but he hadn't been consistent about

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Speaker 1: shaking people's hands, and the international Olympic Committee had asked

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Speaker 1: him to please stop doing that into either shake hands

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Speaker 1: with everyone or shake hands with no one. He ultimately

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Speaker 1: decided no one, so it doesn't appear that he specifically

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Speaker 1: singled out Jesse Owens to not shake hands. However, when

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Speaker 1: America's black athletes got back to the United States, they

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Speaker 1: were intentionally snubbed. They got no invitation to the White

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Speaker 1: House like many other medalists did, they got no congratulations

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Speaker 1: from President Roosevelt. Today, people focus on the fact that

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Speaker 1: Jesse Owens won so many gold medals, and they talked

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Speaker 1: about how it proved Hitler's racist ideas about arian supremacy wrong.

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Speaker 1: And this leads to this perception that somehow the Berlin

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Speaker 1: Olympics went badly for Hitler by undermining his racest ideas.

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Speaker 1: But at the time, it was a really impressive Olympic Games.

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Speaker 1: Was the first time the Olympics were televised. Over All,

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Speaker 1: the games went really well. The German people were really

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Speaker 1: welcoming for a lot of the world outside of Germany.

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Speaker 1: It put people's minds at ease about the Nazi Party.

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Speaker 1: Germans also won by far the most medals. This whole

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Speaker 1: thing went so well and went so well, specifically for

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Speaker 1: Adolf Hitler, that he actually thought that after the next

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Speaker 1: Olympics in Tokyo, they would come back to Berlin permanently.

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Speaker 1: But there were no Olympic Games for the next twelve

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Speaker 1: years because of World War Two, and that meant that

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Speaker 1: for a lot of German Jewish athletes who were barred

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Speaker 1: from competing because of Germany's racist policies, they never got

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Speaker 1: to go to the Olympics. Twelve years is a long

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Speaker 1: time for a competing athlete, long enough for the competitive

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Speaker 1: window to close, and of course a lot of those

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Speaker 1: athletes did not survive the Holocaust. Thanks to Eve jeff

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Speaker 1: Cote for her research work on today's episode, and Terry

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Speaker 1: Harrison for her audio skills on this podcast. You can

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Speaker 1: learn more about Jesse Owens in the August first episode

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Speaker 1: of Stuff You Miss in History Class, and you can

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Speaker 1: subscribe to This Day in History Class on Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: Google Podcasts, really wherever else you want to get a podcast,

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Speaker 1: and you can tune on tomorrow for some famous wax.

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Speaker 1: What's up everyone, Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: where we bring you a new tidbit from history every day.

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Speaker 1: The day was August three, the Teatra a la Scala,

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Speaker 1: also known as Las Scala, was inaugurated in Milan. La

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Speaker 1: Scala is one of the most prominent opera houses in

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Speaker 1: the world. Before La Scala, there was the Royal Ducal Theater,

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Speaker 1: which was the place to go for opera and Milan.

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Speaker 1: But on February seventeen seventy six, the Royal Ducale was

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Speaker 1: destroyed in a fire, so a replacement needed to be built.

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Speaker 1: Empress Maria Teresa saw to the construction of a new theater.

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Speaker 1: Building expenses were covered by owners of the boxes at

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Speaker 1: the Ducale in exchange for renewed ownership of their private

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Speaker 1: boxes and possession of the land that was home to

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Speaker 1: the church of Santa Maria a La Scala. Architect Giuseppe

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Speaker 1: Pierre Marini, who had worked on the Royal Palace of

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Speaker 1: Milan and other major projects, was commissioned to design the

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Speaker 1: new opera house. Santa Maria a La Scala was torn

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Speaker 1: down to build the Teatro Alla Scala, a name that

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Speaker 1: translates as Theater at the Stairway. After two years of construction,

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Speaker 1: Las Scala opened on August seventeen seventy eight. The first

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Speaker 1: opera performed at La Scala was Antonio Salieri's Le Ropa

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Speaker 1: or Europa revealed with the libretto written by Mattia Vedazzi.

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Speaker 1: The opera house has a neo classical facade and its

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Speaker 1: interior is lavish. It has a horseshoe shaped auditorium and

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Speaker 1: it was originally designed with six tiers of boxes, though

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Speaker 1: many of these ornamented original boxes didn't survive past the

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Speaker 1: mid eighteen hundreds. Two side wings were added in eighteen

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Speaker 1: thirty and gas lights were installed in eighteen sixty that

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Speaker 1: were eventually replaced with electric lights. By the early eighteen hundreds,

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Speaker 1: the types of productions that were offered at Las Scalo

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Speaker 1: We're shifting opera, syria or opera with a serious theme

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Speaker 1: became more prominent, and choreographer Salvatory Vigano and dancer Carlo

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Speaker 1: Blassi helped establish the theater as a force in the

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Speaker 1: world of l a. Over the years, Las Scala has

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Speaker 1: been associated with a number of artists. Composers Gitano Donizetti,

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Speaker 1: Giuseppe Verdi, Vincenzeo Bellini, and Giacco Mobuccini produced work for

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Speaker 1: Las Scala. Many works have premiered at La Scala, including

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Speaker 1: Bellini's Il Baratta in eighty seven and Verdi's Oberto in

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Speaker 1: eighteen thirty nine. Artistic director Arturo Toscanini played a huge

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Speaker 1: role in the administration and direction of the theater. Las

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Speaker 1: Scala has had operational challenges. It was closed during World

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Speaker 1: War One and bombed during World War Two. It also

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Speaker 1: had to close in late two thousand one for major

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Speaker 1: renovations and reopened in two thousand four, but through management changes,

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Speaker 1: the theater remains open. La Scala is associated with a

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Speaker 1: ballet company, ballet school, and singing school. I'm Eve Jeff

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Speaker 1: Cote and hopefully you know a little more about history

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Speaker 1: today than you did yesterday. If you'd like to learn

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Speaker 1: more about the Opera House, you can listen to the

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Speaker 1: episode of Stuff you missed in History class called the

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Speaker 1: La Scala Opera House. If you feel like correcting my

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Speaker 1: pronunciation or my accent on anything that I've said in

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Speaker 1: the show, feel free to leave a very kind comment

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook at t D I h

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Speaker 1: C podcast, Thanks again for listening and we'll see you tomorrow.

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

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Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

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Speaker 1: favorite shows,