1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,680 Speaker 1: Hey, y'all. Were rerunning two episodes today, which means that 2 00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:06,320 Speaker 1: you'll hear two hosts me and Tracy V. Wilson. Enjoy 3 00:00:06,400 --> 00:00:10,160 Speaker 1: the show. Welcome to this Day in History Class from 4 00:00:10,200 --> 00:00:12,479 Speaker 1: how Stuff Works dot com and from the desk of 5 00:00:12,520 --> 00:00:14,800 Speaker 1: Stuff You Missed in History Class. It's the show where 6 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:17,119 Speaker 1: we explore the past one day at a time with 7 00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:24,120 Speaker 1: a quick look at what happened today in history. Hello, 8 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:26,680 Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and 9 00:00:26,680 --> 00:00:30,680 Speaker 1: it's October. Mata Harry was executed on this day in 10 00:00:30,760 --> 00:00:34,080 Speaker 1: nineteen She was not named Mata Harry from birth. She 11 00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:39,479 Speaker 1: was born Margaretta Gertrude Zella on August seven. She was 12 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:42,080 Speaker 1: born into a very wealthy family, but when she was 13 00:00:42,080 --> 00:00:44,479 Speaker 1: still pretty young, her father went bankrupt and then her 14 00:00:44,479 --> 00:00:47,559 Speaker 1: mother died. She and her siblings were split up and 15 00:00:47,600 --> 00:00:50,839 Speaker 1: they were sent to live with other relatives. When she 16 00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:53,519 Speaker 1: got a little older, she answered an ad for a 17 00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:57,520 Speaker 1: man seeking a bride. The person who was advertising was 18 00:00:57,680 --> 00:01:04,000 Speaker 1: Rudolph McLeod, and she married him on July eleven. Their marriage, though, 19 00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:07,320 Speaker 1: was not happy and was sometimes abusive, and it lasted 20 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:11,039 Speaker 1: for nine years. During that time, they had two children together, 21 00:01:11,080 --> 00:01:13,920 Speaker 1: one of whom died very young. There are rumors that 22 00:01:13,959 --> 00:01:16,880 Speaker 1: a member of the household staff poisoned the children, but 23 00:01:16,959 --> 00:01:21,080 Speaker 1: it's not clear whether that is true. After leaving her 24 00:01:21,160 --> 00:01:26,240 Speaker 1: husband and her daughter behind and fleeing France, Margareta supported 25 00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:29,080 Speaker 1: herself as a courtisan and an actress and a dancer. 26 00:01:29,640 --> 00:01:33,440 Speaker 1: She concocted a really elaborate backstory for herself and her dances, 27 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:36,680 Speaker 1: saying that she was performing sacred dances from the Indies. 28 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:41,520 Speaker 1: These famously involved removing veils from her body, one at 29 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:44,520 Speaker 1: a time until there was very little left on her body. 30 00:01:45,160 --> 00:01:48,400 Speaker 1: The fact that she was presenting these as an exotic, 31 00:01:48,680 --> 00:01:51,720 Speaker 1: faraway sacred thing offered her a little bit of legal 32 00:01:51,720 --> 00:01:54,920 Speaker 1: protection for what she was doing. It was when working 33 00:01:54,960 --> 00:01:57,280 Speaker 1: as a dancer that she took the stage name Mata Harri, 34 00:01:57,520 --> 00:02:00,320 Speaker 1: and that came from a Malay term meaning son rise 35 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:04,480 Speaker 1: or I of the day. During World War One, George 36 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:08,320 Speaker 1: le dou hired her as a spy for France. She 37 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:10,760 Speaker 1: really needed money at this point and that's probably why 38 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:13,400 Speaker 1: she did it. She was getting older, she wasn't as 39 00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:15,680 Speaker 1: easily able to make a living in that line of 40 00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:18,919 Speaker 1: work that she'd been in. She was supposed to seduce 41 00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:22,880 Speaker 1: German officers and get information from them. One of these 42 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:26,800 Speaker 1: was a German attache, who, apparently eager to get her 43 00:02:26,800 --> 00:02:28,880 Speaker 1: out of his life, sent a message in a code 44 00:02:28,919 --> 00:02:32,200 Speaker 1: that he already knew the French had already broken, identifying 45 00:02:32,200 --> 00:02:36,560 Speaker 1: her as a spy. She had also accepted twenty thousand 46 00:02:36,639 --> 00:02:40,040 Speaker 1: francs from an honorary German console. It had been offered 47 00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:43,080 Speaker 1: to her as payment if she would spy for Germany, 48 00:02:43,080 --> 00:02:45,639 Speaker 1: but when she took it, she was considering it repayment 49 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:48,920 Speaker 1: for belongings that had been seized earlier on in the war. 50 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:53,600 Speaker 1: Regardless though, Le dou cut her off and stopped paying her, 51 00:02:53,720 --> 00:02:57,160 Speaker 1: possibly because he believed that she was a double agent. 52 00:02:57,680 --> 00:03:01,040 Speaker 1: By January of nineteen seventeen, she was running out of money, 53 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:03,680 Speaker 1: and she was arrested that February and put on trial 54 00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:06,480 Speaker 1: in a military court. This trial did not go well 55 00:03:06,520 --> 00:03:10,160 Speaker 1: for her at all. Her attorney had almost no experience 56 00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:12,560 Speaker 1: in military court, and then the jurors were all men 57 00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:15,480 Speaker 1: who were in the military. Most of them had heard 58 00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:18,640 Speaker 1: rumors about her, which they believed, even though there was 59 00:03:18,639 --> 00:03:22,760 Speaker 1: no substantiation for them. On July twenty, nineteen seventeen, she 60 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:26,640 Speaker 1: was found guilty of espionage. This happened even though the 61 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:30,280 Speaker 1: trial had not revealed any secrets that she had given 62 00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:33,400 Speaker 1: to the Germans. There was no concrete evidence that she 63 00:03:33,440 --> 00:03:34,840 Speaker 1: had done any any of the things that she was 64 00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:38,920 Speaker 1: accused of. She was executed by firing squad outside of 65 00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:41,560 Speaker 1: Paris on October fifteen, nineteen seventeen, at the age of 66 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:45,440 Speaker 1: forty one. When she went to her execution, she refused 67 00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:48,280 Speaker 1: to be blindfolded, she refused to be tied to the stake, 68 00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:52,560 Speaker 1: and she stared her executioners down the whole time. Afterward, 69 00:03:52,640 --> 00:03:55,640 Speaker 1: her body was donated to the University of Paris Medical School. 70 00:03:56,160 --> 00:04:01,000 Speaker 1: Questions about her guilt persisted in the decades to her execution. 71 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:03,680 Speaker 1: There were a lot of questions about whether that trial 72 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:06,320 Speaker 1: and her execution were about using her as a scapegoat, 73 00:04:06,360 --> 00:04:10,240 Speaker 1: not about anything she had actually done, and interpretations of 74 00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:13,280 Speaker 1: her as a person have really varied over the years, 75 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:16,920 Speaker 1: with some biographers suggesting that she was completely conniving and 76 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:20,159 Speaker 1: definitely guilty of being in a double agent, and other 77 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:23,640 Speaker 1: biographers suggesting that she was really mostly interested in men 78 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:26,159 Speaker 1: and money and was just doing things as they came 79 00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:30,240 Speaker 1: along to try to get more money. The German government 80 00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:34,480 Speaker 1: exculpated her in nineteen thirty and documents that were declassified 81 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:38,480 Speaker 1: in along with personal papers that were made available around 82 00:04:38,520 --> 00:04:42,039 Speaker 1: the same time, suggest that she was much more a 83 00:04:42,120 --> 00:04:45,240 Speaker 1: scapegoat than an actual double agent. There is just no 84 00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:50,000 Speaker 1: evidence that she disclosed any meaningful information to the Germans 85 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:53,960 Speaker 1: before the French executed her for espionage. You can learn 86 00:04:53,960 --> 00:04:56,960 Speaker 1: more about this in the June episode of Stuff You 87 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:00,000 Speaker 1: Missed in History Class, which is before those twenty seven 88 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:03,320 Speaker 1: teen documents were classified. Thanks to Chary Harrison for all 89 00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:05,279 Speaker 1: of her audio work on this podcast, and you can 90 00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:07,840 Speaker 1: subscribe to This Day in History Class on Apple podcast, 91 00:05:07,880 --> 00:05:10,680 Speaker 1: Google Podcasts, and where well to get your podcasts. You 92 00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:14,120 Speaker 1: can tune in tomorrow for an iconic image of protest. 93 00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:26,200 Speaker 1: Hi everyone, I'm Eves and welcome to This Day in 94 00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:29,480 Speaker 1: History Class, a podcast where we rip out a page 95 00:05:29,520 --> 00:05:41,080 Speaker 1: from the history books every day. The day was October two. 96 00:05:42,160 --> 00:05:46,440 Speaker 1: Pope Gregory introduced the Gregorian calendar as a way to 97 00:05:46,520 --> 00:05:51,280 Speaker 1: reform the Julian calendar. The previous day was October four 98 00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:54,599 Speaker 1: on the Julian calendar. Until the end of the twenty 99 00:05:54,640 --> 00:05:58,520 Speaker 1: one century, the Julian calendar is thirteen days behind the 100 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:02,919 Speaker 1: Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian calendar is used in most of 101 00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:06,880 Speaker 1: the world today. There's a leap year every four years. 102 00:06:06,920 --> 00:06:10,120 Speaker 1: On the Julian calendar, an extra day is added to 103 00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:12,479 Speaker 1: the month of February, so that the year is three 104 00:06:12,520 --> 00:06:16,160 Speaker 1: hundred and sixty six days long. That means the Julian 105 00:06:16,279 --> 00:06:19,000 Speaker 1: solar year is about three hundred and sixty five and 106 00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:23,479 Speaker 1: one fourth days long, but the solar year is slightly 107 00:06:23,560 --> 00:06:27,200 Speaker 1: shorter than that. It comes in at approximately three hundred 108 00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:31,239 Speaker 1: and sixty five point two four two days. Broken down, 109 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:34,800 Speaker 1: that's about three hundred and sixty five days, five hours, 110 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:39,200 Speaker 1: forty eight minutes, and forty five seconds. Because the Julian 111 00:06:39,279 --> 00:06:42,479 Speaker 1: year was about eleven minutes longer than the mean solar year, 112 00:06:42,920 --> 00:06:46,000 Speaker 1: the date of the equinox, according to the Julian calendar 113 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:49,839 Speaker 1: was many days off from the observed date of the equinox. 114 00:06:49,839 --> 00:06:54,200 Speaker 1: In reality, that in turn caused dates on the religious 115 00:06:54,240 --> 00:06:57,520 Speaker 1: calendar to be skewed, since the date of Easter was 116 00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:02,039 Speaker 1: based on the Northern Hemisphere spring an ox. People were 117 00:07:02,040 --> 00:07:05,800 Speaker 1: aware of this drift and that calendar reform was needed 118 00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:10,560 Speaker 1: for centuries before the Gregorian calendar was introduced, but previous 119 00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:15,120 Speaker 1: attempts to change the calendar filled through. Still the need 120 00:07:15,200 --> 00:07:18,880 Speaker 1: to update the calendar became more urgent. In its fifteen 121 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:22,280 Speaker 1: sixty two to fifteen sixty three session, the Council of 122 00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:25,560 Speaker 1: Trent called for Pope Paul the Third to reform the calendar. 123 00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:28,960 Speaker 1: The plan was to change the date of the vernal 124 00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:33,280 Speaker 1: or spring equinox back to March one, which was the 125 00:07:33,360 --> 00:07:35,720 Speaker 1: date of the Equalnox that was fixed by the Church 126 00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:40,640 Speaker 1: at the time of the Council of Nacia, and it 127 00:07:40,680 --> 00:07:44,120 Speaker 1: took until fifty two for the change to happen, when 128 00:07:44,160 --> 00:07:50,320 Speaker 1: Pope Gregory a papal bull authorizing a reformed calendar. Gregory's 129 00:07:50,360 --> 00:07:53,600 Speaker 1: reforms were based on the research and suggestions of Italian 130 00:07:53,640 --> 00:08:00,240 Speaker 1: scientists Aloisious Lilius and German mathematician Christopher Claudius. October fourth, 131 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:04,360 Speaker 1: eighty two on the Julian calendar was followed by October 132 00:08:04,480 --> 00:08:07,800 Speaker 1: fift on the Gregorian calendar, with no change in the 133 00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:12,040 Speaker 1: continuity of week days. The Church chose October so it 134 00:08:12,040 --> 00:08:17,360 Speaker 1: could avoid disrupting any major Christian celebrations On the Gregorian calendar, 135 00:08:17,600 --> 00:08:20,640 Speaker 1: no century year is a leap year unless it's divisible 136 00:08:20,720 --> 00:08:24,240 Speaker 1: by four hundred. This helps ensure the calendar year is 137 00:08:24,320 --> 00:08:28,080 Speaker 1: nearly the same length as the solar year. Much of 138 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:31,240 Speaker 1: Roman Catholic Europe adopted the new calendar within a year, 139 00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:35,920 Speaker 1: but Protestant and Orthodox states were slow to follow. The 140 00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:41,559 Speaker 1: Protestant German states switched in sixte Britain and its territories 141 00:08:41,640 --> 00:08:44,960 Speaker 1: made the change in seventeen fifty two, and from there 142 00:08:45,120 --> 00:08:48,760 Speaker 1: more countries around the world adopted the Gregorian calendar until 143 00:08:48,800 --> 00:08:53,079 Speaker 1: its use was wide spread, though many countries in Eastern 144 00:08:53,120 --> 00:08:57,520 Speaker 1: Europe used the Julian calendar into the twentieth century. Though 145 00:08:57,559 --> 00:09:01,480 Speaker 1: the Gregorian calendar is the international standard, some countries use 146 00:09:01,520 --> 00:09:06,360 Speaker 1: other calendars, and people have proposed reforms to the Gregorian calendar. 147 00:09:07,720 --> 00:09:10,040 Speaker 1: I'm Eves Jeff Coote and hopefully you know a little 148 00:09:10,040 --> 00:09:13,960 Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. Give us 149 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:17,199 Speaker 1: a shout or a share on social media at t 150 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:22,679 Speaker 1: d I h C Podcast. If you prefer something a 151 00:09:22,679 --> 00:09:25,200 Speaker 1: little bit more formal, then you can write us at 152 00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:29,920 Speaker 1: this Day at I heart media dot com. I truly 153 00:09:29,960 --> 00:09:32,480 Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed today's show. We'll be back tomorrow with 154 00:09:32,600 --> 00:09:47,880 Speaker 1: another episode. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit 155 00:09:47,880 --> 00:09:50,400 Speaker 1: the i Heart Radio app Apple podcasts, or wherever you 156 00:09:50,440 --> 00:09:51,560 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.