1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,599 Speaker 1: Hey, y'all. Were we running two episodes today, which means 2 00:00:02,600 --> 00:00:05,560 Speaker 1: that you'll hear two hosts me and Tracy V. Wilson. 3 00:00:06,040 --> 00:00:09,920 Speaker 1: Enjoy the show. Welcome to this Day in History Class 4 00:00:09,960 --> 00:00:12,400 Speaker 1: from how Stuff Works dot com and from the desk 5 00:00:12,440 --> 00:00:14,600 Speaker 1: of Stuff You Missed in History Class. It's the show 6 00:00:14,600 --> 00:00:16,919 Speaker 1: where we explore the past, one day at a time 7 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:22,840 Speaker 1: with a quick look at what happened today in history. 8 00:00:23,720 --> 00:00:27,400 Speaker 1: Welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and it's September. 9 00:00:28,520 --> 00:00:33,440 Speaker 1: On this day, Phineas Gauge was struck through the skull 10 00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:36,560 Speaker 1: with a tamping iron. Gauge was the formant of a 11 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:39,360 Speaker 1: railroad crew and they were clearing the way for a 12 00:00:39,479 --> 00:00:42,680 Speaker 1: railroad by blasting holes in rock through the side of 13 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:47,120 Speaker 1: a hill. There's a several step process. Step one, you 14 00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:50,160 Speaker 1: made a hole. Step two was to put gunpowder into 15 00:00:50,200 --> 00:00:52,800 Speaker 1: the bottom of the hole. Step three was that the 16 00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:57,680 Speaker 1: foreman would put a fuse into the hole. Step four 17 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:00,320 Speaker 1: was that the hole would be filled in with oil 18 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:04,200 Speaker 1: and the foreman would tamp that down with his tamping iron. 19 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:08,240 Speaker 1: Step five was to light the fuse. Another crew, once 20 00:01:08,280 --> 00:01:11,440 Speaker 1: the explosion happened, would clear away the rubble while the 21 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:15,119 Speaker 1: first crew went on to dig the next hole. Gage 22 00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:18,160 Speaker 1: had done this over and over and over, but on September, 23 00:01:19,600 --> 00:01:23,959 Speaker 1: while working outside Cavendish, Vermont, something went wrong. He lowered 24 00:01:24,200 --> 00:01:26,920 Speaker 1: his tamping rod, which was made out of iron, to 25 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:31,360 Speaker 1: tamp down the soil, but there wasn't any soil there yet, 26 00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:34,320 Speaker 1: so the iron struck rock and it made it spark, 27 00:01:34,480 --> 00:01:38,039 Speaker 1: and when the gunpowder exploded, it drove the tamping iron 28 00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:42,600 Speaker 1: up under his cheekbone, through the frontal lobe of his brain, 29 00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:45,759 Speaker 1: and all the way out of his skull. It landed 30 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:50,400 Speaker 1: several yards away. It was amazing that he survived this 31 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:54,560 Speaker 1: at all. It was also amazing that he survived the recovery. 32 00:01:54,960 --> 00:01:58,280 Speaker 1: The germ theory of disease didn't really exist yet. Nobody 33 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:01,200 Speaker 1: had a sense of how to clean a dirty wound 34 00:02:01,400 --> 00:02:03,640 Speaker 1: like this and how to keep it from getting infected. 35 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:07,040 Speaker 1: He also lost a lot of blood. He sustained a 36 00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:11,040 Speaker 1: number of burns, and the tamping iron, when it flew 37 00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:14,400 Speaker 1: through his head, took a chunk of his brain with it. 38 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:18,440 Speaker 1: He might not have even lost consciousness, though, and the 39 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:21,960 Speaker 1: words of the local paper quote the most singular circumstance 40 00:02:22,040 --> 00:02:25,480 Speaker 1: connected with this melancholy affair is that he was alive 41 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:28,640 Speaker 1: at two o'clock this afternoon and in full possession of 42 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:32,000 Speaker 1: his reason and free from pain. The medical treatment that 43 00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:34,640 Speaker 1: Gauge got after this injury was really based on the 44 00:02:34,680 --> 00:02:37,840 Speaker 1: idea of the four humors and how in the body 45 00:02:37,919 --> 00:02:40,520 Speaker 1: there were four humors that needed to be kept in balance. 46 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:44,520 Speaker 1: His doctor thought that the blood loss helped him out 47 00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:49,360 Speaker 1: in this whole regard. Ultimately, he did recover, although he 48 00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:52,680 Speaker 1: lost the eye that had been damaged when the tamping 49 00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:56,560 Speaker 1: iron flew behind it through his skull. He did have 50 00:02:56,639 --> 00:03:00,480 Speaker 1: some notable changes in his behavior. Though he had been 51 00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:04,959 Speaker 1: described before the accident as smart and competent and reliable, 52 00:03:05,320 --> 00:03:08,639 Speaker 1: but then after the accident he was described as fitful 53 00:03:09,160 --> 00:03:17,600 Speaker 1: and irreverent, profane, impatient, obstinate, capricious, and vacillating. His doctor, 54 00:03:17,680 --> 00:03:21,560 Speaker 1: whose account may be a little biased because he was 55 00:03:21,600 --> 00:03:25,040 Speaker 1: trying to get attention in a medical journal, described Gauge 56 00:03:25,120 --> 00:03:28,000 Speaker 1: is kind of like a child. His friends and family 57 00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:31,919 Speaker 1: just said he was no longer Gauge. Although sometimes he's 58 00:03:31,960 --> 00:03:34,640 Speaker 1: described as never being able to hold down a steady 59 00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:37,480 Speaker 1: job after this, that is not true. He did have 60 00:03:37,640 --> 00:03:39,800 Speaker 1: steady work for much of the rest of his life 61 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:42,440 Speaker 1: as well, as long as his health allowed him to 62 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:47,120 Speaker 1: do it. He definitely, though, had different behavior from before. 63 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:51,400 Speaker 1: He died in May of eighteen sixty, so many years 64 00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:54,080 Speaker 1: after this accident happened. He was buried on the twenty 65 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:58,000 Speaker 1: three of May that year. Today, Phineas Gauge is famous 66 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:01,880 Speaker 1: in the world of neuropsychology. He came a textbook example 67 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:05,680 Speaker 1: of how different parts of the brain have different functions 68 00:04:05,720 --> 00:04:08,920 Speaker 1: and how a brain injury can affect a person's behavior. 69 00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:14,880 Speaker 1: He didn't, though, revolutionize the entire state of medicine. Sometimes 70 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:17,400 Speaker 1: you'll read articles that make it sound as though the 71 00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:20,800 Speaker 1: reason we have lobotomies is because of Phineas Gauge, and 72 00:04:20,839 --> 00:04:26,040 Speaker 1: that's more like people in the present retroactively assigning Phineas 73 00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:30,000 Speaker 1: Gauge to the phenomenon of lobotomies when they weren't directly 74 00:04:30,040 --> 00:04:33,640 Speaker 1: connected in that way. You can learn more about all 75 00:04:33,680 --> 00:04:36,880 Speaker 1: of this in the September eleven episode of Stuff You 76 00:04:36,960 --> 00:04:39,680 Speaker 1: Missed in History Class, and you can subscribe to This 77 00:04:39,839 --> 00:04:43,320 Speaker 1: Day in History Class on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, and 78 00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:46,200 Speaker 1: wherever else you get your podcast. Thanks also to Tari 79 00:04:46,279 --> 00:04:49,240 Speaker 1: Harrison for her audio editing work on all of these 80 00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:53,760 Speaker 1: episodes tuned in tomorrow for an event that led the U. S. 81 00:04:53,760 --> 00:04:56,760 Speaker 1: Secret Service to take on a whole new set of 82 00:04:56,880 --> 00:05:07,960 Speaker 1: duties beyond chasing down counterfeiters. Just a quick content warning 83 00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:11,880 Speaker 1: before we get started today. Today's episode includes mention of 84 00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:15,279 Speaker 1: sexual violence, so if you're sensitive to that kind of thing, 85 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:21,280 Speaker 1: please skip this episode. What's up, everyone, Welcome to this 86 00:05:21,360 --> 00:05:24,080 Speaker 1: Day in History class, where we bring you a new 87 00:05:24,120 --> 00:05:37,279 Speaker 1: tidbit from history every day. The day was September nine two. 88 00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:42,120 Speaker 1: According to eyewitness accounts, the Great Fire of Smyrna began 89 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:45,840 Speaker 1: in Smyrna in Asia Minor, a port city now known 90 00:05:45,880 --> 00:05:50,360 Speaker 1: as Zmer in Turkey. The fire lasted for about nine 91 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:54,919 Speaker 1: days and caused thousands of deaths, though the exact number 92 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:59,960 Speaker 1: of deaths and refugees is unknown. It's also unclear who 93 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:03,880 Speaker 1: who started the fire. Among other conflicting facts surrounding the incident, 94 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:09,120 Speaker 1: Greek sources claimed Turkish soldiers lit Greek and Armenian homes 95 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:13,560 Speaker 1: on fire, while Turkish sources blame Greeks and Armenians for 96 00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:18,360 Speaker 1: burning the city. The catastrophe occurred during the Greco Turkish 97 00:06:18,360 --> 00:06:22,560 Speaker 1: War of nineteen nineteen to nineteen twenty two. Smyrna was 98 00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:25,880 Speaker 1: an important commercial port. Along with the status as a 99 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:29,920 Speaker 1: place of significant international economic exchange, it was also a 100 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:35,919 Speaker 1: multicultural society. There were Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Jewish people, Europeans 101 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:40,120 Speaker 1: and Levantine. There were thousands of Muslims and Christians in 102 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:43,400 Speaker 1: the city, though most of the Greeks and Armenians were Christian. 103 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:47,760 Speaker 1: The Turks called Smyrna the city of Infidels since there 104 00:06:47,760 --> 00:06:51,320 Speaker 1: were so many Greek and non Muslim people there. From 105 00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:55,000 Speaker 1: May of nineteen nineteen until nineteen twenty two, Greek forces 106 00:06:55,040 --> 00:06:59,279 Speaker 1: controlled the city. The Treaty of Severa signed in nineteen 107 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:04,080 Speaker 1: twenty gave administrative control of Smyrna to Greece, but provided 108 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:09,400 Speaker 1: that Smyrna remain under Turkish sovereignty. After five years, Smyrna 109 00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:12,200 Speaker 1: would decide whether it wished to join Greece or stay 110 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:16,960 Speaker 1: with the Ottoman Empire. But Turkish nationalist leader Mustafa came 111 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:20,360 Speaker 1: All demanded that the Turks take back the land held 112 00:07:20,400 --> 00:07:24,120 Speaker 1: by the Ottoman Empire that was given to Greece. The 113 00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:29,720 Speaker 1: Greek occupation of Smyrna ended on September nine, after Greek 114 00:07:29,760 --> 00:07:32,800 Speaker 1: forces were pushed out of Smyrna and the Turkish Army 115 00:07:32,840 --> 00:07:38,120 Speaker 1: of Mustafakemal captured the city. Just four days later, the 116 00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:42,680 Speaker 1: Great Fire of Smyrna started. There are many conflicting eyewitness 117 00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:46,080 Speaker 1: accounts of how the fire started. Many witnesses said that 118 00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:49,000 Speaker 1: Turks used cans of fuel to light structures in the 119 00:07:49,040 --> 00:07:53,880 Speaker 1: Greek and Armenian quarters on fire. Reports stated that Turkish 120 00:07:53,880 --> 00:07:57,360 Speaker 1: troops set fire to Greek, Armenian and European quarters of 121 00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:01,120 Speaker 1: the city, while no damage was done to Turkish neighborhoods. 122 00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:05,680 Speaker 1: As Smyrna burned, refugees made their way towards the Key 123 00:08:05,840 --> 00:08:09,600 Speaker 1: and Allied ships. Tens of thousands of people gathered on 124 00:08:09,640 --> 00:08:13,960 Speaker 1: the waterfront to escape the blaze, but Allied naval ships 125 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:17,640 Speaker 1: had received orders not to intervene as they were afraid 126 00:08:17,720 --> 00:08:21,880 Speaker 1: they'd provoke an incident with the Turks. The Turks robbed, 127 00:08:21,920 --> 00:08:26,160 Speaker 1: assaulted and killed people, and raped and abducted women and children. 128 00:08:27,960 --> 00:08:32,280 Speaker 1: A New York Times article from September nineteen two mentioned 129 00:08:32,320 --> 00:08:36,199 Speaker 1: the conditions that refugees faced, including lack of food and clothing, 130 00:08:36,640 --> 00:08:41,840 Speaker 1: cold nights, and unsanitary conditions. The article said that quote 131 00:08:42,360 --> 00:08:45,280 Speaker 1: fire has accomplished for the Turks, what the sword failed 132 00:08:45,320 --> 00:08:49,280 Speaker 1: to do. Asia Minor, the cradle of Christianity, will soon 133 00:08:49,320 --> 00:08:53,760 Speaker 1: be depopulated of Christians. Many of those in Smyrna who 134 00:08:53,760 --> 00:08:57,360 Speaker 1: were not snatched from death by Americans and other rescuers 135 00:08:57,360 --> 00:09:02,000 Speaker 1: are disappearing into the hills, some luntarily, many by force. 136 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:06,360 Speaker 1: Others are dying of exhaustion, fright, or exposure on the 137 00:09:06,400 --> 00:09:11,720 Speaker 1: shattered stone waterfront of the benighted city. International news reports, 138 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:16,800 Speaker 1: too were biased. By September six, the fire had subsided, 139 00:09:17,280 --> 00:09:22,200 Speaker 1: but violence continued against Greek and Armenian refugees. Mustafa Kemala 140 00:09:22,280 --> 00:09:25,599 Speaker 1: declared that Greek and Armenian men between ages eighteen and 141 00:09:25,720 --> 00:09:29,679 Speaker 1: forty five would be considered prisoners of war, and many 142 00:09:29,720 --> 00:09:33,880 Speaker 1: of them died or were executed. The first Greek ships 143 00:09:33,960 --> 00:09:38,520 Speaker 1: sent to rescue refugees entered the harbor on September. The 144 00:09:38,600 --> 00:09:42,200 Speaker 1: Turkish and Jewish quarters of the city survived through the blaze, 145 00:09:42,559 --> 00:09:47,520 Speaker 1: while the Greek, Armenian and Levantine quarters were destroyed. Though 146 00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:50,960 Speaker 1: thousands of refugees made it out of Smyrna, the port 147 00:09:51,200 --> 00:09:55,480 Speaker 1: was destroyed. Some historians have said that evidence points to 148 00:09:55,480 --> 00:09:57,920 Speaker 1: the Turks starting the fire to get the Greeks to 149 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:01,840 Speaker 1: lead the city, while others usted the Greeks and Armenians 150 00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:06,480 Speaker 1: started the fire to damage the Turk's reputation. The conflict 151 00:10:06,559 --> 00:10:10,600 Speaker 1: caused a huge refugee crisis. The Treaty of Luzanne, signed 152 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:16,120 Speaker 1: in replaced the Treaty of Several Greeks living in Asia 153 00:10:16,160 --> 00:10:19,320 Speaker 1: Minor or Eastern Thrace were required to return to the 154 00:10:19,360 --> 00:10:24,000 Speaker 1: Greek homeland. In Turkish nationals and Greek territory were compelled 155 00:10:24,080 --> 00:10:28,880 Speaker 1: to return to Turkish homeland. Modern Turkey became a recognized 156 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:34,559 Speaker 1: sovereign nation and replaced the Ottoman Empire. I'm Eves Jeffcote 157 00:10:34,640 --> 00:10:37,240 Speaker 1: and hopefully you know a little more about history today 158 00:10:37,480 --> 00:10:41,280 Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. You can learn more about history 159 00:10:41,679 --> 00:10:46,360 Speaker 1: by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t 160 00:10:46,880 --> 00:10:53,320 Speaker 1: D I HC podcast. Thanks again for listening, and I 161 00:10:53,360 --> 00:10:58,000 Speaker 1: hope you come back tomorrow for more delicious morsels of history. 162 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:06,000 Speaker 1: M For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the 163 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:08,679 Speaker 1: iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 164 00:11:08,720 --> 00:11:09,480 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.