1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:03,239 Speaker 1: Hey, history enthusiasts, you get not one, but two events 2 00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:05,800 Speaker 1: in history today. Heads up that you also might hear 3 00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:09,760 Speaker 1: two different hosts, me and Tracy V. Wilson. With that said, 4 00:00:09,880 --> 00:00:13,399 Speaker 1: on with the show. Welcome to this day in History 5 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:15,960 Speaker 1: Class from how Stuff Works dot com and from the 6 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:18,200 Speaker 1: desk of Stuff You Missed in History Class. It's the 7 00:00:18,200 --> 00:00:20,439 Speaker 1: show where we explore the past one day at a 8 00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:27,800 Speaker 1: time with a quick look at what happened today in history. Hello, 9 00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:30,680 Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and 10 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:35,400 Speaker 1: it's January. The Nika Riots, also called the Nika Insurrection, 11 00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:39,320 Speaker 1: started on this day in five thirty two. This riot 12 00:00:39,479 --> 00:00:42,720 Speaker 1: started during a chariot race, and of course chariot races 13 00:00:42,760 --> 00:00:46,839 Speaker 1: were really popular forms of entertainment in ancient Rome. They 14 00:00:46,840 --> 00:00:50,080 Speaker 1: were very high stakes and could be deadly. Crashes and 15 00:00:50,159 --> 00:00:53,600 Speaker 1: other accidents happened all of the time, and a lot 16 00:00:53,680 --> 00:00:57,480 Speaker 1: of charioteers started out enslaved. They were doing this really 17 00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:02,400 Speaker 1: dangerous stunt, almost to try to elevate their status and 18 00:01:02,440 --> 00:01:05,280 Speaker 1: get out of the position that they were in. Also 19 00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:08,800 Speaker 1: part of the world of chariot racing were teams with 20 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:13,200 Speaker 1: extremely devoted fans. At first, there had been four. They 21 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:16,560 Speaker 1: were color coded the Greens, the Blues, the Whites and 22 00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:20,040 Speaker 1: the Reds. But by the time Emperor Justinian came to 23 00:01:20,120 --> 00:01:24,080 Speaker 1: power when five seven, there were only two left in 24 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:28,520 Speaker 1: the Byzantine Empire, the Greens and the Blues. The Hippodrome 25 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:33,240 Speaker 1: in the Byzantine capital of Constantinople was home to intense 26 00:01:33,440 --> 00:01:37,080 Speaker 1: chariot races, even though by that point the sports popularity 27 00:01:37,160 --> 00:01:42,000 Speaker 1: had really waned elsewhere, and the rivalry and the tension 28 00:01:42,080 --> 00:01:46,600 Speaker 1: between the Greens and the Blues was just enormous. The 29 00:01:46,800 --> 00:01:52,559 Speaker 1: violence and friction between these two factions probably wasn't just 30 00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:56,840 Speaker 1: about the chariots. Historians have tried to figure out class 31 00:01:56,960 --> 00:02:00,200 Speaker 1: and religious divisions among the Greens and the Blue Us 32 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:05,360 Speaker 1: as well, although some of that is still being figured out. Regardless, though, 33 00:02:05,360 --> 00:02:09,480 Speaker 1: there was just a lot of violence, including massacres, in 34 00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:13,239 Speaker 1: this rivalry between the Greens and the Blues. During the 35 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:16,799 Speaker 1: reign of Emperor Justinian, things were really turbulent. His tax 36 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:21,519 Speaker 1: advisor kept raising taxes to raise the money to support 37 00:02:21,639 --> 00:02:25,880 Speaker 1: Justinian's ongoing wars. He was trying to get back territory 38 00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:28,919 Speaker 1: that he had previously lost, and of course all these 39 00:02:28,960 --> 00:02:34,560 Speaker 1: tax increases were really unpopular. Also unpopular was his Empress Theodora. 40 00:02:34,880 --> 00:02:38,400 Speaker 1: She was from the working class and had been an actress. Often. 41 00:02:38,880 --> 00:02:41,959 Speaker 1: Her role as an actress is described as being more 42 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:45,560 Speaker 1: like a court design although most of the information we 43 00:02:45,639 --> 00:02:48,080 Speaker 1: know about her is from people who hated her, so 44 00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:49,799 Speaker 1: we might want to take some of the things they 45 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:52,440 Speaker 1: said with a grain of salt. In addition to the 46 00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:54,560 Speaker 1: fact that she was from the working class, she also 47 00:02:54,680 --> 00:02:57,080 Speaker 1: just refused to act like a proper empress. She was 48 00:02:57,080 --> 00:03:00,200 Speaker 1: supposed to be submissive to her husband and instead took 49 00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:03,080 Speaker 1: a really active role in the empire. And she was 50 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:06,640 Speaker 1: also passionately for the Blues. This was because her father 51 00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:10,160 Speaker 1: had been a bear handler affiliated with the Greens. After 52 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:13,840 Speaker 1: he died suddenly, her mother went to the Greens for 53 00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:17,200 Speaker 1: help and they ignored her. It was the Blues who 54 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:19,840 Speaker 1: were finally able to find her new husband a job, 55 00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:24,080 Speaker 1: So Theodora understandably had a lifelong loyalty to the Blues, 56 00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:27,040 Speaker 1: and having an empress b for the Blues made the 57 00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:31,840 Speaker 1: Greens really angry. On January tenth, there had been a 58 00:03:31,919 --> 00:03:34,840 Speaker 1: fight between the Greens and the Blues, and after this fight, 59 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:38,640 Speaker 1: seven men were arrested and sentenced to death. Just sitting 60 00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:41,320 Speaker 1: in really wanted to clamp down on this violence and 61 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:44,760 Speaker 1: make sure there wasn't going to be ongoing rioting among 62 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:48,800 Speaker 1: the spectators at this chariot races. But during the execution, 63 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:52,720 Speaker 1: the scaffold broke just as the last two men were 64 00:03:52,760 --> 00:03:56,160 Speaker 1: supposed to be hanged. People in the crowd got these 65 00:03:56,200 --> 00:03:59,360 Speaker 1: two men away from the execution site and hid them 66 00:03:59,360 --> 00:04:01,800 Speaker 1: in a church. One of the men was a Green 67 00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:05,160 Speaker 1: and the other was a Blue. At the next race 68 00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:09,800 Speaker 1: on January, the crowd kept shouting for the Emperor to 69 00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:12,960 Speaker 1: free these two men on the grounds that God had 70 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,640 Speaker 1: already spared them by causing the scaffold to break. It 71 00:04:16,760 --> 00:04:19,480 Speaker 1: was really typical for people to shout out their demands 72 00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:22,000 Speaker 1: to the emperor during the chariot races. This was really 73 00:04:22,080 --> 00:04:25,520 Speaker 1: part of what they were for. But Justinian didn't want 74 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:28,440 Speaker 1: to back down. So as the races went on, the 75 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:31,880 Speaker 1: crowd became more and more vocal and got angrier and angrier, 76 00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:36,200 Speaker 1: and the Emperor just refused to budge. After the twenty 77 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:39,040 Speaker 1: second race of the day out of four, the two 78 00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:41,719 Speaker 1: factions that the Blues and the Greens, gave up their division. 79 00:04:42,040 --> 00:04:46,440 Speaker 1: They started shouting together long Live the merciful Blues and Greens, 80 00:04:46,760 --> 00:04:50,000 Speaker 1: and then they started shouting Nika, Nika and nika over 81 00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:54,560 Speaker 1: and over. That basically meant when when win or victory, victory, victory, 82 00:04:55,440 --> 00:04:58,640 Speaker 1: the crowd turned on the emperor, and the Emperor and 83 00:04:58,760 --> 00:05:03,440 Speaker 1: Empress fled the hipodrome. And these two factions, now united together, 84 00:05:03,520 --> 00:05:06,839 Speaker 1: poured out of the Hippodrome and started just laying waste 85 00:05:06,839 --> 00:05:10,720 Speaker 1: to the city, setting buildings on fire, calling for a 86 00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:14,280 Speaker 1: new tax advisor and a new emperor. This went on 87 00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:19,680 Speaker 1: for five days. The Rioters named a new emperor and 88 00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:22,440 Speaker 1: put him on the Emperor's throne at the Hippodrome on 89 00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:26,560 Speaker 1: January nineteen. Just sitting at this point, was prepared to 90 00:05:26,640 --> 00:05:32,040 Speaker 1: flee Constantinople entirely, but his wife, Theodora, shamed him into staying, saying, 91 00:05:32,279 --> 00:05:35,280 Speaker 1: purple is the noblest winding sheet. In other words, if 92 00:05:35,320 --> 00:05:38,919 Speaker 1: you die, at least you would die royalty. There was 93 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:41,919 Speaker 1: not really any kind of law enforcement in Constantinople, but 94 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:45,080 Speaker 1: at this point Justinian gathered members of the military who 95 00:05:45,120 --> 00:05:48,000 Speaker 1: had no allegiance to either the Green or the Blues, 96 00:05:48,520 --> 00:05:50,520 Speaker 1: sent them to the hippodrome where the Blues and the 97 00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:55,120 Speaker 1: Greens were gathered trapped them in there and massacred almost 98 00:05:55,120 --> 00:05:59,200 Speaker 1: thirty thousand people. The Emperor and Empress regained control of 99 00:05:59,200 --> 00:06:02,720 Speaker 1: the city and they started rebuilding some of the buildings 100 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:06,400 Speaker 1: that are still landmarks today. We're built during this time, 101 00:06:06,440 --> 00:06:09,600 Speaker 1: but chariot racing really started to fall out of favor. 102 00:06:10,440 --> 00:06:13,360 Speaker 1: Thanks to Casey Pegram and Chandler Maze for their audio 103 00:06:13,400 --> 00:06:15,760 Speaker 1: work on this show. You can subscribe to This Day 104 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:18,880 Speaker 1: in History Class on Apple podcast, Google podcast, the I 105 00:06:18,960 --> 00:06:21,599 Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, and where ever else to get podcasts, 106 00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:25,320 Speaker 1: and you can tune in tomorrow for an infamous inauguration. 107 00:06:34,200 --> 00:06:38,600 Speaker 1: Hello everyone, I'm Eves. Welcome to This Day in History Class, 108 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:46,080 Speaker 1: where we take a tiny bite of history every day. 109 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:56,640 Speaker 1: The day was January eighteen seventy four. A riot started 110 00:06:56,680 --> 00:07:00,080 Speaker 1: in Tompkins Square Park in Manhattan after police over in 111 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:04,880 Speaker 1: a demonstration of thousands of unemployed people. Tompkins Square Park 112 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:07,920 Speaker 1: was constructed in the eighteen thirties in the neighborhood now 113 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:11,680 Speaker 1: called East Village. It was built to encourage urban development 114 00:07:11,680 --> 00:07:15,600 Speaker 1: in the area. The city and local landowners thought that 115 00:07:15,640 --> 00:07:19,120 Speaker 1: surrounding districts would expand with the construction of the attraction, 116 00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:22,720 Speaker 1: but a financial crisis hit the United States that spurred 117 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:25,680 Speaker 1: a recession, and the area did not become a haven 118 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:29,760 Speaker 1: for grand homes as the city imagined. Thousands of people, 119 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:33,760 Speaker 1: many immigrants moved into Manhattan, and the East Side became 120 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:38,600 Speaker 1: home to many working class people. By eighteen sixty, improvements 121 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:42,880 Speaker 1: had been made to the park, including walkways, trees, and fences. 122 00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:46,440 Speaker 1: But beyond its use as a place of recreation, Tompkins 123 00:07:46,440 --> 00:07:50,280 Speaker 1: Square Park was also an important place of assembly. In 124 00:07:50,360 --> 00:07:53,200 Speaker 1: eighteen forty nine, the Astra Place riots made their way 125 00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:57,120 Speaker 1: to Tompkins Square. In eighteen fifty seven, workers gathered in 126 00:07:57,120 --> 00:07:59,880 Speaker 1: the park to protest their poor living conditions and the 127 00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:04,280 Speaker 1: lack of relief from promised public works projects. The demonstrations 128 00:08:04,280 --> 00:08:07,240 Speaker 1: at Tompkins Square Park were not an anomaly. As a 129 00:08:07,320 --> 00:08:10,800 Speaker 1: population grew and cultural groups clashed in New York City, 130 00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:15,520 Speaker 1: riots and demonstrations became more violent. The park was also 131 00:08:15,600 --> 00:08:19,760 Speaker 1: a site for military drills, musicals, literary events, and organizational 132 00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:24,480 Speaker 1: meetings throughout the eighteen sixties and eighteen seventies, but protests 133 00:08:24,560 --> 00:08:28,200 Speaker 1: in the park continued. The Tompkins Square Park Riot took 134 00:08:28,280 --> 00:08:30,760 Speaker 1: place in the wake of the Panic of eighteen seventy 135 00:08:30,800 --> 00:08:35,600 Speaker 1: three financial crisis that triggered an economic depression. The working 136 00:08:35,640 --> 00:08:38,720 Speaker 1: class people in the city were unemployed in facing hardships. 137 00:08:39,120 --> 00:08:42,000 Speaker 1: They needed jobs, and they said that the charity programs 138 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:46,200 Speaker 1: they were offered were not enough. They wanted extensive public 139 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:49,440 Speaker 1: works programs, so they formed the Committee of Safety in 140 00:08:49,440 --> 00:08:53,040 Speaker 1: New York City and tried to arrange meetings with city officials, 141 00:08:54,080 --> 00:08:57,720 Speaker 1: but their attempts were unsuccessful, so they decided to organize 142 00:08:57,760 --> 00:09:01,120 Speaker 1: a march from Tompkins Square Park to city all there 143 00:09:01,200 --> 00:09:05,280 Speaker 1: they would demand the mayor to establish a public works program. 144 00:09:05,280 --> 00:09:07,560 Speaker 1: But in the end, the committee decided to just have 145 00:09:07,679 --> 00:09:11,040 Speaker 1: a meeting in the park. But the night before the meeting, 146 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:14,080 Speaker 1: at the request of the police, the Department of Parks 147 00:09:14,120 --> 00:09:17,559 Speaker 1: revoked their permit to as symbol Still, more than seven 148 00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:21,199 Speaker 1: thousand workers showed up at the park on January eighteen, 149 00:09:21,280 --> 00:09:26,080 Speaker 1: seventy four. Police on horseback stationed at the site charged 150 00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:30,800 Speaker 1: into the demonstration, beating the protesters with their nightsticks. Many 151 00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:34,240 Speaker 1: of the demonstrators fought back the rest of the day. 152 00:09:34,400 --> 00:09:38,480 Speaker 1: Rumors about the riot spread across New York. One, for example, 153 00:09:38,920 --> 00:09:42,320 Speaker 1: was that immigrants were planning to burn down schools, so 154 00:09:42,480 --> 00:09:46,480 Speaker 1: some were placed under police protection. Dozens of people were 155 00:09:46,559 --> 00:09:49,720 Speaker 1: arrested for their involvement in the riot, and the unemployment 156 00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:53,720 Speaker 1: movement lost steam. Though the paper The New York Sun 157 00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:57,080 Speaker 1: published stories on the unjust treatment by the police in 158 00:09:57,160 --> 00:10:00,280 Speaker 1: City Hall, the New York police continued to main tain 159 00:10:00,360 --> 00:10:05,960 Speaker 1: a tight watch on progressive political organizations. I'm Eve Jeff 160 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:08,440 Speaker 1: Coo and hopefully you know a little more about history 161 00:10:08,480 --> 00:10:11,600 Speaker 1: today than you did it yesterday. If you know you 162 00:10:11,720 --> 00:10:14,680 Speaker 1: already spend too much time on social media, spend some 163 00:10:14,720 --> 00:10:18,000 Speaker 1: of that time with us at T D i h 164 00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:23,760 Speaker 1: C Podcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We also accept 165 00:10:23,800 --> 00:10:29,080 Speaker 1: electronic letters at this day at I heart media dot com. 166 00:10:29,080 --> 00:10:31,560 Speaker 1: Thanks for going on this trip through history with us. 167 00:10:31,760 --> 00:10:43,679 Speaker 1: We'll see you again tomorrow with another episode.