WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - This Week In History with Michaela and Gavin: July 28-August 3

Episode Date: July 29, 2024

We will be here all summer keeping you up to date with a week's worth of historic trivia ranging from world history to pop culture! Stick around for the end of the episode to see whether Gavin or Michaela wins our "Guess That Year" portion of the show. Can you guess which year Columbus sailed across the Atlantic? 

Welcome to this week in history with Michaela and Gavin. The show where we highlight historical events from World American and Pop Cultural History. All right, I let you go two weeks in a row. I think it's your turn. Yeah, Gavin, I think you get to go first. All right, so this first date for world history is the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana took place at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. That was pretty recent. Yeah, 1980.

He's now the king of England. There you go. And she's obviously not with us anymore, sadly. died. Do you have any, do you believe any of the theories that she was killed by the royal family? Oh, I forgot about all of those theories. Yeah. I don't know them very well, but I know that's... But why? Like, what would be the motive? She was like very unconventional, I think. Like, she, like, ran an address or, like, talk to people. She wasn't, she just didn't follow, like, royal rules.

Wasn't she, like, super popular among the people, though? Yeah, she was, like, very popular. Yeah, for the people, but not for... Not for the royals. And then also there's, you know, he was cheating on her throughout the whole marriage. Right. And so he might have just wanted her gone. Okay. That makes, that's more believable than like,

OSHA was too close to the, for me. Yeah. I forgot about all of that. Wow. Do you believe any of it? I don't. I don't know.

I'm not going to say. I think it's a big possibility, especially with. When she was killed in a car crash, right? Yeah. Which, again, is very easy to fake. Yeah. Not fake, but like to set up.

set up yeah yeah no that's wow yeah it's kind of like when that uh that cook drowned in the obama's like recently wow come's warm today than i am it's kind of like when i cook's draft it was so suspicious yeah that's like every time like one of the clinton's fan like friends trips and falls or like all of a sudden like oh no okay my date goes way back this is july 31st 30 BC so a long time ago yeah it was the Battle of Alexandria mark Antony achieves minor victory over Octavian but then most of his army deserts him and so then Octavian later will invade Egypt and then that's the downfall wow Antony talk about love affairs and everything wasn't that like Cleopatra yeah something like that I

don't remember crazy love triangle all the stuff yes it was uh I don't know it was intense right what's your next one uh speaking people controlling things Not a woman, but Adolf Hitler becomes the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party. Oh boy. Or as you know, the Nazis. The Nazis. And then would later become the dictator of Germany.

So when was that? 1921. Wow. He was in power for a long time before he. Sowing the seeds of anti-Semitism. Wasn't he really young then? Because he served in World War. We talked about when he was born on the show.

I don't remember what the day was. Oh, boy. I forgot about that. So if you follow along, Mr. Listener, do better than us. Yeah. Remember that date and then you can do the math. There you go.

All right, what's your next day? Okay, August 1st, 1834, the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 was passed into law in throughout the British Empire. So slavery was outlawed. Awesome. In the British Empire? Mm-hmm. In what year was that? 1834.

Wow. Have you seen Amazing Grace? No, but I've heard the story. I had like a kid's book. Yes. Who wrote that song? Was it like John, something? John Newton.

Is that right? Oh yeah, John Newton. Amazing Grace. It's a good song. Yeah. Good movie. There you go. What's your next one?

My last date is having to do with the English as well. Oh, good old Britain. Yeah. July 29th, 1588, the Spanish Armada was defeated by the English fleet in a decisive battle off the coast of Gravelines, marking a turning point in the Anglo-Spanish War. Dang. very decisive moment where the kind of Spain fell in as like the the world power in England kind of rose to to be the colonizing empire powerhouse that it was.

That is a big moment. Wow. That's also like, wasn't Britain just really powerful, like a really powerful navy? Yeah. I think it was the odds were that they were going to lose by a lot. And then they just kind of, because I think the Spanish had a lot more and bigger ships. But the English had smaller, faster ships. and so they were able to kind of outmaneuver and stuff.

I should learn more about that because I don't know much about that war. I think it was funny though because we just had the Euro Cup, which the final was between Spain and England. I was like it was a rematch and England loss. A friend, I heard her say that it was defeat or like come back for the defeat, the defeat of the Spanish and the Spanish Armada, which is really funny. Longheld grudge. Yeah, seriously. Oh, boy. So what's your last one?

Okay, August 1st, 1589, so close to yours. King Henry III of France was stabbed to death by Jacques Clement, a Jacobin friar, and he died the next day, and then Henry of Navarre, Henry IV, took his place. Wow. Killed by a Jacobin friar? Yeah. Like a political activist. Priestman.

Priest guy. Wow. I know. You don't see those very often. Not often. Normally they stay out. At least the ones killing people. Besides the zealots in like early Roman history.

But other than that. All right. Now going to our country. America. All right. July 31st, 1971, the Apollo 15 astronauts, David Scott, and James Irwin become the first to drive on the moon using the lunar roving vehicle. Can you imagine?

It's pretty epic. Wait, I didn't even think about this. I bet with gravity being different, do you think driving, like, speed is different? I wonder if, like, your traction's not as good because it's not holding you to the ground. All the dust. And so, like, you could, like, spin out easily maybe. That's scary. I don't know.

But I also, like, thinking, when I think about someone driving on the moon, I, like, obviously picture, like, despicable me, which is not correct at all, right? And then you think of someone putting it in their pocket and... Right, yeah, exactly. Like, that's exactly what it looks like. But then I think... When you dream of stealing the moon. I often dream of stealing the moon.

I think about that a lot, actually. I really would love to do that. And also sound like grew. Yeah. I just think that's so cool that, like, you know, they weren't the first people on the moon, but the first people that drive on the moon, that's a pretty cool accomplishment. It's a huge deal. Walking the moon seems kind of passe and lame.

I wonder how if it would be boring at all? Like the view. Oh, the view maybe. But it's like, you're like an ATV. That's true. I don't know how fast they were going. They probably couldn't go too fast, but I would have been whipping that thing around. Whippin and around.

Doing donuts. Doing donuts. Okay. My first date for America is actually related, not to the moon, but to space. and flying. Nice. In July 29th, 1958, NASA was created,

and then it launched or started the space race. Wow. Which is crazy. Like, what, that was like the next decade of... Yeah, they got on it quick.

So they really went, yeah, they went for it. I was talking to somebody recently, and I mean, I know this, but I always forget

how much happened. I always think of like, oh, the 21st century, so much is changing all the time. But I feel like the 20th century, so much happened. Like, we went from not being able to

fly to go to the moon in a century. Yeah. Or like in someone's lifetime. Yeah. Yeah. Someone's lifetime. Yeah. You could have gone like, oh, it'd be so cool if we could fly to watching the moon landing

on like television, which also got invented in that time. So. Wow. Pretty crazy. Pretty insane. Good for it. Good for them. They made it happen.

Go America. Going back a little bit more to July 30th 1729, the founding of Baltimore, Maryland, named after the family who helped. found Maryland, the Baltimore's Lord Baltimore. And I didn't realize, I thought this was saying that the state or the colony at that point had been founded in 1729, which I thought was a little late. But apparently it was founded in 1634, but the city of Baltimore wasn't founded until 1729. So almost 100 years later, which is kind of cool.

Is Maryland? Wasn't one of the Catholic colonies? Yes, I think so. Okay, my next day, July 30th, 1956, President Eisenhower signed the, in God We Trust bill. So in God we trust becomes the American motto. Apparently it had been like printed or stamped on coins since the Civil War. But this made it our official motto and placed on all paper currency as well. Wow.

How long do you think that gets overturned? I am, I actually thought about that. I have no idea. I am curious. I thought it was really late. Like, 1996 is pretty late for that. I guess it's good though because that it happened at all because. That's true.

It would have been a lot easier for someone at this point to just kind of stop doing it if it wasn't a law. That's so true. But yeah, in God we trust. In God, I trust. I trust. We do. I'll keep the money with that on it. All right.

My last one is July 31st, 1790. The first U.S. patent was issued to Samuel Hopkins for a process of making potash an ingredient used in fertilizer. I don't know what potash is, but that's pretty cool. 1790. just getting our bearings as a country and we're already inventing stuff. That's cool. I think patents are one of the things that fascinate me the most.

I remember having a book as a kid that was like interesting patents over American history. And it was like there's so many things from like Velcro to zippers and all those different things. Do you have like the rights to? Yeah. And like it becomes out of just like this American spirit of just needing to create things out of necessity,

which I think is really cool. That's very cool. Or the plow or the, I mean the cotton gin or something like that. Cotton gin. Cotton gin is a little bit more dicey of a subject. But it was still invented. Yeah, yeah. And so.

That's a cool book. Wow. Yeah, I need to find that. I think it's in my mom's house somewhere. Go home and say, I want my patent book. Give me my book. Okay. My last day for American history is August 4th, 1790, the U.S. Secretary of Treasury, Alexander

Hamilton established the Revenue Marine Service, which later became the U.S. Coast Guard. Wow. I had no idea he did that. Me neither. That shocked me. That seems like an interesting thing for him to do as secretary. I know.

What was he? Secretary of State. Treasury. Treasury. Yeah. I know. Interesting. It didn't really add up.

I mean, that feels almost like an overstep of his like. Power. Yeah, or like his responsibility. Hamilton was pretty ambitious. He kind of just did whatever he wanted. It sounded like. Yeah. I wonder if it was tied to some sort of like, you know, enforcing tariffs or taxes or

raising money. Yeah, maybe. That would make sense. Moving to a different category. Pop culture, July 30th, 1930, in Montezideo, the Uruguayan national team won the first World Cup. Wow. 1930. Beets Argentina 4 to 2.

I feel like we talked about the World Cup on a different episode of the show. We did. I think it was a trivia question. I asked you where the 2000, like, oh, what year was the 2010 World Cup? What year was 2010? I think I phrased it. No, I know. And you still got it wrong.

I got it. But yeah, so that was pretty exciting. The World Cup is it great. I'm ready for it to come back. I know we're a few years out. I mean, the next one is 20, 26. And then it'd be 2030. So we're two away from the 100-year anniversary of the first FIFA World Cup, which is crazy.

I wonder how that'll be fun. Yeah, I wonder if I will come back 100 years later when their second one. Okay. My first day of pop culture is August 2nd, 1961. The Beatles did their first gig as house band of Liverpool's Cavern Club. Kind of fun. There we go. So I wonder Gavin as an aspiring musician.

As the next beetle. Right, as the next Beatles band. I'm sure the schismatics will become the Beatles one day. One day, yeah. I wonder, like, if they knew, you know, like, this is our step to glory or if they were just like yeah it's another gig you know like we're just playing you never know that's what i think about every every wedding i play i'm like this could be the next this could be the one a billionaire just walks up and it's like you have potential that's all it takes

uh but yeah that's it's it's crazy that this four random guys who all met you know by accident just became super famous no i thought you're talking about this guy's mad oh yeah it's so crazy that my band is so good no actually they are good Thank you. Not Beatles level, but maybe one day. Someday. Great, great band. My, oh, my second one has to do with music. Yes.

So July 29th, 1981, MTV launched, revolutionizing the music industry and pop culture by popularizing the music video format. Oh. And I think the first song that, like, got popular from that was Video Killed the Radio Star, which is a fitting song. Because, you know, TV is killing radio. Which is, I think it's funny that. you know, specifically Gen X, which is the generation that had that, kind of dogs on like Gen Z for having TikTok and like consuming music through like short form content. But that's, that was just their TikTok.

Right. I was just watching music videos. It was just, that's what they did. Like they still had the radio, obviously, and you still bought records. But things got popular from being on MTV and people like, like it shifted to making music videos. Huh. Which now they shifted to. making short form content and hoping their song blows up.

But I think it's funny. I think there's nothing new under the sun. Okay. July 29th also for me, but different year, 1954, the first part of J.R.R. Tocon's fancy epic, the Lord of the Rings. Great. Was published. So I'm assuming that's fellowship, but it didn't indicate.

It just said the first part. I didn't know there was going to be singing in this version. Who's singing? full honestly we just heard the beginning part and we were like yeah that's it and there's someone singing but that that was the music from the 2003 movie I think I think so based off the book that came out shout out to Tolkien yes also I think that's probably one of the best combinations of book and movie complimenting each other and not I mean I'm sure someone could give like an hour speech on the deviations from the original

in the movie. But as far as movie adaptations go, I feel like they did a really good job. They did. They were very well done. I was impressed. Okay, my last date is July 27th, 2012. The London Olympics opening ceremony directed by Danny Boyle featured numerous pop culture

references and performances, including the Queen and James Bond. Wow. Honestly, not to be political, but I wish that was our opening ceremony. I saw that day. It was kind of interesting that I remember that we just had a very noteworthy to put it nicely. opening ceremony at the France Olympics

and I remember watching the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony Mr. Bean was in it and he was playing the chariots of fire opening and it was just like non-political So wholesome The queen jumped out of a plane I think or you know jump She didn't actually right you know That's cool yeah James Bond was there Wow it was great fun for the whole family

Fun for the whole family Opposed to the drag queen fiasco That was the last week but That's how political we'll get. We'll just note the differences. Yeah, that's what history is for, though. So you look back on the good times. Exactly.

Reflect and reminisce and wish we could go back. Okay, my last pop cultural date is August 1st, 1996 Game of Thrones debuts. I don't know anything about Game of Thrones, but. Me neither. I know it's sad. The only thing I know about it, there's like a lot of sexual stuff in it. Oh, no. And I just gotten a bad rap to me because of that.

So I don't know if I ever. watch it, but I've heard it's great from the people who love it. Well, that's good of you. Yeah, I don't know. I just know that it's a big name or whatever. Yeah. Here we go. What time is it? It's guess that year. Let's go. All right. Part of the show where we match up the dates with the events and hope we get it right. Hope we get it right. Yeah. I think I have full confidence in Gavin, at least for one of these. I think I made it a little bit harder this time, so maybe I have a chance. Oh, boy. Yeah, we'll see. All right. So am I giving you one first? Sure, sure.

Go ahead. All right, you got this. This year on August 3rd, Christopher Columbus, second in command, oh, sorry. Christopher Columbus with his second in command, Juan de la Cosa, set sail on his first voyage with three ships, Santa Maria, Pinta, and Nina. Yeah. From Spain for the Indies. Oh, my gosh. You got it.

I do it. The thing is, this is so easy. No, you got it. I'm going to get it wrong. No, you're right. not. 14.92. Yes.

Okay. I knew it was 92, but I almost said 50. That's funny. 1492. Columbus sailed the ocean blue. I think that's the first date I've gotten on, you know, like perfectly right the first time. I'm very proud. You did great.

I think that was the craziest softball you've ever thrown me. Well, it wasn't really intended to be a softball, but then it just ended up being in there. Yeah. Everyone was like, okay. Cool. And in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. We love it. That's what I say.

Well done, Gavin. Thank you. Okay, this one's really easy, too. You'll get this one really easy. Are you sure? The oldest recorded eruption of Mount Fuji. What? Oh my gosh.

The oldest recorded, so it's probably old. Yeah, it's old, but then also you have to think of like when we're records started. When did people? Okay. I'm going to base this off of Pompeii. Okay. Maybe I shouldn't do that. I don't know why you would or wouldn't.

Because it was recorded. Oh, there you go. Yeah, yeah. And Pompey was, I don't actually know, so that doesn't. help me. Great. Great. Okay, Mount Fuji.

Let's, we're just going to forget about Pompey. Yeah. We're going to go with, golly, I don't even know. BC or AD? It's, uh, uh, AD. Okay, good. That's what I was deleting. Uh, 552A.D.

Close. Really? I mean, you're, you're 200 years off. 352 AD. Other way. Dang it. 752. 781 781 781 which is like wow that's way later than I expected yeah I don't know I guess it makes

sense that like I'm sure they recorded stuff but the only lasting recordings we probably have they also well to be fair I wonder if they even knew where it was like yeah I don't know I don't know who knows but that's that's what the internet told me 7801 781 all right 781 now you remember that and when we have trivia tomorrow night you'll at brewery yeah they'll have it I do need to go sometime. All right. Okay, here we go. August 1st, this one's harder.

Sorry. August 1st, the English chemist, Joseph Priestley, discovers oxygen. I'm sorry, it was the only thing I could find. I mean, I heard this date in the last year because of chemistry. You took chemistry. I knew that he was covered in a core chemistry class,

so I was like, maybe... Oxygen, Priestley. Priestley. Oh, okay, so this is probably like 16. I would go one more up. 17.35. 1774. Okay.

It's like less than 50 years off. Wow. Okay. Here you go. I think Gavin's taking it. I don't know. We'll see if you get this next one perfectly on the head. Okay.

It's a nice round date. All right. That helps. The radio mystery program, the shadow. I've never watched. I never listened to. Me neither. aired for the first time.

Nice round date. Radio. Mystery program. So predating TV probably. Okay. It's a nice round date. 1960. Oh, no.

1930. Oh, man. That was close, though. I mean, when you think of like in terms of like what happened, it isn't close, but in terms of just like dates. That's true, because TV was before 1960. But that close. Thanks. Okay.

Gavin got it. Because you got it on the spot and then you were 40 years. Whereas I was two centuries off and then our couple decades off. 30 years. There we go. Okay. Well. Well done.

Don't you feel great? Just like ready to carry on with the day? Yeah. I feel so accomplished. I can go home now and sleep easy. But we have our last episode next week. So we'll see who wins the final episode of this week in history. Thank you for listening.

This has been this week in history with Gavin and Michaela on Radio Free Hillsville 101.7 FM. And we will see you next week. Bye guys. Thank you.