WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - This Week In History with Michaela and Gavin: June 30-July 6

Episode Date: July 3, 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. Do you know what year the first Tour De France was held?

Hello and 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, starting off with world history. My first date is July 2nd, 62 AD. I get so used to saying like the teens, like 16 or, but it's just 6.2. Just 6.2. A major earthquake struck the Roman city of Pompeii, an event that foreshadowed the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. So this was a little bit before that.

So this is just an earthquake. An earthquake. But then the volcano came later. Yeah, apparently. Oh, maybe we'll highlight it in a couple weeks whenever that happened. I don't know. We'll have to see. Have you seen Pompeii, Gavin?

Have you been there? Oh, I thought you about to say the movie. Oh, no, no, no. We always talk about movies. I have not been there. No, I've not been to Europe yet. Oh, sad. It's coming.

It's coming. I'm sure it will be there. I went to Bombay. It's incredible. it's like a little well obviously it's inhumane it's just so sad but it's like what's the chilling

yeah just to walk around a town that was destroyed in you know almost 2,000 years ago and it's just like preserved yep it's weird spooky spooky okay I have a date for you it's definitely in the teens it's actually pretty recent

July 1st 1997 Hong Kong returned to China so apparently Hong Kong was like a British colony. Mm-hmm. And then it became part of China only in 1997, which was super pretty recent. And don't they still claim independence, though? Oh, do they?

I think so. That would make sense. I don't think... I know there's a lot of conflict going on. I don't think China recognizes them. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Classic, classic China having issues with, you know, other countries.

With power, maybe? Classic. Speaking of power and all that stuff. on July 6th, 1535, Sir Thomas Moore was executed for treason after refusing to acknowledge King Henry the 8th as the head of the Church of England. Power. So who's to say that Catholics are the only people who kill people historically? Right.

Anglicans are just as capable. I mean, you always hear the classic like Henry the 8th. If you just want to get a divorce, just, you know, create a new church and you can do whatever you want. Yeah. So that's crazy. Go Thomas Moore. He really stood up for it.

Even if you're not, like, Catholic, good for him. Like, we're standing up for what he believes, you know. Well done. Good on you, sir. Good on you. I have another date from July 1st, but this time it's from 1916. It's the Battle of Soam. And it was in World War I.

The British lost over 19,000 men. Isn't that crazy? Wow. That's insane. Lots of casualties, obviously, throughout all of the 20th century. But sometimes I feel like we're just unaware of that tragic. just like how many men was lost. It's like it's hard to like grasp.

Right. How many people that actually is. In one day. Like were you at graduation? Yeah. Like that was a lot of people. That's true. Imagine all of them dying.

I'm sure it was like three times. Way more than that. Right. Because only like 400 of them actually graduated. So however many of that times like I don't know. Their families. Right. Right.

We won't do that. This is a history show. It was a lot of people. That's what we're trying to get across. My next day is also staying in line with this theme that I'm doing. Oh, theme. 1415, John Huss, a Czech religious performer, was burned at the stake for heresy against the doctrines of the Catholic Church. Going super religious on us, Gavin.

So a couple, like 100 years before, Thomas Moore was killed. The Catholics were killing reformers. Wow. I went to... Wonderful pieces of history. I love it. I went in fifth grade. I went to this super Christian conservative school, and I loved I had a great education.

But in fifth grade, we had to learn, memorize all. of the martyrs. All the martyrs? From the reformation forward. I think you're just saying in general. No. No, no, no, not in general. Like from the Reformation time period.

And it was crazy. So many people were burned at the stake and all this. But I remember John Hess. Yeah, John Hus. Poor guy. Poor guy. All right, my last day, it's not a martyr. It's not anyone burned at the stake.

It's actually Isaac Newton. He published his Principia on July 5th, 1687. which has his three laws of motion. I also had to memorize those. You still know? You can't say that and then expect me not to quiz you. Well, the classic like an object at rest stays at rest, an object in motion stays in motion. That one.

Yeah. Okay. Unless acted upon by an opposite. By another force. Oh, wow. He's got to memorize. Okay, got it. You know how it is.

And then, yeah, for every force, there's an opposite equal force opposing it. I don't remember the last one. of like if you hit something it hits you back. I always hated that. I hated it. I didn't. I could not understand that law. My teacher tried for so long and I was really frustrated.

What's the last one? I don't know. You let's say that. It's probably not, but I don't know. Probably you physics professors out there. You can write us emails. Yeah, they can shame us. We won't graduate.

Gavin, we're really setting ourselves up for failure. It's really not good. You're going to play this at graduation. Be like, that's grounds for not graduating. You're still listening to This Week in History with Michaela and Gavin. But now we're going to America. American history specifically. And we're in the first week of July.

So I think we're going to get some pretty good dates here. Why? Wait, what happened in July? That was funny. Because that's my first date. July 4th, 1776. The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress, marking the birth of the United States of America.

Boom. Heck yeah. So we became a nation. That's pretty great. Yeah, we said good riddance to the English. To the English. And then we fought a war and won. We did.

And the rest is history. I actually have a date for the year before that, July 6, 1775. She just started with that. Well, it's interesting because I was like a little confused. I was like, oh, I thought it was 7076. But then it talks about the declaration of the causes and necessity of taking up arms. So they weren't declaring independence, but they were like, we can fight you. If we wanted to, this is why it's okay.

Exactly. And of course, Thomas Jefferson. wrote that one with John Dickinson. So there you go. That's great. We can fight too, which is great. Yes. All right.

My next date has to do with politics, which is in very close politics to Hillsdale. On July 6th, 1854, the first official meeting of the Republican Party was held in Jackson, Michigan. Jackson, Michigan. That's like 40 minutes away. That's true. I wonder if they went to ACA afterwards. I love ACA. That was really good.

Do you think they met? I bet they did. We got a Starbucks trick real quick. Oh my gosh. Yeah, and the party adopted its platforms and conditions. And it's candidates. I'm sorry, not conditions. They probably had conditions too about the party.

Sure. Yeah, conditions. Definitely. Living conditions. Demanding certain living conditions. Yeah. So, Rojoican Party. Wow.

Truly Michigan. Truly Michigan. Okay, so this is a little bit related to the Republican Party around the same time period of the Civil War. So July 1st to 3rd, the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. Have you read the Killer Angels? No, I haven't. Oh, my gosh.

I've had the Gettysburg Address. Okay, good job. Well done. Fair minimum. That's a good speech. Killer Angels is like the, I guess, literary, what's, like history. Oh, historical fiction? Thank you.

Historical fiction. But I honestly, like, it's pretty close to, from what I can tell. So it's just like made up characters. Well, there's, it even goes by the real names, but I think some of it is obviously like the banter back and forth. They took liberty. Yeah, exactly. But it's really good. I love that book.

I read it in Berzer's Civil War class. Highly recommend. Ooh. Yeah, Berger's great. He is great. Speaking of great men. Yeah. Probably a little greater than Berzer, but on the same playing field.

Frederick Douglass. Ooh. Yeah, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered his famous speech. What to the slave is the Fourth of July? in Rochester, New York. And this highlighted the hypocrisy of celebrating freedom in a nation that still allowed slavery. So obviously, the date was the war had not been fought or ended. And the civil rights movement had not yet done what it did.

And so he was living in that hypocrisy at that time. Is there also crazy that he spoke here at Hillsdale? Like, what, three or four times? Something like that. Yeah, he's very Hillsdale. And we have our statue. I wish we had his, well, we might. I don't know.

His remains? The speeches. No, has remained. They're buried under Central House. They're under the Civil War statue, actually, along with the poor poll bearers who, like, did whatever. All of the, like, completely made up things around the Civil War that we say.

Let's just, yeah, let's maybe not start misinformation. Yeah, probably not. Okay, I have the final date for America for this, for this episode. Never fear. Yeah, there are always more. But on July 4th. 1826, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams passed away, both on the same day. Wow.

Isn't that crazy? Also, I love this story. I find it really ironic. So they're like completely political enemies, right? And they were the two last survivors of the... Founding, signing? Of the revolutionaries, I think. I don't, yeah.

So they were the last two to pass. And John Adams' final words were Thomas Jefferson still survives. But he hadn't. He had died five hours earlier. So they were competing even to the grave. Holy cow. And then they basically just had a draw because they built that on the same day. Anyways, I find that a funny story.

Imagine dying and being like, crap. I didn't outlive this dude. It's really funny. Couldn't even put it down in the last hours. They were great men, though. I understand. Great men. Back then.

Back then. Just like the great show. Radio for Hillsdale. You should take a listen. Yeah. So moving on to pop culture. Very important, though sometimes not as significant, still important dates. So on July 5th, 1946, the bikini was introduced by French designer.

Oh, my. Réard. A French designer. Of course it was a French designer. At a fashion show in Paris. Okay. I'm still convinced that I think you pay the most per square inch of fabric for a bikini. That's actually really, that is just guessing.

That is so fair. I haven't even thought about that. They are pricey, though. I don't know. Do you think that's a win or a loss for women's fashion in 1969? A win or a loss? Yeah. Probably a loss.

Yeah, probably a loss. Yeah, probably. And people take it too far sometimes. Facts. I'll just be safe and say it's a loss. We won't go into that. Yeah, 1946. It all went downhill.

Oh, my. Here we go. Well, close to that, not even a decade later, in 1954, July 5th, Elvis Presley records, That's all right, Mama. Wow. Gavin, can you give us a listen? I could.

I could do that, and I shall. Here's That's All right. That's all right. That's all right, Mama. Just any way you do. That's all right. You heard of here, folks. That's all right.

By Elvis Presley. It's pretty good. You said he recorded that? Nice. Good for him. Well, you said that was 54. Mm-hmm. Well, three years later, I had to count on my fingers.

July 6, 1957, you might have heard of these guys. John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time. Wait, who was that? John Lennon, he's like this kind of indie artist. Oh, fun. Okay. They met for the first time at a church Fet in Liverpool, eventually forming the Beatles. I like to think that's like what it was like. People will think of the date that my roommate and I met as similar.

to this. I believe that. You know, in like 70 years. Yeah. That's when they met. That's when they met. That's when the schismatics were called. Oh my gosh. Because we're going to be do great things eventually. I see it. I hear it. Yeah. Oh yeah. Right here in this studio. So true. All right. What's your next date? Okay. July 6th, 1994, Forrest Gump opened and it won Tom Hanks his second Oscar. Second. Wow. Pretty cool. This is a classic little sound bite from that movie. My mom always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get. Wisdom.

I love it. I'm going to live by that. Never know what you're going to get. It goes on to say you can tell a lot by what someone's shoes look like or what shoes they're wearing. What if people operated like life is like a box of chocolate? Do you know how people like bite them and then leave them? Have you ever done that? Because it's like some nasty inside.

That would stink. Yeah. You think it's like a, I mean, people do do that. That's actually so true. So fair. They try it out. Realize it says orange cream feeling and they put it back. Facts.

No one wants the orange cream. Okay. Do you have a final date for us? I do. July 5th, 1996. Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell was born in Scotland.

Wow. I remember learning this about this in biology. Biology. I learned about it. Wow. Dr. Russell. I learned from Dr. Houghton. Dr. Houghton, Dr. Houghton, Dr. Russell.

Shout out biology department. We're just getting all the departments. Good old liberal arts education over here. Great men. But very important thing that we cloned something. And it didn't die immediately. It died of like. It only died a little bit later.

A little bit later. But it lived longer than I thought it was. It was pretty cool. Okay. My final date has nothing to do with sheep. It actually has to do with someone who's still alive. It was his birthday or his birthday this week. July 3rd, 1962.

Tom Cruise was born. This Tom Cruise? That Tom Cruise. I've never seen those movies. You haven't? Better than I've seen more than I've seen those movies. Oh my goodness. I think you might have to do a marathon.

Kind of like the Harry Potter ones you were talking about last week. Those are good. I think you'd enjoy it. How many are there? Eight? Wow. Something like that. How close are they to like the born movie?

Are they more like theatrical? They're probably, I find them more funny. Okay. He's just witty. Gotcha. But there's a lot of action in them. There's probably less shooting and more motorcycle racing. But other than that.

Ah, okay. Well, that was a good pitch because I like motorcycles and I like Tom Cruise. Let's go. I'll have to watch them. Okay. I won you over. What time is it? It's Guess That Year.

Part of the show where we guess the year is attached to this. significant and not so significant dates. How significant are we going this time, Gavin? The first one is pretty significant, but it's recent. I don't know. I have this weird thing where more recent dates are less significant to me. That's probably wrong because this is still very important. The first tour to France.

The first tour de France? Yep. The bicycle race. Oh. Yes. Okay. Not just like someone who like. I was like, wait, someone toured France.

Yes, like the annual bike race. I see. Got it, got it, got it. Okay. Hmm. They've been riding bikes for a while, though, didn't it? Okay. Hmm. Let's say 1935. Oh, really close. Really? 1903. Okay. Yeah, so that's 20 years. Yeah. That's close. Pretty good. Thanks. Okay, 20 years. That's what I have to be. All right. So this one's pretty ancient, actually. Oh, boy. It's, well, I'll help you out. It's in 80. Okay.

Oh, okay. But it is pretty long ago. You're going to nail it on the head. It's during the Roman Empire. Constantine I'm the first. You know him. Defeats his co-emperor Lysinius. Licinius.

Oh, Dr. Calvert's going to kill me. We talked about this. Oh, no. This is before 400. Oh, and I'll tell you the battle name. Sorry, it's the Battle of Adriana. Wait, Adriana Pull. Adriana pole.

Dr. Griggy's going to kill me because I said that wrong and I learned about it. Man, we're on a lot of... Let's see. I'm going to say, oh, four, four, no. You said before 400. Yep. 360. No, but you kind of win because there are two battles of Adriano Pool.

So the first is 370, or the second is 376. The one I was talking about. about is 324. So you were 40 years off. Jeez, okay. That's not bad. You're still closer. Okay.

All right, let's see if you can get on the head with this one. Do you want one from... Oh, I get to choose. Yeah. All right. I have two. Oh, boy. Do you want one about the doors or one about William the Conqueror?

William the Conqueror. William the Conqueror became the Duke of Normandy. I don't know why, but I'm associating 1054 with William the Conqueror. So I think I'm going to do 1040. Five years off. 1045? 1035. Congrats.

Let's go. That's really close. Okay. I wonder what was 1054. That's when he, conquered. When he like invaded. When he got his name probably.

So I think he became the Duke of Normandy and then invaded. Wait, did he invade 1066? That is also a date that I know. Yeah, there we go. And there's that tapestry, right? Studying for comps or whatever? Yeah. Okay, here's my final date for you.

This is the day that Canada becomes Dominion of Canada on July 1st. Be helpful if I knew it Dominion of Canada. Yeah, I don't really know, but I think it's just Canada became official. So like no longer a colony and more like a commonwealth? Mm-hmm. Jeez, it's got to be after the revolution. Good.

Okay. Ooh. When everyone stopped, like, having colonies, which was, like, in the 1800s. Mm-hmm. So 1815. Go higher by a couple decades. 40. 1867.

Again, 20 years off. That's okay. I think you won this one for a fair. Actually, we have time for one more date if you have one. I don't have one, but you should give me that one. Okay. Well, what did you even call it? The Doors?

The Do you know that band? No. Okay. Well, then you're just going to be a shot in the dark. Okay. The Doors front man, Jim Morrison, died of an accidental drug overdose. Oh, golly. Oh.

They're a rock band from the 60s and 70s. Okay. 1984. No. 1971. So he died while he was in the band? I think so, yeah. That's sad.

Yep. He was kind of a horrible person. Oh, not sad. No, I'm kidding. What? I'm kidding. You heard her on air, guys. She's brutal.

All right. You have one, last one for me? All right. I do actually have a date for you. And I think you're probably going to get this almost spot on. What was yours? Five years off? For which?

Your best guess. Oh, yeah. I think it was close to that. Yeah. I think you'll be closer than that. Okay. Okay. So this is the end of the Battle of Vicksburg.

The Confederate soldiers lost. so it's in the Civil War. Okay. Vicksburg. This isn't the last battle. It's not the last battle. But you know when the Civil War was. Yes.

And they've started losing. I don't know. I feel like, ah. You just have to give me the day. It has to be before 1865. Good job. Yay. 18.

Well, it was 1861 is when it started, right? Yeah. I knew that off the top of my head. Well done. 1863 Nailed it Actually Spot on

Spot on told you That was kind of like a A soft pitch or whatever it's called They call it I felt like I was playing like wiffle ball there But it's okay It's still I guess You still got it

I'm impressed That's it I guess I think you technically won We did three dates this time So it's harder to tell I don't know That's true I don't want to do the math Of our cumulative guessing scores

But that is all for today. Thank you for joining us on Radio Free Hillsdale, 11.7 FM. This has been This Week in History with Michaela and Gavin. Thanks for joining, guys. See ya.