October 8, 2020 • 11 mins
Alvin York led a group of soldiers to capture a German machine gun nest on this day in 1918. / On this day in 1892, Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva was born in Moscow.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone. Technically you're getting two days in history today
because we were running two episodes from the History Vault.
You'll also here two hosts, me and Tracy V. Wilson.
Hope you enjoy. Welcome to this Day in History Class
from how Stuff Works dot Com and from the desk
of Stuff you Missed in History Class. It's the show
where we explore the past one day at a time
(00:20):
with a quick look at what happened today in history. Hello,
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy B. Wilson, and
it's October eight Alvin York's heroic actions on this day
in nineteen eighteen would later on earn him the Medal
of Honor. Alvin York was born December seven in Palmell, Tennessee.
(00:43):
After his father died in nineteen eleven, Alvin was the
oldest child who was still living at home. His older
brothers had started their own families, and he became the
head of his family, basically taking his father's place. But
he didn't shoulder all of this new responsibility very well,
or his grief over his father's death. He started drinking
and gambling, and crossing the border into Kentucky to drink
(01:03):
and fight, and soon he had an arrest record. But
a couple of things happened around nineteen fourteen and nineteen
fifteen that really changed him completely. One was that he
met a young woman named Gracie Williams, who he was
very fond of. And the other is that he had
a religious awakening at a revival on New Year's Day
nineteen fifteen. This revival had lasted the whole last week
(01:24):
of nineteen fourteen, and he had gone there because he
wanted to see Gracie and he knew that she would
be there. But on the last day of the revival,
something was different. When he described it quote as if
lightning had struck my soul, he really was a changed man.
From this point. He gave up drinking and fighting and
playing cards and started trying to live his life in
a Christian way, including becoming a pacifist. But then in
(01:47):
June of nineteen seventeen, the same month that he got
engaged to Gracie Williams, he also had to register for
the draft for World War One. He tried to be
classified as a conscientious objector, but his application was turned down.
It was turned down because the church he was a
member of wasn't considered to be a recognized and established sect,
and also because it didn't have any particular creed beyond
(02:10):
the Bible to prevent its adherents from undertaking military service.
All of this really continued to trouble Alvin York's conscience
for quite some time, but he ultimately reconciled himself to
the idea of serving in the military. And then on
October nineteen, his platoon was ordered to cross a valley
to capture a machine gun nest that was preventing their advance.
(02:33):
They faced really heavy machine gun fire and immense casualties
just trying to cross over an open stretch of land
to get to where they needed to go. York was
one of only seventeen men who made it across the clearing.
That was the first step in achieving this objective. And
then they followed two German soldiers through some brush, and
on the other side of that brush they surprised a
(02:54):
whole group of German soldiers who were eating breakfast. These
German soldiers had been marching through the night. They were exhausted,
and they were hungry, and they really thought these seventeen
Americans who had suddenly burst in on them were the
advanced guard of a much bigger force, and so most
of them started to surrender. But that is one of
the machine gunners who were up on the hill noticed
what was happening. By the time they were able to
(03:16):
take cover, only eight of the American force, including York,
were still alive and able to fight. They returned fire
against the machine gunners, with York especially carrying the day.
When a German lieutenant and about six soldiers tried to
charge down the hill with bayonets trying to take down
whoever it was that was shooting the machine gunners, York
(03:36):
shot each of them with his pistol. He started at
the back. This was something he had learned while hunting
birds when he was living in Tennessee. He would shoot
the formation of birds from the back so the ones
in front wouldn't get startled. In this case, he was
doing it because he didn't want the people in the
back to be able to take cover behind the bodies
of fallen men in front of them. After they had
(03:59):
taken care of us, they captured four German officers and
a hundred and twenty eight German soldiers, along with several
machine guns. York was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the
quater gear with palms and the Medal of Honor for
his heroism on that day, But after he got back
to Tennessee, he largely refused the hero's welcome that was
(04:19):
waiting for him. Instead, he dedicated himself entirely to opening
a school in Fintris County, Tennessee, where he had grown up,
which had no high school at all until that point,
and this would be a major focus for most of
the rest of his life. When the movie Sergeant York
was made in nineteen forty one, the real York put
almost all the money that he earned from it back
(04:41):
into that school. He died on September two, nineteen sixty four,
at the age of seventy six. He was survived by
his wife, Gracie, who he married just days after getting
out of the army, and seven of their ten children.
Some of those children and York himself have said that
starting that school was to him a much bigger accomplishment
and what he did that earned the Medal of Honor.
(05:02):
You can learn a lot more about this from the
October three episode of Stuff You Miss in History Class.
Thanks to Terry Harrison for all of her audio work
on this podcast, and you can subscribe to the Stay
in History Class on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, and wherever
else you get your podcasts. You can tune in tomorrow
for an assassination. Greetings, I'm Eves and welcome to this
(05:31):
Day in History Class, a show that believes no day
in history is a slow day. The day was October eight.
Russian poet Matina Spittaieva was born in Moscow. Spidaieva was
(05:51):
a prolific writer and one of the most notable Russian
language poets of the twentieth century. On the Julian calendar,
which Rush Show used at the time, Spitzieva's birthday was September.
Her mother, Maria Alexandrovna, was a concert pianist. Her father,
Ivan Vladimirovitch Spittaiev was a professor of art history at
(06:14):
the University of Moscow. He later founded the Pushkin Museum
of Fine Arts. Marina, her siblings, and her parents lived
a comfortable life. They had servants and spent summers in
a cottage in Sadusa, Russia. That said, her family wasn't perfect.
There was tension in her mother and father's marriage, as
(06:34):
they still had feelings for previous loves, and her mother
wanted her to be a pianist rather than pursuing poetry.
After Marina's mother got tuberculosis in nineteen o two, the
family moved around Europe in search of warmer climates. They
lived in Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany and Crimea to help
(06:55):
with her mother's health, but her mother died of tuberculosis
in nineteen o six in Tatusa. Marina read a lot
and learned several languages, and she studied literary history at
the Sorbonne when she was a teenager. In nineteen ten,
she self published her first collection of poems, called Evening Album.
(07:17):
Other poets and critics like Maximilian Volochin and Nikolay Gomoloff
recognized her work, and soon she began to mingle with
other artists. She married her husband, Sergey Yakovlovich Fron in
nineteen twelve, and they had three children together. Over the
course of their relationships, though she was devoted to her husband,
(07:40):
she had affairs, including ones with poets Sophia Parnak and
Osip mandel Stam. Marina's affairs and friendships inspired many of
her poems, but a period of turbulence in Russia, and
in Marina's life was on the horizon. The Russian Revolution
broke out in nineteen seven teen, and her husband joined
(08:01):
the Stars counter revolutionary White Army. She rejected the revolution,
and many of her poems reflect her support of the
anti Bolshevik resistance. The Domain of the Swan, a poem
about the civil war, was one of the works she
wrote during this time, though it wasn't published until decades later.
(08:22):
Marina lost touch with her husband while he was in
the army, and she stayed with her children in Moscow,
where they lived in poverty. During the famine that took
place while she was in Moscow, she put her two
daughters in a state orphanage, hoping they would be better
taken care of there, but her youngest died in the
orphanage of malnutrition in nineteen twenty. In nineteen two, Marina
(08:46):
and her daughter set out for Berlin to reunite with Serge,
who was in exile. They later moved to Prague and
then in nineteen to Paris, a major center for Russian immigration.
That same year, their son, Georgi was born. Even though
she lived in poverty, she continued to put out poetry,
(09:07):
essays and play. Many Russian immigrate writers in Paris criticized
Marina for not being anti Soviet enough. Though she did
form connections with writers like writer Maria Rilka and in
a Tescova, she was isolated from those immigrated circles and Russia.
On top of that, her husband's politics shifted. She became
(09:29):
homestick for Russia and developed Soviet sympathies. Eventually he joined
the n k v D, or the Soviet secret police.
In nineteen thirty nine, Marina and her son returned to
the Soviet Union to meet her husband and daughter, who
had also gained Soviet sympathies. Marina struggled in Soviet Russia
(09:50):
and found it hard to get work as a writer.
Her husband and daughter were soon arrested on espionage charges.
Her husband was shot and killed in nineteen f be one,
and her daughter was sent to a labor camp. When
the Nazis began bombing Moscow, Marina and her son were
evacuated to Yallabuga, a remote town in a Tatar Soviet
(10:11):
socialist republic, where she had no money or support. She
died by suicide in nineteen forty one. Marina's Fadila's work
is remembered for being lyrical, direct, and experimental, and having
distinct rhythms. It's also noted for its portrayal of women's
experiences during those turbulent years in Russian history. I'm Eves
(10:36):
Jeff Code, and hopefully you know a little more about
history today than you did yesterday. Have a hard time
staying present as you mindlessly scrolled through social media. Lucky
for you were stuck in the past at t d
I HC podcast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or if
you would prefer to email us, you can send us
(10:58):
a message at this day at I heart media dot com.
I hope you liked this show. We'll be back tomorrow
with another episode. Hmm. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
Hey everyone. Technically you're getting two days in history today
because we were running two episodes from the History Vault.
You'll also here two hosts, me and Tracy V. Wilson.
Hope you enjoy. Welcome to this Day in History Class
from how Stuff Works dot Com and from the desk
of Stuff you Missed in History Class. It's the show
where we explore the past one day at a time
(00:20):
with a quick look at what happened today in history. Hello,
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy B. Wilson, and
it's October eight Alvin York's heroic actions on this day
in nineteen eighteen would later on earn him the Medal
of Honor. Alvin York was born December seven in Palmell, Tennessee.
(00:43):
After his father died in nineteen eleven, Alvin was the
oldest child who was still living at home. His older
brothers had started their own families, and he became the
head of his family, basically taking his father's place. But
he didn't shoulder all of this new responsibility very well,
or his grief over his father's death. He started drinking
and gambling, and crossing the border into Kentucky to drink
(01:03):
and fight, and soon he had an arrest record. But
a couple of things happened around nineteen fourteen and nineteen
fifteen that really changed him completely. One was that he
met a young woman named Gracie Williams, who he was
very fond of. And the other is that he had
a religious awakening at a revival on New Year's Day
nineteen fifteen. This revival had lasted the whole last week
(01:24):
of nineteen fourteen, and he had gone there because he
wanted to see Gracie and he knew that she would
be there. But on the last day of the revival,
something was different. When he described it quote as if
lightning had struck my soul, he really was a changed man.
From this point. He gave up drinking and fighting and
playing cards and started trying to live his life in
a Christian way, including becoming a pacifist. But then in
(01:47):
June of nineteen seventeen, the same month that he got
engaged to Gracie Williams, he also had to register for
the draft for World War One. He tried to be
classified as a conscientious objector, but his application was turned down.
It was turned down because the church he was a
member of wasn't considered to be a recognized and established sect,
and also because it didn't have any particular creed beyond
(02:10):
the Bible to prevent its adherents from undertaking military service.
All of this really continued to trouble Alvin York's conscience
for quite some time, but he ultimately reconciled himself to
the idea of serving in the military. And then on
October nineteen, his platoon was ordered to cross a valley
to capture a machine gun nest that was preventing their advance.
(02:33):
They faced really heavy machine gun fire and immense casualties
just trying to cross over an open stretch of land
to get to where they needed to go. York was
one of only seventeen men who made it across the clearing.
That was the first step in achieving this objective. And
then they followed two German soldiers through some brush, and
on the other side of that brush they surprised a
(02:54):
whole group of German soldiers who were eating breakfast. These
German soldiers had been marching through the night. They were exhausted,
and they were hungry, and they really thought these seventeen
Americans who had suddenly burst in on them were the
advanced guard of a much bigger force, and so most
of them started to surrender. But that is one of
the machine gunners who were up on the hill noticed
what was happening. By the time they were able to
(03:16):
take cover, only eight of the American force, including York,
were still alive and able to fight. They returned fire
against the machine gunners, with York especially carrying the day.
When a German lieutenant and about six soldiers tried to
charge down the hill with bayonets trying to take down
whoever it was that was shooting the machine gunners, York
(03:36):
shot each of them with his pistol. He started at
the back. This was something he had learned while hunting
birds when he was living in Tennessee. He would shoot
the formation of birds from the back so the ones
in front wouldn't get startled. In this case, he was
doing it because he didn't want the people in the
back to be able to take cover behind the bodies
of fallen men in front of them. After they had
(03:59):
taken care of us, they captured four German officers and
a hundred and twenty eight German soldiers, along with several
machine guns. York was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the
quater gear with palms and the Medal of Honor for
his heroism on that day, But after he got back
to Tennessee, he largely refused the hero's welcome that was
(04:19):
waiting for him. Instead, he dedicated himself entirely to opening
a school in Fintris County, Tennessee, where he had grown up,
which had no high school at all until that point,
and this would be a major focus for most of
the rest of his life. When the movie Sergeant York
was made in nineteen forty one, the real York put
almost all the money that he earned from it back
(04:41):
into that school. He died on September two, nineteen sixty four,
at the age of seventy six. He was survived by
his wife, Gracie, who he married just days after getting
out of the army, and seven of their ten children.
Some of those children and York himself have said that
starting that school was to him a much bigger accomplishment
and what he did that earned the Medal of Honor.
(05:02):
You can learn a lot more about this from the
October three episode of Stuff You Miss in History Class.
Thanks to Terry Harrison for all of her audio work
on this podcast, and you can subscribe to the Stay
in History Class on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, and wherever
else you get your podcasts. You can tune in tomorrow
for an assassination. Greetings, I'm Eves and welcome to this
(05:31):
Day in History Class, a show that believes no day
in history is a slow day. The day was October eight.
Russian poet Matina Spittaieva was born in Moscow. Spidaieva was
(05:51):
a prolific writer and one of the most notable Russian
language poets of the twentieth century. On the Julian calendar,
which Rush Show used at the time, Spitzieva's birthday was September.
Her mother, Maria Alexandrovna, was a concert pianist. Her father,
Ivan Vladimirovitch Spittaiev was a professor of art history at
(06:14):
the University of Moscow. He later founded the Pushkin Museum
of Fine Arts. Marina, her siblings, and her parents lived
a comfortable life. They had servants and spent summers in
a cottage in Sadusa, Russia. That said, her family wasn't perfect.
There was tension in her mother and father's marriage, as
(06:34):
they still had feelings for previous loves, and her mother
wanted her to be a pianist rather than pursuing poetry.
After Marina's mother got tuberculosis in nineteen o two, the
family moved around Europe in search of warmer climates. They
lived in Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany and Crimea to help
(06:55):
with her mother's health, but her mother died of tuberculosis
in nineteen o six in Tatusa. Marina read a lot
and learned several languages, and she studied literary history at
the Sorbonne when she was a teenager. In nineteen ten,
she self published her first collection of poems, called Evening Album.
(07:17):
Other poets and critics like Maximilian Volochin and Nikolay Gomoloff
recognized her work, and soon she began to mingle with
other artists. She married her husband, Sergey Yakovlovich Fron in
nineteen twelve, and they had three children together. Over the
course of their relationships, though she was devoted to her husband,
(07:40):
she had affairs, including ones with poets Sophia Parnak and
Osip mandel Stam. Marina's affairs and friendships inspired many of
her poems, but a period of turbulence in Russia, and
in Marina's life was on the horizon. The Russian Revolution
broke out in nineteen seven teen, and her husband joined
(08:01):
the Stars counter revolutionary White Army. She rejected the revolution,
and many of her poems reflect her support of the
anti Bolshevik resistance. The Domain of the Swan, a poem
about the civil war, was one of the works she
wrote during this time, though it wasn't published until decades later.
(08:22):
Marina lost touch with her husband while he was in
the army, and she stayed with her children in Moscow,
where they lived in poverty. During the famine that took
place while she was in Moscow, she put her two
daughters in a state orphanage, hoping they would be better
taken care of there, but her youngest died in the
orphanage of malnutrition in nineteen twenty. In nineteen two, Marina
(08:46):
and her daughter set out for Berlin to reunite with Serge,
who was in exile. They later moved to Prague and
then in nineteen to Paris, a major center for Russian immigration.
That same year, their son, Georgi was born. Even though
she lived in poverty, she continued to put out poetry,
(09:07):
essays and play. Many Russian immigrate writers in Paris criticized
Marina for not being anti Soviet enough. Though she did
form connections with writers like writer Maria Rilka and in
a Tescova, she was isolated from those immigrated circles and Russia.
On top of that, her husband's politics shifted. She became
(09:29):
homestick for Russia and developed Soviet sympathies. Eventually he joined
the n k v D, or the Soviet secret police.
In nineteen thirty nine, Marina and her son returned to
the Soviet Union to meet her husband and daughter, who
had also gained Soviet sympathies. Marina struggled in Soviet Russia
(09:50):
and found it hard to get work as a writer.
Her husband and daughter were soon arrested on espionage charges.
Her husband was shot and killed in nineteen f be one,
and her daughter was sent to a labor camp. When
the Nazis began bombing Moscow, Marina and her son were
evacuated to Yallabuga, a remote town in a Tatar Soviet
(10:11):
socialist republic, where she had no money or support. She
died by suicide in nineteen forty one. Marina's Fadila's work
is remembered for being lyrical, direct, and experimental, and having
distinct rhythms. It's also noted for its portrayal of women's
experiences during those turbulent years in Russian history. I'm Eves
(10:36):
Jeff Code, and hopefully you know a little more about
history today than you did yesterday. Have a hard time
staying present as you mindlessly scrolled through social media. Lucky
for you were stuck in the past at t d
I HC podcast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or if
you would prefer to email us, you can send us
(10:58):
a message at this day at I heart media dot com.
I hope you liked this show. We'll be back tomorrow
with another episode. Hmm. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
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