Emma Goldman arrested / BBC broadcasts first sci-fi program - February 11

On this day in 1916, anarchist and activist Emma Goldman was arrested for distributing information on birth control. / On this day in 1938, the BBC broadcast the first known science fiction television program, "R.U.R."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, y'all, Eve's here. Today's episode contains not just one,
but two nuggets of history. Consider it a double feature.
Enjoy the show. Hi, I'm Eves, and welcome to This
Day in History Class, a show that uncovers history one
day at a time. The day was February eleven, nineteen sixteen.

(00:31):
Anarchists and activist Emma Goldman was arrested in New York
City for passing out materials on contraception and violation of
the Comstock Act. At the time, birth control was considered
a moral and still not widely accepted in the United States,
and the Comstock Act was a reflection of this sentiment.

(00:55):
The eighteen seventy three law banned the transportation of so
called obscene, lou and or lascivious materials through the mail,
and after the law was passed, dozens of states passed
their own laws to restrict the dissemination of birth control
at the state level. But Goldman believed that women should

(01:16):
have access to birth control, and she was no stranger
to protest. Emma subscribed to anarchism, which is a philosophy
that advocates for the abolition of government and the formation
of society's based on voluntary cooperation between individuals and groups.

(01:36):
When Goldman immigrated to the United States from Lithuania in
eighteen eighty five, she began working in clothing factories, but
she quickly became disillusioned with working conditions and she drew
inspiration from the labor movement. But Goldman's anarchism kicked into
high gear after the Haymarket affair in eighteen eighty six

(02:00):
eight seven, when a labor protest turned riot caused deaths
and several labor activists were convicted for bombing without proper evidence.
Emma became a much admired lecturer and writer who spoke
out on anarchism and social issues like women's rights. Goldman

(02:20):
moved to New York City in eighty nine, and while
she was there, she worked as a nurse and midwife
for poor people in the Lower East Side. She saw
women who couldn't support children resort to inducing their own abortions. Soon,
Emma began working to increase public knowledge of and access

(02:41):
to birth control. She believed that laws barring access to
birth control needed to be struck down because contraception was
essential to women achieving sexual, social, and economic freedom. Goldman
began smuggling birth control into the West, and she started
lecturing on women's rights to bodily autonomy and contraception. Activists

(03:07):
and nurse Margaret Sanger and Emma got to know each
other in New York, and Emma's advocacy influenced Margaret to
work for what she once called family limitation, even though
their relationship eventually soured. In nineteen fifteen and into nineteen sixteen,
Goldman went on tour to give a series of lectures,

(03:30):
including some where she explained the necessity of contraception. The
lectures on contraception drew out huge crowds, but distributing contraceptives
and information on contraceptives was still not legal everywhere, so
on February eleven, nineteen sixteen, Goldman was arrested for her

(03:51):
birth control lecture that she had given the previous week.
She was released on five hundred dollars bailed that day.
A few days at ter she was arrested, Goldman told
the press the following in a letter. When a law
has outgrown time and necessity, it must go, and the
only way to get rid of the law is to

(04:13):
awaken the public to the fact that it has outlived
its purpose. And that is precisely what I have been
doing and mean to do in the future. Emma hoped
her protest could help move the needle on progressive birth
control legislation. She went on to say this in the letter.

(04:33):
While I am not particularly anxious to go to jail,
I should yet be glad to do so if thereby
I can add my might to the importance of birth
control and the wiping off our antiquated law upon the Statute.
But after her trial on April she was convicted and
was imprisoned in the Queen's County Penitentiary for fifteen days.

(04:58):
On May five, more than thirty five hundred people gathered
at Carnegie Hall in New York to celebrate Goldman's release,
and at that meeting, literature on birth control was distributed.
Emma did not stop promoting birth control, and she continued
to speak out on issues like marriage, prisons, sexuality, and

(05:21):
public school education. She was deported to Russia in nineteen
nineteen and lived the rest of her life in various
countries around the world. Emma died in nineteen forty in Canada,
and though birth control is still a hotly debated topic
and US politics today, Goldman's promotion of contraception as a

(05:43):
necessity greatly contributed to the birth control movement in America.
I'm each Jeffcote and hopefully you know a little more
about history today than you did yesterday. You can subscribe
to This Day in History Class on Apple Podcasts, the
iHeart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts. Come

(06:03):
back tomorrow for another tipt from history. Hi everyone, I'm

(06:28):
Eves and welcome to This Day in History Class, a
podcast where we rip out a page from the history
books every day. The day was February eleven nine. The
BBC aired the first known science fiction television program, and

(06:52):
adaptation of part of the play Are You Are? Are
You Are stands for rowsm's Universal Robots. It's a science
fiction play by Check writer Karel Chopic, written in nine
and first performed in Prague in one. The play popularized
the word robot, So robots in the play are not

(07:14):
how we think of them today. The word robot comes
from the Check word robot, to, which means forced labor.
The robots in Are You Are are not mechanical. They
are living beings with artificial flesh and blood. Chopic himself
was dismayed by the mechanical and chemical weapons used in
World War One, and he did not see the progression

(07:35):
of technology as a holy positive force. In the play,
a scientist named Rassum figures out how to make artificial people,
and he opens a factory to produce these robots. By
the time the play takes place, these robots are popular
around the world. They are cheap and make production way
less expensive. A man named Doman is the general manager

(07:59):
of Are You Are, the company that makes the robots.
Are You Are wants the robots to replace humans in
the workforce. While the robots at first seem like they
are subject to the whims of humans, they begin to
rebel all over the world. They imprison people and murder
some of the higher upset Are You Are. In the epilogue,
almost all humans have been killed and robots have taken

(08:22):
over the world. The play was popular in Prague, so
it was translated into many languages, including English, and shown
in England and the US. Once the play made it
to the US, in it had its critics and fans,
But just two years after the BBC started its regular
service of TV broadcasts, the BBC showed a thirty five

(08:45):
minute long adaptation of the play. It aired on February
eleven at three pm. It featured Derek Fond, Harvey Braben,
and William Leon Brown. The Radio Times, a British magazine
that p idit radio and television listings, said the play
was one that quote should lend itself very well indeed

(09:06):
to television from the point of view of effects. A
ninety minute version of the play was broadcast in night.
No known recordings of either program exist. I'm Eve chef
Cote and hopefully you know a little more about history
today than you did it yesterday. If you've seen any
good history memes lately, you can send them to us

(09:28):
on social media at t d i h C Podcast
and you can send your thoughts are comments to us
at this Day at i heart media dot com. Thanks
for listening to today's episode. We'll see you again tomorrow.

(09:50):
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