August 28, 2020 • 9 mins
Emmett Till was murdered on this day in 1955. / On this day in history, one of the largest recorded geomagnetic storms, known as the Carrington event, began.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, y'all were rerunning two episodes today, which means that
you'll hear two hosts me and Tracy V. Wilson. Enjoy
the show. 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 with
a quick look at what happened today in history. Welcome
(00:23):
to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and it's August.
Emmett Till was murdered on this day in n He
had just turned fourteen. Emmett was visiting his cousins outside
of Money, Mississippi. He had been living with his mother
in Chicago, Illinois, and on August, Emmett and his cousins
drove into Money because they wanted to buy some gum
(00:44):
and candy at Bryant's grocery store. Witnesses, including Emmett's cousins,
say that while he was in the store, he whistled
at Caroline Bryant, who was the proprietor's wife. She was
working at the store that day. His mother thought that
he might have whistled because that was a trick that
he had learned to cope with his stutter. He was
having trouble getting his words out, he would whistle and
(01:05):
that would help. His cousin's thought that maybe Emmett was
trying to impress them. Caroline, though, told her husband Roy
that Emmett had been lewed with her, that he had
menaced her, he had grabbed her. So Roy Bryant and
his brother in law J. W. Milam showed up at
the home of Emmett's uncle mos Right, where he was staying,
at about two thirty in the morning on August. Mos
(01:27):
Right and his wife Lizzie both tried to persuade these
men not to take Emmett away from them. They even
offered to pay them, but the men were armed and
they would not be dissuaded. None of his family ever
saw Emmett alive again, and his mother got the call
that two white men had taken Emmett away from his
uncle's house at about nine thirty in the morning on August.
(01:49):
She and the rest of the family were obviously distraught.
They tried to work with authorities in both Illinois and
Mississippi to find her son, but a fisherman found his
body in the Tallahatchee River on Gust thirty one. He
had been tortured, he had probably been shot, and his
body was weighed down with a fan from a cotton gin.
Authorities in Mississippi tried to rush through a funeral for him,
(02:11):
but his mother refused to allow it. She demanded that
he be returned to Chicago, and then once he was there,
she made the brave decision to share photographs of his
body and two publications that had a predominantly black leadership.
They were The Chicago Defender and Jet Magazine. In her words,
she wanted to quote, let the world see what I've seen.
(02:31):
Those pictures and the thousands of people who attended Emmett's
funeral on September three helped reinvigorate the civil rights movement.
Although Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam were indicted for
murder and everyone knew that they had done it, they
had basically bragged about it. A jury returned and not
guilty verdict on September ninety five. They later gave interviews
(02:56):
where they admitted and even bragged about having done this.
In Caroline Bryant now Caroline Bryant Dunham admitted that her
allegations that Emmett had been threatening and crude to her
had been false. Today, Emmett Tell's casket is in the
collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The photos of his body have been named one of
(03:17):
Time magazines hundred most Influential Pictures of all time, and
his mother spent a lot of the rest of her
life trying to make sure that his death would have
some kind of meaning. When talking about that effort, she said, quote,
if it can further the cause of freedom, then I
will say that he died a hero. In March, of
the United States Department of Justice stated in a report
(03:40):
to Congress that it was reopening the investigation into Emmett
Till's murder, sixty three years after it happened, citing quote
the discovery of new information. This made headlines in July.
It's not clear, as of when I'm recording this exactly
what that new and nation is, although there's been a
(04:02):
lot of speculation that it's the admission of Caroline Bryant
Dunham that she lied about Emmett's behavior in the grocery
store that day. You could learn more about Emmett Till
and about his mother's lifelong work to make meaning out
of his death in the August episode of Stuff You
Missed in History Class called The Motherhood of Mamie Till Mobley.
Thanks to Tari Harrison for her audio work on this podcast,
(04:24):
and you can subscribe to the Day in History Class
on Apple Podcasts, Google podcast and wherever else you get podcasts.
Tomorrow we will have a landmark moment in the movement
for gay rights. Welcome to this day and History Class
(04:47):
where history waits for no One. The day was August
eighteen fifty nine. Astronomers began noticing sun spot clusters and
auroras began appearing in the sky electric currents charged through
(05:11):
telegraph systems around the world. Sun Spots are darker, cooler
spots that appear on the Sun's surface that are caused
by interactions with the Sun's magnetic field. Solar flares and
coronal mass ejections usually originate from the magnetically active areas
around sun spots. A coronal mass ejection happens when a
(05:33):
cloud of energetic and highly magnetized plaza is ejected from
the Sun, which can cause radio and magnetic disturbances on Earth.
Coronal mass ejections that struck Earth's magnetic sphere led to
one of the largest geomagnetic storms on record. On September one,
amateur astronomer Richard Carrington went into his private observatory on
(05:57):
his estate outside of London. He earned his telescope towards
the sun and noticed a group of sun spots, and
he drew a picture of the sun spots. Eighteen in
the morning, he saw a white light flash at two
places in the sun spot group. He later wrote this
in a paper published in the Monthly Notices of the
(06:18):
Royal Astronomical Society. My first impression was that by some chance,
a ray of light had penetrated a hole in the
screen attached to the object glass by which the general
image is thrown into shade. For the brilliancy was fully
equal to that of direct sunlight. That same day, amateur
astronomer Richard Hodgson also observed a large sun spot group
(06:42):
and white light flare. The sun activity faded away after
a few minutes, but about seventeen hours after Carrington observed
the flash, Aurora's lit up the sky around the world
as far south as Panama. People woke up late at
night thinking the sun had risen, the sky looked blood red.
(07:02):
In some places, Telegraph systems failed, and there were reports
that sparks from telegraph machines shocked operators and set papers
on fire. Telegraph polls and receiving stations also reportedly caught
on fire. Some operators found that they could transmit messages
without battery power, only using a rural current. The auroral
(07:26):
displays that appeared on September two and third happened only
several months from the peak of the sun spots cycle.
The number of sun spots and other signs of solar
magnetic activity fluctuate over an eleven year cycle. At the time,
scientists did not understand how Aurora's work. Some guess that
the auroras were caused by falling debris from active volcanoes
(07:50):
or by reflections from icebergs, but many thought that the
displays were a sign of a disaster that was about
to happen, or a message from God, even though Carrington
advised against linking the flare he had seen to the
events that followed. But since then it has been determined
that auroral displays are the result of solar winds that
(08:12):
caused disturbances in the magnetosphere. The geomagnetic storm that occurred
in eighteen fifty nine, also known as the Carrington event today,
was one of the biggest solar storms ever recorded. The
Sun had sent off two coronal mass ejections that reached Earth.
Based on ice core samples, it was the biggest solar
(08:33):
storm in the last five hundred years. It has been
estimated that the solar storm cost the global telegraph system
around three hundred thousand dollars, plus other costs related to businesses,
stock markets, and individual families. Usually these solar storms do
not hit Earth, but if a geomagnetic storm like the
(08:55):
eighteen fifty nine one happened today, damages would be more
were extensive, and cost would be a lot higher. Similar,
but less severe geomagnetic storms have hit Earth since the
fifty nine event. I'm Eve Jefcode and hopefully you know
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
(09:16):
Get more Notes from History on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
at t d I h C podcast. We'll be back
with more history tomorrow. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio,
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, y'all were rerunning two episodes today, which means that
you'll hear two hosts me and Tracy V. Wilson. Enjoy
the show. 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 with
a quick look at what happened today in history. Welcome
(00:23):
to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and it's August.
Emmett Till was murdered on this day in n He
had just turned fourteen. Emmett was visiting his cousins outside
of Money, Mississippi. He had been living with his mother
in Chicago, Illinois, and on August, Emmett and his cousins
drove into Money because they wanted to buy some gum
(00:44):
and candy at Bryant's grocery store. Witnesses, including Emmett's cousins,
say that while he was in the store, he whistled
at Caroline Bryant, who was the proprietor's wife. She was
working at the store that day. His mother thought that
he might have whistled because that was a trick that
he had learned to cope with his stutter. He was
having trouble getting his words out, he would whistle and
(01:05):
that would help. His cousin's thought that maybe Emmett was
trying to impress them. Caroline, though, told her husband Roy
that Emmett had been lewed with her, that he had
menaced her, he had grabbed her. So Roy Bryant and
his brother in law J. W. Milam showed up at
the home of Emmett's uncle mos Right, where he was staying,
at about two thirty in the morning on August. Mos
(01:27):
Right and his wife Lizzie both tried to persuade these
men not to take Emmett away from them. They even
offered to pay them, but the men were armed and
they would not be dissuaded. None of his family ever
saw Emmett alive again, and his mother got the call
that two white men had taken Emmett away from his
uncle's house at about nine thirty in the morning on August.
(01:49):
She and the rest of the family were obviously distraught.
They tried to work with authorities in both Illinois and
Mississippi to find her son, but a fisherman found his
body in the Tallahatchee River on Gust thirty one. He
had been tortured, he had probably been shot, and his
body was weighed down with a fan from a cotton gin.
Authorities in Mississippi tried to rush through a funeral for him,
(02:11):
but his mother refused to allow it. She demanded that
he be returned to Chicago, and then once he was there,
she made the brave decision to share photographs of his
body and two publications that had a predominantly black leadership.
They were The Chicago Defender and Jet Magazine. In her words,
she wanted to quote, let the world see what I've seen.
(02:31):
Those pictures and the thousands of people who attended Emmett's
funeral on September three helped reinvigorate the civil rights movement.
Although Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam were indicted for
murder and everyone knew that they had done it, they
had basically bragged about it. A jury returned and not
guilty verdict on September ninety five. They later gave interviews
(02:56):
where they admitted and even bragged about having done this.
In Caroline Bryant now Caroline Bryant Dunham admitted that her
allegations that Emmett had been threatening and crude to her
had been false. Today, Emmett Tell's casket is in the
collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The photos of his body have been named one of
(03:17):
Time magazines hundred most Influential Pictures of all time, and
his mother spent a lot of the rest of her
life trying to make sure that his death would have
some kind of meaning. When talking about that effort, she said, quote,
if it can further the cause of freedom, then I
will say that he died a hero. In March, of
the United States Department of Justice stated in a report
(03:40):
to Congress that it was reopening the investigation into Emmett
Till's murder, sixty three years after it happened, citing quote
the discovery of new information. This made headlines in July.
It's not clear, as of when I'm recording this exactly
what that new and nation is, although there's been a
(04:02):
lot of speculation that it's the admission of Caroline Bryant
Dunham that she lied about Emmett's behavior in the grocery
store that day. You could learn more about Emmett Till
and about his mother's lifelong work to make meaning out
of his death in the August episode of Stuff You
Missed in History Class called The Motherhood of Mamie Till Mobley.
Thanks to Tari Harrison for her audio work on this podcast,
(04:24):
and you can subscribe to the Day in History Class
on Apple Podcasts, Google podcast and wherever else you get podcasts.
Tomorrow we will have a landmark moment in the movement
for gay rights. Welcome to this day and History Class
(04:47):
where history waits for no One. The day was August
eighteen fifty nine. Astronomers began noticing sun spot clusters and
auroras began appearing in the sky electric currents charged through
(05:11):
telegraph systems around the world. Sun Spots are darker, cooler
spots that appear on the Sun's surface that are caused
by interactions with the Sun's magnetic field. Solar flares and
coronal mass ejections usually originate from the magnetically active areas
around sun spots. A coronal mass ejection happens when a
(05:33):
cloud of energetic and highly magnetized plaza is ejected from
the Sun, which can cause radio and magnetic disturbances on Earth.
Coronal mass ejections that struck Earth's magnetic sphere led to
one of the largest geomagnetic storms on record. On September one,
amateur astronomer Richard Carrington went into his private observatory on
(05:57):
his estate outside of London. He earned his telescope towards
the sun and noticed a group of sun spots, and
he drew a picture of the sun spots. Eighteen in
the morning, he saw a white light flash at two
places in the sun spot group. He later wrote this
in a paper published in the Monthly Notices of the
(06:18):
Royal Astronomical Society. My first impression was that by some chance,
a ray of light had penetrated a hole in the
screen attached to the object glass by which the general
image is thrown into shade. For the brilliancy was fully
equal to that of direct sunlight. That same day, amateur
astronomer Richard Hodgson also observed a large sun spot group
(06:42):
and white light flare. The sun activity faded away after
a few minutes, but about seventeen hours after Carrington observed
the flash, Aurora's lit up the sky around the world
as far south as Panama. People woke up late at
night thinking the sun had risen, the sky looked blood red.
(07:02):
In some places, Telegraph systems failed, and there were reports
that sparks from telegraph machines shocked operators and set papers
on fire. Telegraph polls and receiving stations also reportedly caught
on fire. Some operators found that they could transmit messages
without battery power, only using a rural current. The auroral
(07:26):
displays that appeared on September two and third happened only
several months from the peak of the sun spots cycle.
The number of sun spots and other signs of solar
magnetic activity fluctuate over an eleven year cycle. At the time,
scientists did not understand how Aurora's work. Some guess that
the auroras were caused by falling debris from active volcanoes
(07:50):
or by reflections from icebergs, but many thought that the
displays were a sign of a disaster that was about
to happen, or a message from God, even though Carrington
advised against linking the flare he had seen to the
events that followed. But since then it has been determined
that auroral displays are the result of solar winds that
(08:12):
caused disturbances in the magnetosphere. The geomagnetic storm that occurred
in eighteen fifty nine, also known as the Carrington event today,
was one of the biggest solar storms ever recorded. The
Sun had sent off two coronal mass ejections that reached Earth.
Based on ice core samples, it was the biggest solar
(08:33):
storm in the last five hundred years. It has been
estimated that the solar storm cost the global telegraph system
around three hundred thousand dollars, plus other costs related to businesses,
stock markets, and individual families. Usually these solar storms do
not hit Earth, but if a geomagnetic storm like the
(08:55):
eighteen fifty nine one happened today, damages would be more
were extensive, and cost would be a lot higher. Similar,
but less severe geomagnetic storms have hit Earth since the
fifty nine event. I'm Eve Jefcode and hopefully you know
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
(09:16):
Get more Notes from History on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
at t d I h C podcast. We'll be back
with more history tomorrow. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio,
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
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