February 16, 2021 • 10 mins
On this day in 1959, Fidel Castro was sworn in as the prime minister of Cuba. / On this day in 1953, the Swedish company ASEA created synthetic diamonds.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone, it's Eves checking in here to let you
know that you're going to be hearing two different events
in history in this episode. They're both good, if I
do say so myself. On with the show. Welcome to
this day in History class, where we bring you a
new tipbit from history every day. The day was February
(00:25):
nineteen fifty nine. Communist revolutionary Todale Castro was torn in
as the Prime Minister of Cuba in the Cabinet room
of the Presidential Palace in Havana. At thirty two years old,
Castro had become the country's youngest ever prime minister. Castro
(00:46):
was born in southeastern Cuba, the son of a domestic
servant and wealthy sugarcane farmer. Castro got involved in politics early.
While he was attending law school at the University of Havana.
He joined a group of Dominican exiles and Cubans who tried,
unsuccessfully to invade the Dominican Republic and overthrow its dictator,
(01:08):
Raphael Trujillo. In April of nineteen forty eight, Castro joined
riots that started in Bogota, Colombia, after a populist Colombian
presidential candidate was shot dead. After Cashtro graduated from law
school in nineteen fifty he started practicing law and he
(01:28):
joined the reformist Cuban People's Party, also known as the
Orthodox Party, a party that was anti corruption and anti imperialism.
Castro identified with the party's campaign, and in nineteen fifty
two he became a candidate for a seat in the
Cuban House of Representatives for the Cuban People's Party. The
(01:50):
party was expected to win the election, but in March,
former Cuban President General Fulhinsia Bautista seized control of Cuba
in a during the campaign. So in nineteen fifty three,
Castro decided to lead his own uprising to bring the
Cuban People's Party to power. On July, he and a
(02:13):
group of more than one people attacked the Mankata Army
barracks in Santiago to Cuba. The plan was to get
weapons and announced the revolution, but the offensive failed. More
than half of the rebels were captured and killed, and
Castro was arrested and sentenced to fifteen years in prison.
(02:36):
But Castro's popularity was rising and his revolution was gaining support.
Bautista ordered Castro and his brother Raoul to be released
from prison in nineteen fifty five as part of a
general amnesty, but Fidel and Raoul soon left for Mexico,
where they linked up with Marxist revolutionary and guerilla leader
(02:59):
to A Guvara. There they began planning another attempt to
overthrow the Cuban government and enlisting recruits to organize what
became known as the twenty six of July Movement. The
movement promised land reform, nationalization of public services, and honest elections,
(03:20):
among other reforms, but when Castro and nearly a hundred
people landed on the coast of Cuba in December of
nineteen fifty six, government forces killed or captured nearly everyone.
Less than twenty people survived, but those who did fled
to the Sierra Maestra mountains with barely any supplies, but
(03:44):
they soon built up their weapons stockpile and were attracting
volunteers who supported Castro and opposed Bautista's United States supported regime.
A guerrilla war had begun as Bautista's forces committed more
and more violent acts to get info about the guerrillas,
and high profile groups began to back Castro. Castro's movement
(04:07):
grew stronger. His army won a series of victories over
Bautista's government, even though they were outnumbered. Even after the
US sent Bautista playing ships and tanks, the guerrillas held
their ground. Some military units even joined the guerrillas. So
(04:28):
Bautista tried, in desperation to hold an election, but people
didn't show up to vote. Castro was charismatic and his
propaganda proved effective. Castro's forces moved in on the cities
and Bautista fled to the Dominican Republic on January one,
nineteen fifty nine. Castro became commander in chief of Cuba's
(04:51):
armed forces. Once Castro took over as prime minister, replacing
Jose Moreau Cardona, he persecuted people in Bautista this old
regime for war crimes, expanded social services, redistributed land among peasants,
and abolished race based segregation and facilities. He also suppressed
(05:13):
oppositional press, arrested counter revolutionaries, crackdown on what he considered
moral wrongs, and adopted a one party state. Castro, who
died in would go on to become a controversial political
figure who was a hero to many and a vile dictator.
(05:34):
To many others. I'm Eve Jeff Coote and hopefully you
know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
Tune in tomorrow for another Day in History. Hi, everyone,
(05:54):
welcome to the show. I'm Eves and you're listening to
this Day in History class show that uncovers a little
bit more about history every day. The day was February six,
nineteen fifty three. A team of scientists at the Swedish
(06:17):
electrical company A S e A made the first synthetic
diamond crystals. Diamonds have been used for adornment for thousands
of years, and they've been valued as gemstones for jewelry
for more than a hundred years. In the late nineteenth century,
some scientists claimed that they had succeeded at making diamonds.
(06:40):
Scottish chemist James Valentine Hannay, for instance, said that he
made diamonds by sealing organic materials with lithium into iron
tubes and heating them to red heat. And French chemists
on Remoissan tried to create synthetic diamonds by putting a
crucible containing pure carbon and iron in an electric furnace.
(07:01):
He then put that super hot mixture into water, and
the pressure generated by the sudden cooling supposedly resulted in diamonds,
but none of the experiments were reproducible and the resulting
materials were likely not even synthetic diamonds. Though attempts to
make synthetic diamonds continued through the early nineteen hundreds, they
(07:23):
were unsuccessful. The structure of diamonds was difficult to reproduce
because it required extremely high pressure and high temperature, but
American physicist Percy Williams Bridgeman was doing extensive research into
the effects of high pressures on materials. He got the
Nobel Prize in Physics in nineteen forty six for his
(07:43):
work in the field of high pressure physics. But in
nineteen forty one, the Carbonundom Company, nor In Company, and
General Electric entered into an agreement with Bridgeman to research
diamonds synthesis, but this research lasted for less than two
years as World War Two was in full swing and
(08:04):
these experiments though graphite at nearly half a million p
s i was heated by a thermite reaction to three
thousand degrees celsius or dred degrees fahrenheit, but by nineteen
fifty General Electric had begun looking back into the question
of diamond synthesis. Physicist, physical chemist, and engineers began researching
(08:26):
the chemistry of the process, as well as the apparatus
needed for getting the high pressures and temperatures required. At
the same time, the Swedish electrical company A s e
A was working on making diamonds in the lab. A
s e A turned to a scientist named baltzarvon Plattin
to look into diamond synthesis. The company hired a team
(08:49):
of scientists led by Eric lund Blade to work on
the project, known as Quintus. For years, the team experimented
with different strategies to create synthetic diamonds, but on February sixteenth,
nineteen fifty three, Lund Blood subjected a mixture of iron
carbide and graphite to pressure for an hour. The press
(09:10):
they used had six pyramid shape anvils that formed a
sphere around the sample of graphite. After the experiment was over,
a few small diamond crystals the size of grains of sand,
were produced, but A s c A did not announce
or published the experiments results. In December of nineteen fifty four,
(09:31):
the team at General Electric produced synthetic diamonds and reproduced
the results. The next year, GE announced that its scientists
had successfully created synthetic diamonds. It's not completely clear why
a s e a did not report its results, but
it is clear that the technique Quintus used was difficult
(09:52):
to reproduce. It was also too slow and expensive to
be commercially viable, considering the experiment produced very tiny diamonds
that were not of gym equality. Since the mid nine hundreds,
plenty of synthetic gem quality diamond crystals have been produced
in labs using high pressure and high temperature methods, chemical
(10:12):
vapor deposition, and other techniques. I'm Eaves, Jeffcote, and hopefully
you know a little more about history today than you
did yesterday. You can find us on social media at
t d I h C Podcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Email still works. Send us a note at this day
at I heeart media dot com. Thanks again for listening,
(10:36):
and we'll see you tomorrow. For more podcasts for my
heart Radio, vis the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hello everyone, it's Eves checking in here to let you
know that you're going to be hearing two different events
in history in this episode. They're both good, if I
do say so myself. On with the show. Welcome to
this day in History class, where we bring you a
new tipbit from history every day. The day was February
(00:25):
nineteen fifty nine. Communist revolutionary Todale Castro was torn in
as the Prime Minister of Cuba in the Cabinet room
of the Presidential Palace in Havana. At thirty two years old,
Castro had become the country's youngest ever prime minister. Castro
(00:46):
was born in southeastern Cuba, the son of a domestic
servant and wealthy sugarcane farmer. Castro got involved in politics early.
While he was attending law school at the University of Havana.
He joined a group of Dominican exiles and Cubans who tried,
unsuccessfully to invade the Dominican Republic and overthrow its dictator,
(01:08):
Raphael Trujillo. In April of nineteen forty eight, Castro joined
riots that started in Bogota, Colombia, after a populist Colombian
presidential candidate was shot dead. After Cashtro graduated from law
school in nineteen fifty he started practicing law and he
(01:28):
joined the reformist Cuban People's Party, also known as the
Orthodox Party, a party that was anti corruption and anti imperialism.
Castro identified with the party's campaign, and in nineteen fifty
two he became a candidate for a seat in the
Cuban House of Representatives for the Cuban People's Party. The
(01:50):
party was expected to win the election, but in March,
former Cuban President General Fulhinsia Bautista seized control of Cuba
in a during the campaign. So in nineteen fifty three,
Castro decided to lead his own uprising to bring the
Cuban People's Party to power. On July, he and a
(02:13):
group of more than one people attacked the Mankata Army
barracks in Santiago to Cuba. The plan was to get
weapons and announced the revolution, but the offensive failed. More
than half of the rebels were captured and killed, and
Castro was arrested and sentenced to fifteen years in prison.
(02:36):
But Castro's popularity was rising and his revolution was gaining support.
Bautista ordered Castro and his brother Raoul to be released
from prison in nineteen fifty five as part of a
general amnesty, but Fidel and Raoul soon left for Mexico,
where they linked up with Marxist revolutionary and guerilla leader
(02:59):
to A Guvara. There they began planning another attempt to
overthrow the Cuban government and enlisting recruits to organize what
became known as the twenty six of July Movement. The
movement promised land reform, nationalization of public services, and honest elections,
(03:20):
among other reforms, but when Castro and nearly a hundred
people landed on the coast of Cuba in December of
nineteen fifty six, government forces killed or captured nearly everyone.
Less than twenty people survived, but those who did fled
to the Sierra Maestra mountains with barely any supplies, but
(03:44):
they soon built up their weapons stockpile and were attracting
volunteers who supported Castro and opposed Bautista's United States supported regime.
A guerrilla war had begun as Bautista's forces committed more
and more violent acts to get info about the guerrillas,
and high profile groups began to back Castro. Castro's movement
(04:07):
grew stronger. His army won a series of victories over
Bautista's government, even though they were outnumbered. Even after the
US sent Bautista playing ships and tanks, the guerrillas held
their ground. Some military units even joined the guerrillas. So
(04:28):
Bautista tried, in desperation to hold an election, but people
didn't show up to vote. Castro was charismatic and his
propaganda proved effective. Castro's forces moved in on the cities
and Bautista fled to the Dominican Republic on January one,
nineteen fifty nine. Castro became commander in chief of Cuba's
(04:51):
armed forces. Once Castro took over as prime minister, replacing
Jose Moreau Cardona, he persecuted people in Bautista this old
regime for war crimes, expanded social services, redistributed land among peasants,
and abolished race based segregation and facilities. He also suppressed
(05:13):
oppositional press, arrested counter revolutionaries, crackdown on what he considered
moral wrongs, and adopted a one party state. Castro, who
died in would go on to become a controversial political
figure who was a hero to many and a vile dictator.
(05:34):
To many others. I'm Eve Jeff Coote and hopefully you
know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
Tune in tomorrow for another Day in History. Hi, everyone,
(05:54):
welcome to the show. I'm Eves and you're listening to
this Day in History class show that uncovers a little
bit more about history every day. The day was February six,
nineteen fifty three. A team of scientists at the Swedish
(06:17):
electrical company A S e A made the first synthetic
diamond crystals. Diamonds have been used for adornment for thousands
of years, and they've been valued as gemstones for jewelry
for more than a hundred years. In the late nineteenth century,
some scientists claimed that they had succeeded at making diamonds.
(06:40):
Scottish chemist James Valentine Hannay, for instance, said that he
made diamonds by sealing organic materials with lithium into iron
tubes and heating them to red heat. And French chemists
on Remoissan tried to create synthetic diamonds by putting a
crucible containing pure carbon and iron in an electric furnace.
(07:01):
He then put that super hot mixture into water, and
the pressure generated by the sudden cooling supposedly resulted in diamonds,
but none of the experiments were reproducible and the resulting
materials were likely not even synthetic diamonds. Though attempts to
make synthetic diamonds continued through the early nineteen hundreds, they
(07:23):
were unsuccessful. The structure of diamonds was difficult to reproduce
because it required extremely high pressure and high temperature, but
American physicist Percy Williams Bridgeman was doing extensive research into
the effects of high pressures on materials. He got the
Nobel Prize in Physics in nineteen forty six for his
(07:43):
work in the field of high pressure physics. But in
nineteen forty one, the Carbonundom Company, nor In Company, and
General Electric entered into an agreement with Bridgeman to research
diamonds synthesis, but this research lasted for less than two
years as World War Two was in full swing and
(08:04):
these experiments though graphite at nearly half a million p
s i was heated by a thermite reaction to three
thousand degrees celsius or dred degrees fahrenheit, but by nineteen
fifty General Electric had begun looking back into the question
of diamond synthesis. Physicist, physical chemist, and engineers began researching
(08:26):
the chemistry of the process, as well as the apparatus
needed for getting the high pressures and temperatures required. At
the same time, the Swedish electrical company A s e
A was working on making diamonds in the lab. A
s e A turned to a scientist named baltzarvon Plattin
to look into diamond synthesis. The company hired a team
(08:49):
of scientists led by Eric lund Blade to work on
the project, known as Quintus. For years, the team experimented
with different strategies to create synthetic diamonds, but on February sixteenth,
nineteen fifty three, Lund Blood subjected a mixture of iron
carbide and graphite to pressure for an hour. The press
(09:10):
they used had six pyramid shape anvils that formed a
sphere around the sample of graphite. After the experiment was over,
a few small diamond crystals the size of grains of sand,
were produced, but A s c A did not announce
or published the experiments results. In December of nineteen fifty four,
(09:31):
the team at General Electric produced synthetic diamonds and reproduced
the results. The next year, GE announced that its scientists
had successfully created synthetic diamonds. It's not completely clear why
a s e a did not report its results, but
it is clear that the technique Quintus used was difficult
(09:52):
to reproduce. It was also too slow and expensive to
be commercially viable, considering the experiment produced very tiny diamonds
that were not of gym equality. Since the mid nine hundreds,
plenty of synthetic gem quality diamond crystals have been produced
in labs using high pressure and high temperature methods, chemical
(10:12):
vapor deposition, and other techniques. I'm Eaves, Jeffcote, and hopefully
you know a little more about history today than you
did yesterday. You can find us on social media at
t d I h C Podcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Email still works. Send us a note at this day
at I heeart media dot com. Thanks again for listening,
(10:36):
and we'll see you tomorrow. For more podcasts for my
heart Radio, vis the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
This Day in History Class News
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