August 31, 2020 • 10 mins
Mary Ann Nichols was murdered on this day in 1888, the first canonical victim of Jack the Ripper. / On this day in 1963, the prime minister of Singapore declared de facto independence for the country.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone, it's Eves. I just wanted to let you
know that you'll be hearing an episode from me and
an episode from Tracy V. Wilson today. I hope you
enjoyed 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. Hello,
(00:25):
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and
it's August thirty one. The body of Mary Anne Nichols,
who was known as Polly, was found on this day
in eight She was the first of the five canonical
victims of Jack the Ripper. Those five canonical murders happened
between August thirty one and November n in order of
(00:46):
when their bodies were found. They were Maryanne Nichols and Chapman,
Elizabeth Stride, Catherine ETOs and Mary Jane Kelly. And these
five murders happened with a series of other killings in
Whitechapel in the East end of London. Sometimes eleven total
murders are looped together as the White Chapel murders. Sometimes
all eleven are attributed to Jack the Ripper, but those
(01:09):
five are considered the canonical five. All of them were
or had been sex workers. All but one was killed
while soliciting customers. They were all also intoxicated at the
time or were known to abuse alcohol. When Nichols was murdered,
she was in her early forties and she had five children.
She and her husband had separated, and she had fallen
(01:30):
on really hard times. She was living in extreme poverty.
She was living in a series of workhouses, and she
was getting lodging in rooming houses when she had the
money to do it. That money mostly came from begging
and from sex work. But if she didn't have any money,
and if there was no room in the workhouse, she
had nowhere to stay. And about two o'clock in the
(01:51):
morning on August thirty one, she was thrown out of
the kitchen of the rooming house where she had been
staying because she didn't have the money to pay. But
she said she would go get the money, and she
went out into the street to look for clients. Somebody
else from the rooming house saw her a little bit later,
and she was very clearly intoxicated. Then, at about three
forty five in the morning, two carters were on their
(02:14):
way to work through bucks Row, which was basically an alley.
One of them saw what looked like a tarp or
pile of rags, went over to investigate, and he called
the other one over when he realized that it was
a woman. They weren't entirely sure whether she was alive
or not. They didn't stay to help because they were
late for work, but they didn't tell a constable what
(02:34):
they had seen. When the constable came, he realized this
was a dead woman, that her throat had been cut
from ear to ear, her abdomen and her groin had
also been mutilated. And the wake of nichols murder and
the killings that followed, the people in Whitechapel were terrified.
It became a public panic about the possibility of a
(02:54):
brutal serial killer who could have been anyone. It could
have been somebody that you know, And in spite of
extensive investigations and increased police patrolling in the area, he
was never captured. One day, the killings just stopped because
nobody knew it was the last killing. They kept waiting
for the next killing. We don't know who Jack the
(03:15):
Ripper is. Of course, he's generally believed to be a man.
The name was coined in a letter purportedly from him
to the Central News Agency, although probably this was concocted
as a publicity stunt by the staff, and since, hundreds
of people have been brought forth as suspects for being
(03:36):
Jack the Ripper. A lot of these suspects have been
doctors or butchers, because the killer seemed to have some
familiarity with human anatomy. But really they just range all
over the place, everybody from Louis Carroll to H. H. Holmes,
who later lured victims into a so called murder castle
during the Columbian Exposition. This one led to an exhimation
(03:59):
of his remains on a whole TV series about it,
and the Jack the Ripper murders continue to be entrenched
in the public imagination. There are hundreds of books about
the actual murders and about fictionalized versions of the murders,
or novels that based themselves off of the Jack the
Ripper story in some way, and of course there are
(04:19):
also dozens of movies. Thanks to Christopher Haciotis for his
research or work on today's episode. You can subscribe to
the Stay in History Class on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts,
and wherever else you get your podcasts, and you can
tune in tomorrow for a terrifying dive and a dramatic rescue.
(04:43):
Welcome back to this Day in History class, where we
reveal a new piece of history every day. The day
it was August one, nineteen sixty three, Prime Minister of
Singapore Lee Kuan You, declared de facto independence for Singapore.
(05:08):
It wasn't until two years later, on August ninth, nineteen
sixty five, when Singapore left the Federation of Malaysia and
became an independent sovereign nation. In nineteen fifty nine, Singapore
held national elections and the People's Association Party or p
a P one forty three of the fifty one seats
(05:30):
in the Legislative Assembly. The p a P was founded
in nineteen fifty four as a pro independence political party.
After the elections, it became the first fully elected post
colonial government. Singapore gained a great degree of self rule,
and the p a P appointed Lee Kuang You the
(05:52):
Prime Minister of Singapore. The Federation of Malaya was made
up of the nine Malay states and the Straits settlements
of Penang and Malacca. It had replaced the Malayan Union,
which was a British Crown colony, and it gained its
independence within the Commonwealth of Nations on August thirty one,
(06:13):
nineteen fifty seven. The leadership of the p a P
thought that Singapore, which was small with few resources, would
fare better if it united with the Federation of Malaya.
In a nineteen sixty two referendum, seventy one of people
voted in favor of this merger, and on August thirty one,
(06:35):
nineteen sixty three, Prime Minister at Li Kuan You declared
Singapore's independence from British rule from the steps of City Hall.
In order to push for the merger, he pledged Singapore's
loyalty to the Federal government in Kuala Lumpur. At the
ceremonial rally, Lee said, we have the will and the
(06:56):
wherewithal to be a nation in our own right. That
is the right that we the people of Singapore today proclaim.
But the British government denied that this speech meant Singapore
was de facto independent. The federal and British government's questioned
the legality and validity of Singapore's claim to powers over
(07:16):
its defense and external affairs. The Federation of Malaysia was
supposed to be inaugurated on this day to coincide with
the date of Malayan independence, but that was postponed until
September six so that the United Nations could have more
time to determine whether people in the Borneo territories of
(07:37):
Saba and Sarawak wanted to be part of Malaysia. On
September six, Singapore united with the Federation of Malaya, Saba
and Sarawak to form Malaysia. The p a P one
thirty seven seats in a general election five days later,
but that union did not last long. Malay and in
(08:00):
Singaporean leaders could not agree on political approach and economic
and racial policy. Singaporean politicians were unhappy with provisions in
the Malaysian constitution that gave the ethnic Malay majority special privileges,
and Malaysian politicians thought that Singapore's mostly Chinese population was
(08:22):
a threat to their Malay heritage. The P A P
and the United malays National Organization, the other major political
party in Malaysia, accused one another of communalism, racial violence
broke out in Singapore in nineteen sixty four, and Malaysia's
parliament voted to expel Singapore from Malaysia. The two parties
(08:45):
agreed to a two year truth in September of nineteen
sixty four, but tensions did not ease by nineteen sixty five.
On August nine, nineteen sixty five, Singapore separated from Malaysia.
The proclaim nation declaring Singapore's independence was announced on Radio
Singapore at ten am that day. Singapore TV also aired
(09:08):
a press conference that Lee called for. He explained that
the separation needed to happen even though he believed in
the merger. Lee's statements had a much sadder tone than
his announcement on August thirty one, nineteen sixty three, and
the initial response was disappointment. Now National Day in Singapore
(09:31):
is celebrated on August nine. Independence Day in Malaysia is
August thirty one. I'm Eave Jeffcode and hopefully you know
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
You can learn more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram. At t D I h C podcast. Come
(09:55):
back tomorrow for another tidbit from history. Yeah, For more
podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey everyone, it's Eves. I just wanted to let you
know that you'll be hearing an episode from me and
an episode from Tracy V. Wilson today. I hope you
enjoyed 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. Hello,
(00:25):
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and
it's August thirty one. The body of Mary Anne Nichols,
who was known as Polly, was found on this day
in eight She was the first of the five canonical
victims of Jack the Ripper. Those five canonical murders happened
between August thirty one and November n in order of
(00:46):
when their bodies were found. They were Maryanne Nichols and Chapman,
Elizabeth Stride, Catherine ETOs and Mary Jane Kelly. And these
five murders happened with a series of other killings in
Whitechapel in the East end of London. Sometimes eleven total
murders are looped together as the White Chapel murders. Sometimes
all eleven are attributed to Jack the Ripper, but those
(01:09):
five are considered the canonical five. All of them were
or had been sex workers. All but one was killed
while soliciting customers. They were all also intoxicated at the
time or were known to abuse alcohol. When Nichols was murdered,
she was in her early forties and she had five children.
She and her husband had separated, and she had fallen
(01:30):
on really hard times. She was living in extreme poverty.
She was living in a series of workhouses, and she
was getting lodging in rooming houses when she had the
money to do it. That money mostly came from begging
and from sex work. But if she didn't have any money,
and if there was no room in the workhouse, she
had nowhere to stay. And about two o'clock in the
(01:51):
morning on August thirty one, she was thrown out of
the kitchen of the rooming house where she had been
staying because she didn't have the money to pay. But
she said she would go get the money, and she
went out into the street to look for clients. Somebody
else from the rooming house saw her a little bit later,
and she was very clearly intoxicated. Then, at about three
forty five in the morning, two carters were on their
(02:14):
way to work through bucks Row, which was basically an alley.
One of them saw what looked like a tarp or
pile of rags, went over to investigate, and he called
the other one over when he realized that it was
a woman. They weren't entirely sure whether she was alive
or not. They didn't stay to help because they were
late for work, but they didn't tell a constable what
(02:34):
they had seen. When the constable came, he realized this
was a dead woman, that her throat had been cut
from ear to ear, her abdomen and her groin had
also been mutilated. And the wake of nichols murder and
the killings that followed, the people in Whitechapel were terrified.
It became a public panic about the possibility of a
(02:54):
brutal serial killer who could have been anyone. It could
have been somebody that you know, And in spite of
extensive investigations and increased police patrolling in the area, he
was never captured. One day, the killings just stopped because
nobody knew it was the last killing. They kept waiting
for the next killing. We don't know who Jack the
(03:15):
Ripper is. Of course, he's generally believed to be a man.
The name was coined in a letter purportedly from him
to the Central News Agency, although probably this was concocted
as a publicity stunt by the staff, and since, hundreds
of people have been brought forth as suspects for being
(03:36):
Jack the Ripper. A lot of these suspects have been
doctors or butchers, because the killer seemed to have some
familiarity with human anatomy. But really they just range all
over the place, everybody from Louis Carroll to H. H. Holmes,
who later lured victims into a so called murder castle
during the Columbian Exposition. This one led to an exhimation
(03:59):
of his remains on a whole TV series about it,
and the Jack the Ripper murders continue to be entrenched
in the public imagination. There are hundreds of books about
the actual murders and about fictionalized versions of the murders,
or novels that based themselves off of the Jack the
Ripper story in some way, and of course there are
(04:19):
also dozens of movies. Thanks to Christopher Haciotis for his
research or work on today's episode. You can subscribe to
the Stay in History Class on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts,
and wherever else you get your podcasts, and you can
tune in tomorrow for a terrifying dive and a dramatic rescue.
(04:43):
Welcome back to this Day in History class, where we
reveal a new piece of history every day. The day
it was August one, nineteen sixty three, Prime Minister of
Singapore Lee Kuan You, declared de facto independence for Singapore.
(05:08):
It wasn't until two years later, on August ninth, nineteen
sixty five, when Singapore left the Federation of Malaysia and
became an independent sovereign nation. In nineteen fifty nine, Singapore
held national elections and the People's Association Party or p
a P one forty three of the fifty one seats
(05:30):
in the Legislative Assembly. The p a P was founded
in nineteen fifty four as a pro independence political party.
After the elections, it became the first fully elected post
colonial government. Singapore gained a great degree of self rule,
and the p a P appointed Lee Kuang You the
(05:52):
Prime Minister of Singapore. The Federation of Malaya was made
up of the nine Malay states and the Straits settlements
of Penang and Malacca. It had replaced the Malayan Union,
which was a British Crown colony, and it gained its
independence within the Commonwealth of Nations on August thirty one,
(06:13):
nineteen fifty seven. The leadership of the p a P
thought that Singapore, which was small with few resources, would
fare better if it united with the Federation of Malaya.
In a nineteen sixty two referendum, seventy one of people
voted in favor of this merger, and on August thirty one,
(06:35):
nineteen sixty three, Prime Minister at Li Kuan You declared
Singapore's independence from British rule from the steps of City Hall.
In order to push for the merger, he pledged Singapore's
loyalty to the Federal government in Kuala Lumpur. At the
ceremonial rally, Lee said, we have the will and the
(06:56):
wherewithal to be a nation in our own right. That
is the right that we the people of Singapore today proclaim.
But the British government denied that this speech meant Singapore
was de facto independent. The federal and British government's questioned
the legality and validity of Singapore's claim to powers over
(07:16):
its defense and external affairs. The Federation of Malaysia was
supposed to be inaugurated on this day to coincide with
the date of Malayan independence, but that was postponed until
September six so that the United Nations could have more
time to determine whether people in the Borneo territories of
(07:37):
Saba and Sarawak wanted to be part of Malaysia. On
September six, Singapore united with the Federation of Malaya, Saba
and Sarawak to form Malaysia. The p a P one
thirty seven seats in a general election five days later,
but that union did not last long. Malay and in
(08:00):
Singaporean leaders could not agree on political approach and economic
and racial policy. Singaporean politicians were unhappy with provisions in
the Malaysian constitution that gave the ethnic Malay majority special privileges,
and Malaysian politicians thought that Singapore's mostly Chinese population was
(08:22):
a threat to their Malay heritage. The P A P
and the United malays National Organization, the other major political
party in Malaysia, accused one another of communalism, racial violence
broke out in Singapore in nineteen sixty four, and Malaysia's
parliament voted to expel Singapore from Malaysia. The two parties
(08:45):
agreed to a two year truth in September of nineteen
sixty four, but tensions did not ease by nineteen sixty five.
On August nine, nineteen sixty five, Singapore separated from Malaysia.
The proclaim nation declaring Singapore's independence was announced on Radio
Singapore at ten am that day. Singapore TV also aired
(09:08):
a press conference that Lee called for. He explained that
the separation needed to happen even though he believed in
the merger. Lee's statements had a much sadder tone than
his announcement on August thirty one, nineteen sixty three, and
the initial response was disappointment. Now National Day in Singapore
(09:31):
is celebrated on August nine. Independence Day in Malaysia is
August thirty one. I'm Eave Jeffcode and hopefully you know
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
You can learn more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram. At t D I h C podcast. Come
(09:55):
back tomorrow for another tidbit from history. Yeah, 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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