August 31, 2023 • 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.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there, history fans. We're off this week so that
I can move across country. But don't worry, We've got
plenty of classic shows to tide you over. Please enjoy
these flashback episodes from the TDI HC Vault.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to This Day in History Class from HowStuffWorks 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 and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and it's August thirty first. The
(00:35):
body of Mary Ann Nichols, who was known as Polly,
was found on this day in eighteen eighty eight. She
was the first of the five canonical victims of Jack
the Ripper. Those five canonical murders happened between August thirty
first and November ninth, eighteen eighty eight, in order of
when their bodies were found. They were Mary Ann Nichols
and Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Edos, and Mary Jane Kelly.
(00:59):
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 Whitechapel Murders.
Sometimes all eleven are attributed to Jack the Ripper, but
those five are considered the canonical five. All of them
were or had been sex workers. All but one was
(01:21):
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 on really hard times. She was living
in extreme poverty. She was living in a series of workhouses,
(01:43):
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 she didn't have
any money, and if there was no room in the workhouse,
she had nowhere to stay. At about two o'clock in
the morning on August thirty first, she was thrown out
of the kitchen of the rooming house where she'd been
staying because she didn't have the money to pay. But
(02:05):
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
way to work through bucks Row, which was basically an alley.
One of them saw what looked like a tarp or
(02:25):
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 did tell a constable what
they had seen. When the constable came, he realized this
was a dead woman, that her throat had been cut
(02:47):
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
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
(03:10):
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
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
(03:32):
as a publicity stunt by the staff. And since eighteen
eighty eight, hundreds of people have been brought forth as
suspects for being 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 Lewis Carroll
(03:54):
to H. H. Holmes, who later lured victims into a
so called murder castle during the eighteen ninety three Colombian Exposition.
This one led to an exhamation of Holmes's remains in
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
(04:17):
about fictionalized versions of the murders, or novels that base
themselves off of the Jack the Ripper story in some way,
and of course there are also dozens of movies. Thanks
to Christopher Hasiotis for his research work on today's episode,
you can subscribe to the Day in History Class on
Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and wherever else you get your podcasts,
(04:37):
and you can tune in tomorrow for a terrifying dive
and a dramatic rescue.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Welcome back to this Day in History class, where we
reveal a new piece of history every day. The day
was August thirty first, nineteen sixty three, Prime Minister of
(05:10):
Singapore Li Kwan Yu declared de facto independence for Singapore.
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 PAP
(05:35):
won forty three of the fifty one seats in the
Legislative Assembly. The PAP 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 PAP appointed
(05:58):
Li Kwan Yu the Prime Minister of Singapore. The Federation
of Malaya was made up of the nine Malay States
and the straight 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
(06:20):
on August thirty first, nineteen fifty seven. The leadership of
the PAP 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 percent of
people voted in favor of this merger, and on August
(06:42):
thirty first, nineteen sixty three, Prime Minister Li Kuan yu
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
(07:04):
and the 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
governments questioned the legality and validity of Singapore's claim to
powers over its defense and external affairs. The Federation of
(07:28):
Malaysia was supposed to be inaugurated on this day to
coincide with the date of Malayan independence, but that was
postponed until September sixteenth so that the United Nations could
have more time to determine whether people in the Borneo
territories of Saba and Sarawak wanted to be part of Malaysia.
(07:50):
On September sixteenth, Singapore united with the Federation of Malaya,
Saba and Sarawak to form Malaysia. The PAP one thirty
seven seats in a general election five days later, but
that union did not last long. Malayan and Singaporean leaders
could not agree on political approach and economic and racial policy.
(08:15):
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 a threat
to their Malay heritage. The PAP and the United Malays
(08:35):
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 agreed to a two
year truce in September of nineteen sixty four, but tensions
(08:57):
did not ease by nineteen sixty five. On August ninth,
nineteen sixty five, Singapore separated from Malaysia. The proclamation declaring
Singapore's independence was announced on Radio Singapore at ten am
that day. Singapore TV also aired a press conference that
(09:18):
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 first, nineteen sixty three, and the initial response was disappointment.
Now National Day in Singapore is celebrated on August ninth.
(09:41):
Independence Day in Malaysia is August thirty first. I'm Eve
Jefcote and hopefully you know a little more about history
today than you did yesterday. Come back tomorrow for another
tibit from history
Speaker 2 (10:02):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey there, history fans. We're off this week so that
I can move across country. But don't worry, We've got
plenty of classic shows to tide you over. Please enjoy
these flashback episodes from the TDI HC Vault.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to This Day in History Class from HowStuffWorks 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 and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and it's August thirty first. The
(00:35):
body of Mary Ann Nichols, who was known as Polly,
was found on this day in eighteen eighty eight. She
was the first of the five canonical victims of Jack
the Ripper. Those five canonical murders happened between August thirty
first and November ninth, eighteen eighty eight, in order of
when their bodies were found. They were Mary Ann Nichols
and Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Edos, and Mary Jane Kelly.
(00:59):
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 Whitechapel Murders.
Sometimes all eleven are attributed to Jack the Ripper, but
those five are considered the canonical five. All of them
were or had been sex workers. All but one was
(01:21):
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 on really hard times. She was living
in extreme poverty. She was living in a series of workhouses,
(01:43):
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 she didn't have
any money, and if there was no room in the workhouse,
she had nowhere to stay. At about two o'clock in
the morning on August thirty first, she was thrown out
of the kitchen of the rooming house where she'd been
staying because she didn't have the money to pay. But
(02:05):
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
way to work through bucks Row, which was basically an alley.
One of them saw what looked like a tarp or
(02:25):
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 did tell a constable what
they had seen. When the constable came, he realized this
was a dead woman, that her throat had been cut
(02:47):
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
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
(03:10):
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
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
(03:32):
as a publicity stunt by the staff. And since eighteen
eighty eight, hundreds of people have been brought forth as
suspects for being 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 Lewis Carroll
(03:54):
to H. H. Holmes, who later lured victims into a
so called murder castle during the eighteen ninety three Colombian Exposition.
This one led to an exhamation of Holmes's remains in
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
(04:17):
about fictionalized versions of the murders, or novels that base
themselves off of the Jack the Ripper story in some way,
and of course there are also dozens of movies. Thanks
to Christopher Hasiotis for his research work on today's episode,
you can subscribe to the Day in History Class on
Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and wherever else you get your podcasts,
(04:37):
and you can tune in tomorrow for a terrifying dive
and a dramatic rescue.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Welcome back to this Day in History class, where we
reveal a new piece of history every day. The day
was August thirty first, nineteen sixty three, Prime Minister of
(05:10):
Singapore Li Kwan Yu declared de facto independence for Singapore.
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 PAP
(05:35):
won forty three of the fifty one seats in the
Legislative Assembly. The PAP 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 PAP appointed
(05:58):
Li Kwan Yu the Prime Minister of Singapore. The Federation
of Malaya was made up of the nine Malay States
and the straight 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
(06:20):
on August thirty first, nineteen fifty seven. The leadership of
the PAP 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 percent of
people voted in favor of this merger, and on August
(06:42):
thirty first, nineteen sixty three, Prime Minister Li Kuan yu
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
(07:04):
and the 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
governments questioned the legality and validity of Singapore's claim to
powers over its defense and external affairs. The Federation of
(07:28):
Malaysia was supposed to be inaugurated on this day to
coincide with the date of Malayan independence, but that was
postponed until September sixteenth so that the United Nations could
have more time to determine whether people in the Borneo
territories of Saba and Sarawak wanted to be part of Malaysia.
(07:50):
On September sixteenth, Singapore united with the Federation of Malaya,
Saba and Sarawak to form Malaysia. The PAP one thirty
seven seats in a general election five days later, but
that union did not last long. Malayan and Singaporean leaders
could not agree on political approach and economic and racial policy.
(08:15):
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 a threat
to their Malay heritage. The PAP and the United Malays
(08:35):
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 agreed to a two
year truce in September of nineteen sixty four, but tensions
(08:57):
did not ease by nineteen sixty five. On August ninth,
nineteen sixty five, Singapore separated from Malaysia. The proclamation declaring
Singapore's independence was announced on Radio Singapore at ten am
that day. Singapore TV also aired a press conference that
(09:18):
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 first, nineteen sixty three, and the initial response was disappointment.
Now National Day in Singapore is celebrated on August ninth.
(09:41):
Independence Day in Malaysia is August thirty first. I'm Eve
Jefcote and hopefully you know a little more about history
today than you did yesterday. Come back tomorrow for another
tibit from history
Speaker 2 (10:02):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
This Day in History Class News
Host
Gabe Luzier
Show Links
AboutPopular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.