June 13, 2021 • 12 mins
On this day in 1911, physicist and Nobel Prize winner Luis W. Alavarez was born. / On this day in 1971, the New York Times began publishing excerpts from the Pentagon Papers.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, y'all were rerunning two episodes today in Troy, the
show Hi There, Welcome to this day in History class,
where we stifted through the artifacts of history seven days
a week. The day was June nineteen eleven. Luise Walter
(00:23):
Alvarez was born in San Francisco to Walter and Harriett Alvarez.
Alvarez was a physicist who worked on radar projects during
World War Two, an inventor and winner of the Nobel
Prize in physics. Luise's father, Walter, was a physician and
later a research physiologist, and early on Louise would go
(00:44):
to the lab with him. When Louise was eleven years old,
he and his dad made a radio together. Later, Louise
attended San Francisco Polytechnic High School, but ended up moving
to Rochester, Minnesota. While he was enrolled, they his father
worked for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and Louise began
(01:05):
apprenticing at the Mayo Clinics instrument shop and being tutored
by machinists while he was still in high school. Alvarez
went on to study physics at the University of Chicago,
where he got his bachelor's, master's and doctorate. As he
was finishing up his pH d, he married Geraldine Smithik.
The two of them later had two children, as well
(01:27):
as a daughter who died at birth. They later divorced.
Louise then completed a lot of work in California. After
getting his PhD. He got a job with Ernest Lawrence
at the University of California, largely through connections his father
and sister had With Lawrence, Alvarez worked on the cyclotron,
(01:48):
a type of particle accelerator, in the radiation laboratory at
the University of California at Berkeley. He also worked in
a metallurgical laboratory of the University of Chicago and Loos,
the most laboratory of the Manhattan District. Alvarez was a
prolific scientists, but we'll touch on just some of his
discoveries and achievements. He discovered the East West effect and
(02:11):
cosmic rays, a discovery that gave evidence that cosmic rays
include positively charged particles. Once he joined the radiation lab
at the University of California, he focused on nuclear physics.
In nineteen thirty seven, he gave the first experimental demonstration
of k electron captured by nuclei, which was a phenomenon
(02:32):
that had not yet been proven. He also developed a
method for producing themes of very slow neutrons. Alvarez also
developed a mercury vapor lamp with one of his students
named Jake Waen's. That development established a new standard of
length that the U. S Bureau of Standards adopted, but
as World War Two broke out, his career shifted gears.
(02:55):
In nineteen forty, Alvarez went to work on radar technology
at the masha US Institute of Technology, where he worked
on a microwave early warning system and the Eagle high
altitude bombing system. He also invented the Vixen radar system,
which deceived skippers into thinking an Allied plane was flying
(03:16):
away from a German submarine and allowed attack planes to
destroy the U boats. Luise also figured out a way
to help planes land and bad weather when he invented
ground control approach. When Louise left the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
he went to work on the Manhattan Project. He worked
on nuclear bombs in Chicago, created detonators for plutonium bombs
(03:39):
in New Mexico, and was on the plane that conducted
the first ever atomic bomb test. He was also on
the plane that dropped the atomic bomb Little Boy, on Hiroshima.
Before Fat Man, the second atomic bomb was dropped over Nagasaki.
Alvarez wrote a letter to a Japanese physicist he knew,
urging him to tell Japanese leaders that if they continued
(04:01):
in the war, another bomb would be dropped on the country.
Though Avarez recognized the horror and devastation that the bombs caused,
he believed that the bombs would end the war and
bring some sort of peace to the world. He also
thought that the U. S should continue research and develop
a hydrogen bomb. After the war, he went back to Berkeley.
(04:23):
He designed and constructed a forty foot proton linear accelerator.
He also did a lot of work with large liquid
hydrogen bubble chambers, and he helped identify many new particles.
In nineteen sixty eight, Luis won the Nobel Prize for
his quote decisive contributions to elementary particle physics, in particular
(04:45):
the discovery of a large number of resident states, made
possible through his development of the technique of using hydrogen
bubble chamber and data analysis. After this point, he spent
a lot of his time studying in cosmic raise. His
later life took another surprising, yet not indecipherable turn. He
put a lot of effort into figuring out the details
(05:08):
of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and he
and his geologist son Walter theorized that an asteroid impact
had led to the extinction of dinosaurs and the end
of the Cretaceous period. The new theory caused an uproar
in the scientific community, as it was believed that a
volcano had killed the dinosaurs. Alvarez died of cancer in
(05:30):
nine By the time of his death, he had received
several awards and honorary degrees. I'm Eve Jeffcote and hopefully
you know a little more about history today than you
did yesterday. And if you haven't gotten your fill of
history after listening to today's episode, you can follow us
on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at T D I h
(05:54):
C podcast. And if you'd like to learn more about
Luis Alvarez, listen to the two part episode of Stuff
You Missed in History Class called Louise w. Alvarez. The
link is in the description. If you listen to the
show every day, you probably already know that I have
a new show that's called Unpopular about People in History,
(06:15):
and if you haven't gotten a chance to check it
out yet, please do. Thanks again for listening and we'll
see you tomorrow. Hey, y'all, I'm Eves and welcome to
This Day in History Class, a podcast that brings you
a tip bit of history every day. And if I
(06:36):
sound any different, it's because I am no longer recording
from the closet that was my unofficial studio for a minute.
Um I moved, which required me to switch at the
set up, But as we all know here as history enthusiasts,
change is inevitable. On that note, I wanted to also
take a moment to acknowledge the huge moment of change
that we are currently living in, from COVID to the
(06:59):
demonstrations that began in response to the murder of George
Floyd by a police officer. It's literally a moment for
the history books. And if you've been listening to the
show for a while, you probably know that I think
it is deeply important to cover the history of black
people around the world, and you also probably know that
I care about covering the history of social movements, black protests,
(07:22):
and of resistance generally, and black lives matter to me
forever and for always. I hope that y'all can look
back on some of the episodes that we've done in
the past on black revolutionaries, organizers, artists, and uprising, as
well as the episodes that detailed the injustices that black
folks have faced because of racism, to gain some perspective
(07:45):
and some context and to develop informed opinions. I hope
that you'll find a way to take action, and you
can find resources online on how to help the efforts
against police brutality and racism. You can protest, can donate
to the families of people affected by police brutality, and
you can donate to bail funds. If that's not something
(08:07):
that you can do, you can also share anti racist resources,
and you can do things like have hard conversations with
people who you care about. You have the tools, so
stay safe out there, y'all, be bold and don't be
afraid to learn and unlearn. Now let's get into today's episode.
(08:33):
The day was June nineteen seventy one. The New York
Times began publishing excerpts from the Pentagon Papers. The Pentagon Papers,
officially called the Report of the Office of the Secretary
of Defense. Vietnam Task Force contain a history of US
political and military involvement in Southeast Asia from to nineteen
(08:54):
sixty seven. In June two eleven, the complete report was
declassified and east to the public. In nineteen sixty seven,
U s Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara commissioned a report
on the history of the Vietnam War. The exact reasons
McNamara commissioned the report are unclear and remain a subject
of debate. McNamara claimed that he wanted a written record
(09:18):
of the US's involvement in Southeast Asia to preserve for scholars.
Neither President Lyndon Johnson nor Secretary of State Dean Rusk
believed that claim. Some people believe that McNamara ordered the
report to help Robert Kennedy get the Democratic presidential nomination
in nineteen sixty eight. Regardless, the study was completed in
(09:38):
nineteen sixty nine. It was made up of seven thousand
pages bound into forty seven volumes that included three thousand
pages of historical studies and four thousand pages of government documents.
Fifteen copies of the report were made. Some of the
people involved were concerned about the paper being destroyed or leaked.
At the time, the federal government class to find the
(10:00):
Pentagon papers as top secret, but Daniel Ellsberg, who had
worked at a think tank called the Rand Corporation, contributed
to the study. He opposed the Vietnam War. The report
revealed that US involvement was greater than the government had acknowledged.
Among many other topics, it addressed the overthrow of South
Vietnam's President Go Dandem, the build up of US forces
(10:23):
in Vietnam, and the Johnson administration's response to pressures for negotiations.
With the help of his former colleague Anthony Russo, Ellsberg
photocopy the report. When he took the info to the
National Security Advisor and U S Senators, they refused to
hold hearings on the papers, so he took the report
to Neil Sheehan, a New York Times reporter. The New
(10:45):
York Times was the first paper to publish parts of
the Pentagon Papers, starting on June thirteenth, ninete. The first
article published was titled Vietnam Archive. Pentagon Study traces three
decades of growing US involvement In it, Sheen said that
the study quote demonstrates that four administrations progressively developed a
(11:06):
sense of commitment to a non communist Vietnam, a readiness
to fight the North to protect the South, and an
ultimate frustration with this effort to a much greater extent
than their public statements acknowledged at the time. The Times
published three articles about the study in two days. A
federal court injunction forced the paper to stop publishing the articles,
(11:28):
but soon the Washington Post began publishing articles on the
Pentagon Papers, and on June the Supreme Court decided that
the injunctions the Nixon administration sought against those publishing the
papers were unconstitutional prior restraint. Ellsberg and Russo were charged
with conspiracy, misappropriation of government property, and violations of the
(11:49):
Espionage Act, but the charges were later dismissed due to
investigations that took place during Nixon's Watergate scandal. The release
of the Pentagon Papers incited international controversy over US actions
in Southeast Asia. In two thousand eleven, the entire study
was declassified and released with no redactions. I'm eve Chef Coote,
(12:11):
and hopefully you know a little more about history today
than you did yesterday. And as always, if you have
any comment source suggestions. You can send them to us
at this day at iHeart media dot com. You can
also hit us up on social media on Facebook, Twitter,
or Instagram. Where at t D i h C podcast
Thanks again for listening to the show and we'll see
(12:33):
you tomorrow. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit
the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Hey, y'all were rerunning two episodes today in Troy, the
show Hi There, Welcome to this day in History class,
where we stifted through the artifacts of history seven days
a week. The day was June nineteen eleven. Luise Walter
(00:23):
Alvarez was born in San Francisco to Walter and Harriett Alvarez.
Alvarez was a physicist who worked on radar projects during
World War Two, an inventor and winner of the Nobel
Prize in physics. Luise's father, Walter, was a physician and
later a research physiologist, and early on Louise would go
(00:44):
to the lab with him. When Louise was eleven years old,
he and his dad made a radio together. Later, Louise
attended San Francisco Polytechnic High School, but ended up moving
to Rochester, Minnesota. While he was enrolled, they his father
worked for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and Louise began
(01:05):
apprenticing at the Mayo Clinics instrument shop and being tutored
by machinists while he was still in high school. Alvarez
went on to study physics at the University of Chicago,
where he got his bachelor's, master's and doctorate. As he
was finishing up his pH d, he married Geraldine Smithik.
The two of them later had two children, as well
(01:27):
as a daughter who died at birth. They later divorced.
Louise then completed a lot of work in California. After
getting his PhD. He got a job with Ernest Lawrence
at the University of California, largely through connections his father
and sister had With Lawrence, Alvarez worked on the cyclotron,
(01:48):
a type of particle accelerator, in the radiation laboratory at
the University of California at Berkeley. He also worked in
a metallurgical laboratory of the University of Chicago and Loos,
the most laboratory of the Manhattan District. Alvarez was a
prolific scientists, but we'll touch on just some of his
discoveries and achievements. He discovered the East West effect and
(02:11):
cosmic rays, a discovery that gave evidence that cosmic rays
include positively charged particles. Once he joined the radiation lab
at the University of California, he focused on nuclear physics.
In nineteen thirty seven, he gave the first experimental demonstration
of k electron captured by nuclei, which was a phenomenon
(02:32):
that had not yet been proven. He also developed a
method for producing themes of very slow neutrons. Alvarez also
developed a mercury vapor lamp with one of his students
named Jake Waen's. That development established a new standard of
length that the U. S Bureau of Standards adopted, but
as World War Two broke out, his career shifted gears.
(02:55):
In nineteen forty, Alvarez went to work on radar technology
at the masha US Institute of Technology, where he worked
on a microwave early warning system and the Eagle high
altitude bombing system. He also invented the Vixen radar system,
which deceived skippers into thinking an Allied plane was flying
(03:16):
away from a German submarine and allowed attack planes to
destroy the U boats. Luise also figured out a way
to help planes land and bad weather when he invented
ground control approach. When Louise left the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
he went to work on the Manhattan Project. He worked
on nuclear bombs in Chicago, created detonators for plutonium bombs
(03:39):
in New Mexico, and was on the plane that conducted
the first ever atomic bomb test. He was also on
the plane that dropped the atomic bomb Little Boy, on Hiroshima.
Before Fat Man, the second atomic bomb was dropped over Nagasaki.
Alvarez wrote a letter to a Japanese physicist he knew,
urging him to tell Japanese leaders that if they continued
(04:01):
in the war, another bomb would be dropped on the country.
Though Avarez recognized the horror and devastation that the bombs caused,
he believed that the bombs would end the war and
bring some sort of peace to the world. He also
thought that the U. S should continue research and develop
a hydrogen bomb. After the war, he went back to Berkeley.
(04:23):
He designed and constructed a forty foot proton linear accelerator.
He also did a lot of work with large liquid
hydrogen bubble chambers, and he helped identify many new particles.
In nineteen sixty eight, Luis won the Nobel Prize for
his quote decisive contributions to elementary particle physics, in particular
(04:45):
the discovery of a large number of resident states, made
possible through his development of the technique of using hydrogen
bubble chamber and data analysis. After this point, he spent
a lot of his time studying in cosmic raise. His
later life took another surprising, yet not indecipherable turn. He
put a lot of effort into figuring out the details
(05:08):
of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and he
and his geologist son Walter theorized that an asteroid impact
had led to the extinction of dinosaurs and the end
of the Cretaceous period. The new theory caused an uproar
in the scientific community, as it was believed that a
volcano had killed the dinosaurs. Alvarez died of cancer in
(05:30):
nine By the time of his death, he had received
several awards and honorary degrees. I'm Eve Jeffcote and hopefully
you know a little more about history today than you
did yesterday. And if you haven't gotten your fill of
history after listening to today's episode, you can follow us
on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at T D I h
(05:54):
C podcast. And if you'd like to learn more about
Luis Alvarez, listen to the two part episode of Stuff
You Missed in History Class called Louise w. Alvarez. The
link is in the description. If you listen to the
show every day, you probably already know that I have
a new show that's called Unpopular about People in History,
(06:15):
and if you haven't gotten a chance to check it
out yet, please do. Thanks again for listening and we'll
see you tomorrow. Hey, y'all, I'm Eves and welcome to
This Day in History Class, a podcast that brings you
a tip bit of history every day. And if I
(06:36):
sound any different, it's because I am no longer recording
from the closet that was my unofficial studio for a minute.
Um I moved, which required me to switch at the
set up, But as we all know here as history enthusiasts,
change is inevitable. On that note, I wanted to also
take a moment to acknowledge the huge moment of change
that we are currently living in, from COVID to the
(06:59):
demonstrations that began in response to the murder of George
Floyd by a police officer. It's literally a moment for
the history books. And if you've been listening to the
show for a while, you probably know that I think
it is deeply important to cover the history of black
people around the world, and you also probably know that
I care about covering the history of social movements, black protests,
(07:22):
and of resistance generally, and black lives matter to me
forever and for always. I hope that y'all can look
back on some of the episodes that we've done in
the past on black revolutionaries, organizers, artists, and uprising, as
well as the episodes that detailed the injustices that black
folks have faced because of racism, to gain some perspective
(07:45):
and some context and to develop informed opinions. I hope
that you'll find a way to take action, and you
can find resources online on how to help the efforts
against police brutality and racism. You can protest, can donate
to the families of people affected by police brutality, and
you can donate to bail funds. If that's not something
(08:07):
that you can do, you can also share anti racist resources,
and you can do things like have hard conversations with
people who you care about. You have the tools, so
stay safe out there, y'all, be bold and don't be
afraid to learn and unlearn. Now let's get into today's episode.
(08:33):
The day was June nineteen seventy one. The New York
Times began publishing excerpts from the Pentagon Papers. The Pentagon Papers,
officially called the Report of the Office of the Secretary
of Defense. Vietnam Task Force contain a history of US
political and military involvement in Southeast Asia from to nineteen
(08:54):
sixty seven. In June two eleven, the complete report was
declassified and east to the public. In nineteen sixty seven,
U s Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara commissioned a report
on the history of the Vietnam War. The exact reasons
McNamara commissioned the report are unclear and remain a subject
of debate. McNamara claimed that he wanted a written record
(09:18):
of the US's involvement in Southeast Asia to preserve for scholars.
Neither President Lyndon Johnson nor Secretary of State Dean Rusk
believed that claim. Some people believe that McNamara ordered the
report to help Robert Kennedy get the Democratic presidential nomination
in nineteen sixty eight. Regardless, the study was completed in
(09:38):
nineteen sixty nine. It was made up of seven thousand
pages bound into forty seven volumes that included three thousand
pages of historical studies and four thousand pages of government documents.
Fifteen copies of the report were made. Some of the
people involved were concerned about the paper being destroyed or leaked.
At the time, the federal government class to find the
(10:00):
Pentagon papers as top secret, but Daniel Ellsberg, who had
worked at a think tank called the Rand Corporation, contributed
to the study. He opposed the Vietnam War. The report
revealed that US involvement was greater than the government had acknowledged.
Among many other topics, it addressed the overthrow of South
Vietnam's President Go Dandem, the build up of US forces
(10:23):
in Vietnam, and the Johnson administration's response to pressures for negotiations.
With the help of his former colleague Anthony Russo, Ellsberg
photocopy the report. When he took the info to the
National Security Advisor and U S Senators, they refused to
hold hearings on the papers, so he took the report
to Neil Sheehan, a New York Times reporter. The New
(10:45):
York Times was the first paper to publish parts of
the Pentagon Papers, starting on June thirteenth, ninete. The first
article published was titled Vietnam Archive. Pentagon Study traces three
decades of growing US involvement In it, Sheen said that
the study quote demonstrates that four administrations progressively developed a
(11:06):
sense of commitment to a non communist Vietnam, a readiness
to fight the North to protect the South, and an
ultimate frustration with this effort to a much greater extent
than their public statements acknowledged at the time. The Times
published three articles about the study in two days. A
federal court injunction forced the paper to stop publishing the articles,
(11:28):
but soon the Washington Post began publishing articles on the
Pentagon Papers, and on June the Supreme Court decided that
the injunctions the Nixon administration sought against those publishing the
papers were unconstitutional prior restraint. Ellsberg and Russo were charged
with conspiracy, misappropriation of government property, and violations of the
(11:49):
Espionage Act, but the charges were later dismissed due to
investigations that took place during Nixon's Watergate scandal. The release
of the Pentagon Papers incited international controversy over US actions
in Southeast Asia. In two thousand eleven, the entire study
was declassified and released with no redactions. I'm eve Chef Coote,
(12:11):
and hopefully you know a little more about history today
than you did yesterday. And as always, if you have
any comment source suggestions. You can send them to us
at this day at iHeart media dot com. You can
also hit us up on social media on Facebook, Twitter,
or Instagram. Where at t D i h C podcast
Thanks again for listening to the show and we'll see
(12:33):
you tomorrow. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit
the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
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