September 12, 2020 • 11 mins
Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett eloped on this day in 1846. / Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie was deposed by military coup on this day in 1974.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, y'all, We're rerunning two episodes today, which means you
might hear two hosts. 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. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
(00:24):
Tracy B. Wilson And at September twelve, Victorian poets Robert
Browning and Elizabeth Barrett eloped on the stay in eighteen
forty six. Elizabeth was born Elizabeth Barrett on March sixth,
eighteen six in County Durham, England. She was the eldest
of eleven children of Edward Moulton Barrett and Mary Graham Clark.
(00:45):
Her family was really well off and she was bright
and precocious and something of a tomboy. As well as
being a very gifted student. She was very bright, mostly
self taught. She started writing from a very young age,
and although her father was extremely act he also really
encouraged her writing. She was also chronically ill, and given
the state of medical care at the time, the treatments
(01:07):
that she got were not effective. Mostly she was given laudanum, which,
in addition to not treating the problem, was also addictive.
Robert Browning was born May seven, eighteen twelve, in a
suburb of London into a middle class family. His father
was a clerk at the Bank of England. Like Elizabeth,
he liked to learn and was mostly self taught, and
he also liked to write, but his writing wasn't as
(01:29):
well received as hers was. But by the eighteen forties
Elizabeth was well known as a writer. She even got
fan mail, and in eighteen forty four she published a
collection of works that included the poem Lady Geraldine's Courtship.
There's a poem about a young poet of modest means
who falls in love with the daughter of an earl.
(01:50):
In it, the young poet talks about reading poems allowed
to his beloved, including the lines quote from Browning some pomegranate, which,
if cut deep down the middle, shows a heart within
blood tinctured of a veined humanity. Robert Browning got a
copy of this collection and he realized that there was
his name right there, and a reference to his work
(02:13):
right there in the work of the very famous poet
Elizabeth Barrett. In January of eighteen forty five, he wrote
her a letter that said, I love your verses with
all my heart, dear miss Barrett, and later on in
that same later he said I love you too. Elizabeth
wrote him back the very next day. They kept up
their correspondence with regular romantic letters. Although Elizabeth didn't think
(02:37):
she was ever going to marry Number one, she was
in our late thirties, so she was basically considered to
be a spinster, and there was also the issue of
her health, which kept her in bed most of the time.
There was also the fact that her father had forbidden
his children to marry. There are a lot of conjectures
about why her father made this proclamation. One hypothesis is
(03:01):
that he thought the family had what he called mixed
blood and that he wanted to put an end to
their line because of that. They were descended from people
who owned a plantation in Jamaica, and he was apparently
afraid that they were descended from the owner and an
enslaved woman, which might actually have applied to Robert Browning
(03:22):
as well. Finally, though Elizabeth Barrett allowed Robert Browning to
call on her on eighteen forty five at about three
in the afternoon. He was immediately besotted, but from there
their correspondence became a little strained, with Elizabeth maybe wondering
if his feelings were sincere, or feeling like he was
(03:42):
coming on too strong, or maybe just being afraid of
her father's reaction. In eighteen forty six, though Elizabeth's doctor
told her she would not survive another winter in England
and that she needed to go to Italy for the
sake of her health, her father absolutely refused to let
her go, so she finally agreed to marry Robert Browning
(04:03):
in secret, even though she was sure she would lose
her father if she did so. They got married and
then for the next week they acted as though nothing
had happened, so that Elizabeth could prepare to go to Italy.
When they left, her father never forgave her, however. Robert
and Elizabeth Barrett Browning lived the rest of their lives
in Italy together. They had a son together in eighteen
(04:25):
forty nine, and she died in Robert's arms after fifteen
years of marriage, on June twenty nine of eighteen sixty one.
You can learn more about all of this, including Robert's
life after Elizabeth's death. In the February fiftwelve episode of
Stuffy Miss in History Class called Elizabeth Barrett and Robert
Browning in Love. You can subscribe to This Day in
(04:45):
History Class on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and wherever else
you get your podcasts. Thanks to Terry Harrison for her
audio work on this show, and you can tune in
tomorrow for an incredible injury. Hey guys, welcome to This
(05:08):
Day in History Class, where we bring you a new
tidbit from history every day. The day was September twelfth,
nineteen seventy four. Emperor of Ethiopia Hila Selassie was deposed
by Marxist colonel man Gitsu Hila Mariam. Just under a
(05:32):
year later, Hila Selassie died. Hila Selassie was born Tafari
mcconan in eighteen ninety two in Harrar, Ethiopia. At this time,
Menelek the second was Emperor of Ethiopia. Mentele Like the
second was known for expanding and modernizing Ethiopia, as well
as defeating an Italian military expedition. He made Addis Ababa
(05:57):
his capital and attempted to suppress the save trade. Hilo
Selassie's father was a chief advisor to Menelik the second.
By the time Hila Selassie was a teenager, his father
had made him commander of a local militia. After his
father died, Hilo Selassie was appointed to be governor of
a small province by Menelik the second. A few years later,
(06:20):
he was promoted to a larger province than a couple
of years after that, he was made governor of Harar.
His policies were progressive, as he tried to limit the
feudal power of nobility by increasing the power of the
central government. He developed a salaried civil service and created
a court system that gave legal rights to the peasantry.
(06:43):
But when Menelik the second died and his grandson lij
Yasu succeeded him, Lijiyasu was viewed as pro Muslim and
unpopular with Ethiopia's Christian majority. Hila Selassie was an Amhara,
which is an Ethiopian ethnic group formed mostly of Orthodox Christians.
He was educated in the tenets of the Coptic Church.
(07:05):
He rose as a prominent voice in the Christian resistance
against Lijyasu, whom he deposed in nineteen sixteen. Mantle, like
the second's daughter Zao Ditto, then became empress in Hila Selassie,
or Ross Safari as he was known, was named Prince
Regent and heir to the throne. Saal Dittu was conservative
(07:27):
and focused on religion, while Higla Selassie maintained his progressive stance.
He replaced conservative members on the Council of Ministers with
his pro reformed supporters. Cars, a printing press, telephone service,
and a reformed justice system were introduced. Ethiopia was admitted
to the League of Nations in nineteen twenty three. He
(07:50):
got international attention as he traveled to France, Sweden, England
and other countries, and in nineteen he was named Negus
or King. Under pressure from his supporters, Jamaicans developed Rastafari,
a religion which has adherents who believed that Hila Selassie
was the second coming of Christ. Two years after he
(08:13):
was appointed King, Salditud died in Holly Selastie was coordinated
as emperor. At that point, he changed his name from
Rastafari to Holly Celastie, which means power of the Trinity.
He enacted Ethiopia's first constitution in nineteen thirty one, creating
a two chamber parliament with a popularly elected lower house
(08:34):
so he could overthrow parliamentary decisions. He continued his efforts
at modernization and centralizing power by strengthening police forces, establishing
provincial schools, and other measures, but after Italy invaded Ethiopia
in nineteen thirty five, Hoila Selassie was forced into exile.
When he returned to Ethiopia, he started again on his
(08:57):
modernization efforts, with an emphasis on education. At the same time,
the government was becoming more corrupt, and despite appearances of reform,
power still resided in the emperor. In nineteen sixty, dissidents
seized control of Oddis Ababa and called for a true
constitutional monarchy with democracy, economic and agricultural reform, and a
(09:22):
real effort to end poverty. The resistance was squashed and
many of its leaders were executed. Highla Selassie then began
to focus on foreign affairs, advocating for Pan Africanism and
playing a key role in the creation of the Organization
of African Unity. But religious and ethnic conflict was escalating
(09:43):
in Ethiopia and so was dissatisfaction with economic conditions. Famine, unemployment,
and political ineptitude led military officers to rebel. In nineteen
seventy four, the emperor's cabinet resigned, Hilly Selassie and his
family members were imprisoned, and the officers formed the DIRT,
(10:03):
or the Provisional Military Government of Socialist Ethiopia. They accused
Hiley Celassie of embezzling and causing the famine. Hiley Celassie
remained in prison until his death in nineteen seventy five.
At the time of his death, reports said that he
died from complications after a procedure, but evidence later turned
(10:25):
up that he had been assassinated by military officers. The
DIRT declared Marxism Leninism the state ideology, and ruled Ethiopia
until nineteen seven. I'm Eve Stefcote and hopefully you know
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
You can find us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at
(10:47):
T D I h C Podcast. Thank you so much
for listening, and I hope to see you again tomorrow
for more tidbits of history m For more podcasts from
My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts,
(11:07):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, y'all, We're rerunning two episodes today, which means you
might hear two hosts. 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. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
(00:24):
Tracy B. Wilson And at September twelve, Victorian poets Robert
Browning and Elizabeth Barrett eloped on the stay in eighteen
forty six. Elizabeth was born Elizabeth Barrett on March sixth,
eighteen six in County Durham, England. She was the eldest
of eleven children of Edward Moulton Barrett and Mary Graham Clark.
(00:45):
Her family was really well off and she was bright
and precocious and something of a tomboy. As well as
being a very gifted student. She was very bright, mostly
self taught. She started writing from a very young age,
and although her father was extremely act he also really
encouraged her writing. She was also chronically ill, and given
the state of medical care at the time, the treatments
(01:07):
that she got were not effective. Mostly she was given laudanum, which,
in addition to not treating the problem, was also addictive.
Robert Browning was born May seven, eighteen twelve, in a
suburb of London into a middle class family. His father
was a clerk at the Bank of England. Like Elizabeth,
he liked to learn and was mostly self taught, and
he also liked to write, but his writing wasn't as
(01:29):
well received as hers was. But by the eighteen forties
Elizabeth was well known as a writer. She even got
fan mail, and in eighteen forty four she published a
collection of works that included the poem Lady Geraldine's Courtship.
There's a poem about a young poet of modest means
who falls in love with the daughter of an earl.
(01:50):
In it, the young poet talks about reading poems allowed
to his beloved, including the lines quote from Browning some pomegranate, which,
if cut deep down the middle, shows a heart within
blood tinctured of a veined humanity. Robert Browning got a
copy of this collection and he realized that there was
his name right there, and a reference to his work
(02:13):
right there in the work of the very famous poet
Elizabeth Barrett. In January of eighteen forty five, he wrote
her a letter that said, I love your verses with
all my heart, dear miss Barrett, and later on in
that same later he said I love you too. Elizabeth
wrote him back the very next day. They kept up
their correspondence with regular romantic letters. Although Elizabeth didn't think
(02:37):
she was ever going to marry Number one, she was
in our late thirties, so she was basically considered to
be a spinster, and there was also the issue of
her health, which kept her in bed most of the time.
There was also the fact that her father had forbidden
his children to marry. There are a lot of conjectures
about why her father made this proclamation. One hypothesis is
(03:01):
that he thought the family had what he called mixed
blood and that he wanted to put an end to
their line because of that. They were descended from people
who owned a plantation in Jamaica, and he was apparently
afraid that they were descended from the owner and an
enslaved woman, which might actually have applied to Robert Browning
(03:22):
as well. Finally, though Elizabeth Barrett allowed Robert Browning to
call on her on eighteen forty five at about three
in the afternoon. He was immediately besotted, but from there
their correspondence became a little strained, with Elizabeth maybe wondering
if his feelings were sincere, or feeling like he was
(03:42):
coming on too strong, or maybe just being afraid of
her father's reaction. In eighteen forty six, though Elizabeth's doctor
told her she would not survive another winter in England
and that she needed to go to Italy for the
sake of her health, her father absolutely refused to let
her go, so she finally agreed to marry Robert Browning
(04:03):
in secret, even though she was sure she would lose
her father if she did so. They got married and
then for the next week they acted as though nothing
had happened, so that Elizabeth could prepare to go to Italy.
When they left, her father never forgave her, however. Robert
and Elizabeth Barrett Browning lived the rest of their lives
in Italy together. They had a son together in eighteen
(04:25):
forty nine, and she died in Robert's arms after fifteen
years of marriage, on June twenty nine of eighteen sixty one.
You can learn more about all of this, including Robert's
life after Elizabeth's death. In the February fiftwelve episode of
Stuffy Miss in History Class called Elizabeth Barrett and Robert
Browning in Love. You can subscribe to This Day in
(04:45):
History Class on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and wherever else
you get your podcasts. Thanks to Terry Harrison for her
audio work on this show, and you can tune in
tomorrow for an incredible injury. Hey guys, welcome to This
(05:08):
Day in History Class, where we bring you a new
tidbit from history every day. The day was September twelfth,
nineteen seventy four. Emperor of Ethiopia Hila Selassie was deposed
by Marxist colonel man Gitsu Hila Mariam. Just under a
(05:32):
year later, Hila Selassie died. Hila Selassie was born Tafari
mcconan in eighteen ninety two in Harrar, Ethiopia. At this time,
Menelek the second was Emperor of Ethiopia. Mentele Like the
second was known for expanding and modernizing Ethiopia, as well
as defeating an Italian military expedition. He made Addis Ababa
(05:57):
his capital and attempted to suppress the save trade. Hilo
Selassie's father was a chief advisor to Menelik the second.
By the time Hila Selassie was a teenager, his father
had made him commander of a local militia. After his
father died, Hilo Selassie was appointed to be governor of
a small province by Menelik the second. A few years later,
(06:20):
he was promoted to a larger province than a couple
of years after that, he was made governor of Harar.
His policies were progressive, as he tried to limit the
feudal power of nobility by increasing the power of the
central government. He developed a salaried civil service and created
a court system that gave legal rights to the peasantry.
(06:43):
But when Menelik the second died and his grandson lij
Yasu succeeded him, Lijiyasu was viewed as pro Muslim and
unpopular with Ethiopia's Christian majority. Hila Selassie was an Amhara,
which is an Ethiopian ethnic group formed mostly of Orthodox Christians.
He was educated in the tenets of the Coptic Church.
(07:05):
He rose as a prominent voice in the Christian resistance
against Lijyasu, whom he deposed in nineteen sixteen. Mantle, like
the second's daughter Zao Ditto, then became empress in Hila Selassie,
or Ross Safari as he was known, was named Prince
Regent and heir to the throne. Saal Dittu was conservative
(07:27):
and focused on religion, while Higla Selassie maintained his progressive stance.
He replaced conservative members on the Council of Ministers with
his pro reformed supporters. Cars, a printing press, telephone service,
and a reformed justice system were introduced. Ethiopia was admitted
to the League of Nations in nineteen twenty three. He
(07:50):
got international attention as he traveled to France, Sweden, England
and other countries, and in nineteen he was named Negus
or King. Under pressure from his supporters, Jamaicans developed Rastafari,
a religion which has adherents who believed that Hila Selassie
was the second coming of Christ. Two years after he
(08:13):
was appointed King, Salditud died in Holly Selastie was coordinated
as emperor. At that point, he changed his name from
Rastafari to Holly Celastie, which means power of the Trinity.
He enacted Ethiopia's first constitution in nineteen thirty one, creating
a two chamber parliament with a popularly elected lower house
(08:34):
so he could overthrow parliamentary decisions. He continued his efforts
at modernization and centralizing power by strengthening police forces, establishing
provincial schools, and other measures, but after Italy invaded Ethiopia
in nineteen thirty five, Hoila Selassie was forced into exile.
When he returned to Ethiopia, he started again on his
(08:57):
modernization efforts, with an emphasis on education. At the same time,
the government was becoming more corrupt, and despite appearances of reform,
power still resided in the emperor. In nineteen sixty, dissidents
seized control of Oddis Ababa and called for a true
constitutional monarchy with democracy, economic and agricultural reform, and a
(09:22):
real effort to end poverty. The resistance was squashed and
many of its leaders were executed. Highla Selassie then began
to focus on foreign affairs, advocating for Pan Africanism and
playing a key role in the creation of the Organization
of African Unity. But religious and ethnic conflict was escalating
(09:43):
in Ethiopia and so was dissatisfaction with economic conditions. Famine, unemployment,
and political ineptitude led military officers to rebel. In nineteen
seventy four, the emperor's cabinet resigned, Hilly Selassie and his
family members were imprisoned, and the officers formed the DIRT,
(10:03):
or the Provisional Military Government of Socialist Ethiopia. They accused
Hiley Celassie of embezzling and causing the famine. Hiley Celassie
remained in prison until his death in nineteen seventy five.
At the time of his death, reports said that he
died from complications after a procedure, but evidence later turned
(10:25):
up that he had been assassinated by military officers. The
DIRT declared Marxism Leninism the state ideology, and ruled Ethiopia
until nineteen seven. I'm Eve Stefcote and hopefully you know
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
You can find us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at
(10:47):
T D I h C Podcast. Thank you so much
for listening, and I hope to see you again tomorrow
for more tidbits of history m For more podcasts from
My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts,
(11:07):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
This Day in History Class News
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