July 17, 2020 • 10 mins
The Romanov family was executed on this day in 1918. / On this day in 1959, paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey discovered the skull of a hominin called Paranthropus boisei, also known as Zinj or the Nutcracker Man.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, y'all, Eve's here. Today's episode contains not just one,
but two nuggets of history. These are coming from the
T D I H vall, so you'll also here to hosts.
Consider it a double feature. Enjoy the show. Welcome to
this day in History class. It's July. The Romanovs were
(00:21):
executed on this day in en. It is one of
the more famous mass executions in history, and it also
spawned an ongoing mystery about whether maybe one of the
Romanov children had escaped. The Romanovs were an imperial dynasty.
They ruled Russia for more than three hundred years after
coming to power in sixteen, and the head of the
(00:44):
Romanov family in question at this point was Czar Nicholas.
The second he came to power in he had a
reputation for being cruel and out of touch and easy
to manipulate. Not a great combination and a leader, but
he was also deeply patriotic, religiously vary, devout, and devoted
to his family. Ultimately, though he was not a popular
(01:07):
ruler at all. Things got worse when the Russian Revolution
of nineteen oh five started. This revolution followed Russia's defeat
in a war with Japan and the thing that sparked it.
Even though things were difficult in the aftermath of this war,
what really launched it was a protest by workers. The
(01:27):
Czar's troops opened fire on these protesting workers, killing more
than a hundred people, and this was one of the
many events in history to later be described as Bloody Sunday.
This massacre sparked the revolution, which led to a general
strike and a counter revolution and just ongoing unrest. Then
World War One made things even harder. Then the February
(01:50):
Revolution started in the early months of nineteen seventeen that
was connected to food shortages which had been ongoing through
a lot of this. By this point, Nicholas and his
wife Alexandra were widely hated. They were not trusted at all.
They'd also had a whole long ordeal with an advisor, Rasputin,
(02:10):
who had said that he could treat their only son, Alexei,
for hemophilia, which was not a treatable condition or a
curable condition at the time, and Alexei, as their only son,
was supposed to be the heir to the throne. Resputin
had been murdered by a group of nobles in a
prolonged effort that involved as being poisoned, shot, shot again, beaten,
(02:32):
and thrown into the river. Then another revolution followed later
on in nineteen seventeen. That was the Bolshevik Revolution, which
was led by Vladimir Lenin, and that led to a
civil war. The Bolsheviks took over for the provisional government
that had been put in place. The Romanovs were placed
under house arrest for months, and then they were exiled
(02:54):
to Siberia in August of nineteen seventeen. They continued to
be moved around and just generally not treated well during
their imprisonment, and then finally they and some servants that
were loyal to them were all executed on July seventeenth
of nineteen eighteen. There were still a few other Romanov
family members still living in Russia at this time. They
(03:15):
all fled and the Bolsheviks evolved into the Communist Party.
Rumors started not long at all after this execution about
whether one of the children, particularly Anastasia, who was the
youngest daughter, had escaped. Thus, there were several Anastasia impostors
and people who made various claims to being the surviving
(03:36):
daughter of the Romanovs. The most famous was named Anna Anderson,
and she was proved not to be legitimate after her death.
Nine bodies were discovered in nineteen seventy nine, although the
find wasn't disclosed for decades, and DNA analysis suggested that
these were the Romanov parents, three of their children, and
four unrelated people who were their attendants. There was those
(03:59):
somepute about these results and whether they were correct or not,
but regardless, that find left two children, Alexei and Anastasia,
unaccounted for, so people still wondered if maybe any of
these Anastasia claimants had been legitimate. Two more bodies were
found in two thousand and seven, though and overall, the
conclusion at this point is that these are all of
(04:22):
the bodies of the Romanovs, and that they all were
killed in nineteen eighteen. In two thousand and eight, the
Russian Supreme Court ruled that they had been victims of
political oppression by the Bolsheviks, and the Russian Orthodox Church
Council of Bishops also voted to canonize the family in
two thousand. You can learn more about all of this
in the March ten episode of Stuff You miss in
(04:44):
History Class called what Happened to the romanofs and also
in the September three, two thousand and eight episode of
Stuff You Miss in History Class called how did Raspute
and Really Die? Thanks also to Eaves Jeff Cope for
her research work on this podcast, and to Tari Harrison
for her audio work and all these episodes. You can
subscribe to This Day in History Class on Apple Podcasts,
(05:04):
Google Podcasts, and wherever else you get podcasts. Tomorrow, tune
in for a famous fire which did happen, but one
of the most famous things about it probably did not. Hello, Hello, everyone,
Welcome to this Day in History Class, where we bring
(05:26):
you a new tidbit from history every day. The day
was July sev nineteen fifty nine. English archaeologist Mary Leaky
discovered the school of an ancient hominin now known as
parenthesist boy c I. Paleo Anthropologists found the first Pe
(05:50):
boy c I fossils in East Africa in fifty five,
but it was not taxonomically classified until later. After Leaky's find,
Pe boise I was identified as a new species. Mary
and her husband, Lewis, who was also an archaeologist, had
already made some important archaeological discoveries before they came across P.
Boy c I. They found a complete skull of an
(06:13):
early Miocene ape in nineteen forty eight, and Mary recorded
Tanzanian rock paintings in nineteen fifty one, but the P.
Boy c I fossils were Mary's most famous discovery. From
nineteen fifty one to nineteen fifty eight, the Leakies excavated
Bad two of the Old Divide Gorge, an important paleo
anthropological site near the border of Kenya and Tanzania. There
(06:36):
are seven major stratigraphic units, or layers of deposition in
the gorge. Bed two is stated at about one point
one five million to one point seven million years old,
but in nineteen fifty nine the Leakies turned their attention
to BID one, which is about one point seven million
to two point one million years old. On July seventeenth,
(06:56):
nineteen fifty nine, Louis remained at camp because he was sick,
but when Mary was out working, she found the remains
of a skull at a site named f. LK Zinge,
about twenty two ft below the upper limit of Bed one.
The Leakies ended up uncovering about four hundred fragments that
made up a nearly complete skull. The specimen was label
(07:16):
O H five or Old V Hominid five. It had
large teeth, leading people to dub the specimen nutcracker Man.
Raymond Dart and Robert Broom had found similar specimens in
South Africa, but in August the Leakies published the Discovery
and Nature and called it Zenjanis boy c I. Though
they considered including it in the genus Astrolopiscus, they decided
(07:39):
to define a new genus for the specimen. The word
Zin is an Old Arabic word that referred to East Africa,
and the word boise I came from the name Charles Boise,
who had been financing the Leaky's expeditions. They also found
stone tools in bed one, though those tools were later
linked to Homo habilists. Zenjianpis boy c I later reclassify
(08:02):
Australopithecus boy c I and then Paranthropist boy c I.
Was dated to one point seven five million years ago.
That made it the oldest hominin discovered at the time,
Though previous finds have been difficult to date due to
the limits of contemporary technology. The find marked a change
in the way scientists traced human evolution. At the time,
(08:23):
the commonly held view was that human lineage had its
roots in Asia, but the discovery of P. Boy c
I suggested that hominins evolved in Africa. The discovery of P.
Boy c I got the Leakies funding from National Geographic
which allowed them to work on more projects. Mary and
her son Jonathan found a hominin in nineteen sixty one
(08:44):
that Louis Leaky, Philip Tobias, and John Napier called Homo
habilists in their nineteen sixty four paper in the journal Nature.
They called it Homo habilists because they believed it used tools.
Louis Leaky thought that it was the first member of
the genus Homo, and that it co existed with P.
Boy c I. Later discoveries confirmed that more than one
(09:04):
species of early humans lived in the same geographical area
at the same time, and in the late nineteen seventies,
Mary and her team discovered hominid footprints and volcanic ash
at the Liatoli beds near Old Duvai Gorge. There were
three million to three point five million years old left
by an upright bipedal hominin, possibly Austra Lopithecus, and forensis,
(09:28):
as there was controversy in the scientific community over just
how bipedal early hominins were. This was a significant discovery.
During the same time period, Mary's team found the remains
of early hominids in fifteen new animal species. More P.
Boy c I fossils were found in the years after
Lakey's discovery. Debate over the lineage and taxonomy of P.
(09:52):
Boy c I continues today. I'm Eves Jeff Coote and
hopefully you know a little more about history today than
you did yesterday. If you feel like correcting my pronunciation
or my accent on anything that I've said in the show,
feel free to leave a very kind comment on Twitter,
Instagram or Facebook. At t D I h C podcast,
(10:16):
We'll see you here in the same place tomorrow. For
more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Hey, y'all, Eve's here. Today's episode contains not just one,
but two nuggets of history. These are coming from the
T D I H vall, so you'll also here to hosts.
Consider it a double feature. Enjoy the show. Welcome to
this day in History class. It's July. The Romanovs were
(00:21):
executed on this day in en. It is one of
the more famous mass executions in history, and it also
spawned an ongoing mystery about whether maybe one of the
Romanov children had escaped. The Romanovs were an imperial dynasty.
They ruled Russia for more than three hundred years after
coming to power in sixteen, and the head of the
(00:44):
Romanov family in question at this point was Czar Nicholas.
The second he came to power in he had a
reputation for being cruel and out of touch and easy
to manipulate. Not a great combination and a leader, but
he was also deeply patriotic, religiously vary, devout, and devoted
to his family. Ultimately, though he was not a popular
(01:07):
ruler at all. Things got worse when the Russian Revolution
of nineteen oh five started. This revolution followed Russia's defeat
in a war with Japan and the thing that sparked it.
Even though things were difficult in the aftermath of this war,
what really launched it was a protest by workers. The
(01:27):
Czar's troops opened fire on these protesting workers, killing more
than a hundred people, and this was one of the
many events in history to later be described as Bloody Sunday.
This massacre sparked the revolution, which led to a general
strike and a counter revolution and just ongoing unrest. Then
World War One made things even harder. Then the February
(01:50):
Revolution started in the early months of nineteen seventeen that
was connected to food shortages which had been ongoing through
a lot of this. By this point, Nicholas and his
wife Alexandra were widely hated. They were not trusted at all.
They'd also had a whole long ordeal with an advisor, Rasputin,
(02:10):
who had said that he could treat their only son, Alexei,
for hemophilia, which was not a treatable condition or a
curable condition at the time, and Alexei, as their only son,
was supposed to be the heir to the throne. Resputin
had been murdered by a group of nobles in a
prolonged effort that involved as being poisoned, shot, shot again, beaten,
(02:32):
and thrown into the river. Then another revolution followed later
on in nineteen seventeen. That was the Bolshevik Revolution, which
was led by Vladimir Lenin, and that led to a
civil war. The Bolsheviks took over for the provisional government
that had been put in place. The Romanovs were placed
under house arrest for months, and then they were exiled
(02:54):
to Siberia in August of nineteen seventeen. They continued to
be moved around and just generally not treated well during
their imprisonment, and then finally they and some servants that
were loyal to them were all executed on July seventeenth
of nineteen eighteen. There were still a few other Romanov
family members still living in Russia at this time. They
(03:15):
all fled and the Bolsheviks evolved into the Communist Party.
Rumors started not long at all after this execution about
whether one of the children, particularly Anastasia, who was the
youngest daughter, had escaped. Thus, there were several Anastasia impostors
and people who made various claims to being the surviving
(03:36):
daughter of the Romanovs. The most famous was named Anna Anderson,
and she was proved not to be legitimate after her death.
Nine bodies were discovered in nineteen seventy nine, although the
find wasn't disclosed for decades, and DNA analysis suggested that
these were the Romanov parents, three of their children, and
four unrelated people who were their attendants. There was those
(03:59):
somepute about these results and whether they were correct or not,
but regardless, that find left two children, Alexei and Anastasia,
unaccounted for, so people still wondered if maybe any of
these Anastasia claimants had been legitimate. Two more bodies were
found in two thousand and seven, though and overall, the
conclusion at this point is that these are all of
(04:22):
the bodies of the Romanovs, and that they all were
killed in nineteen eighteen. In two thousand and eight, the
Russian Supreme Court ruled that they had been victims of
political oppression by the Bolsheviks, and the Russian Orthodox Church
Council of Bishops also voted to canonize the family in
two thousand. You can learn more about all of this
in the March ten episode of Stuff You miss in
(04:44):
History Class called what Happened to the romanofs and also
in the September three, two thousand and eight episode of
Stuff You Miss in History Class called how did Raspute
and Really Die? Thanks also to Eaves Jeff Cope for
her research work on this podcast, and to Tari Harrison
for her audio work and all these episodes. You can
subscribe to This Day in History Class on Apple Podcasts,
(05:04):
Google Podcasts, and wherever else you get podcasts. Tomorrow, tune
in for a famous fire which did happen, but one
of the most famous things about it probably did not. Hello, Hello, everyone,
Welcome to this Day in History Class, where we bring
(05:26):
you a new tidbit from history every day. The day
was July sev nineteen fifty nine. English archaeologist Mary Leaky
discovered the school of an ancient hominin now known as
parenthesist boy c I. Paleo Anthropologists found the first Pe
(05:50):
boy c I fossils in East Africa in fifty five,
but it was not taxonomically classified until later. After Leaky's find,
Pe boise I was identified as a new species. Mary
and her husband, Lewis, who was also an archaeologist, had
already made some important archaeological discoveries before they came across P.
Boy c I. They found a complete skull of an
(06:13):
early Miocene ape in nineteen forty eight, and Mary recorded
Tanzanian rock paintings in nineteen fifty one, but the P.
Boy c I fossils were Mary's most famous discovery. From
nineteen fifty one to nineteen fifty eight, the Leakies excavated
Bad two of the Old Divide Gorge, an important paleo
anthropological site near the border of Kenya and Tanzania. There
(06:36):
are seven major stratigraphic units, or layers of deposition in
the gorge. Bed two is stated at about one point
one five million to one point seven million years old,
but in nineteen fifty nine the Leakies turned their attention
to BID one, which is about one point seven million
to two point one million years old. On July seventeenth,
(06:56):
nineteen fifty nine, Louis remained at camp because he was sick,
but when Mary was out working, she found the remains
of a skull at a site named f. LK Zinge,
about twenty two ft below the upper limit of Bed one.
The Leakies ended up uncovering about four hundred fragments that
made up a nearly complete skull. The specimen was label
(07:16):
O H five or Old V Hominid five. It had
large teeth, leading people to dub the specimen nutcracker Man.
Raymond Dart and Robert Broom had found similar specimens in
South Africa, but in August the Leakies published the Discovery
and Nature and called it Zenjanis boy c I. Though
they considered including it in the genus Astrolopiscus, they decided
(07:39):
to define a new genus for the specimen. The word
Zin is an Old Arabic word that referred to East Africa,
and the word boise I came from the name Charles Boise,
who had been financing the Leaky's expeditions. They also found
stone tools in bed one, though those tools were later
linked to Homo habilists. Zenjianpis boy c I later reclassify
(08:02):
Australopithecus boy c I and then Paranthropist boy c I.
Was dated to one point seven five million years ago.
That made it the oldest hominin discovered at the time,
Though previous finds have been difficult to date due to
the limits of contemporary technology. The find marked a change
in the way scientists traced human evolution. At the time,
(08:23):
the commonly held view was that human lineage had its
roots in Asia, but the discovery of P. Boy c
I suggested that hominins evolved in Africa. The discovery of P.
Boy c I got the Leakies funding from National Geographic
which allowed them to work on more projects. Mary and
her son Jonathan found a hominin in nineteen sixty one
(08:44):
that Louis Leaky, Philip Tobias, and John Napier called Homo
habilists in their nineteen sixty four paper in the journal Nature.
They called it Homo habilists because they believed it used tools.
Louis Leaky thought that it was the first member of
the genus Homo, and that it co existed with P.
Boy c I. Later discoveries confirmed that more than one
(09:04):
species of early humans lived in the same geographical area
at the same time, and in the late nineteen seventies,
Mary and her team discovered hominid footprints and volcanic ash
at the Liatoli beds near Old Duvai Gorge. There were
three million to three point five million years old left
by an upright bipedal hominin, possibly Austra Lopithecus, and forensis,
(09:28):
as there was controversy in the scientific community over just
how bipedal early hominins were. This was a significant discovery.
During the same time period, Mary's team found the remains
of early hominids in fifteen new animal species. More P.
Boy c I fossils were found in the years after
Lakey's discovery. Debate over the lineage and taxonomy of P.
(09:52):
Boy c I continues today. I'm Eves Jeff Coote and
hopefully you know a little more about history today than
you did yesterday. If you feel like correcting my pronunciation
or my accent on anything that I've said in the show,
feel free to leave a very kind comment on Twitter,
Instagram or Facebook. At t D I h C podcast,
(10:16):
We'll see you here in the same place tomorrow. 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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