June 20, 2021 • 10 mins
On this day in 1900, the siege of the Legation Quarter in Beijing, China, during the Boxer Rebellion began. / On this day in 1975, the film "Jaws" was released in the U.S. and Canada.
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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 Hey, I'm Eves and Welcome to This Day in
History Class, a show that uncovers history one day at
a time. The day was June twenty, nineteen hundred. The
(00:24):
Siege of the Legation Quarter in Beijing, China, began when
Boxers and the Chinese Imperial Army attacked the thousands of
foreigners and Chinese Christians who had taken refuge there. The
Boxer Rebellion erupted in China in the late eighteen nineties
in response to growing Western influence in the country. After
China had taken losses in the Opium Wars and the
(00:47):
First Sino Japanese War, people had grown frustrated with foreign
control and Chinese economic affairs. Western culture and technology were
upending society. A lot of the ire directed towards Western
influence targeted Chinese people who had converted to Christianity. Christian
missionaries took the side of Chinese Christians, and non Christians
(01:09):
in the country took offense to this. This is where
the Boxers come in. Also known as the Righteous and
Harmonious Fists, the name of Boxers given to the group
by foreigners came from the martial arts they practice, which
they believed gave them special powers. The boxers were largely
unemployed peasants and farmers. They harbored anti foreign sentiments, and
(01:33):
they often resorted to violent action to express their anger
with foreign influence. Many boxers were from Shandong Province, a
place that had faced lots of natural disasters and had
been carved up by Western imperial powers. The province became
a center of the uprising. Boxers spread rumors about foreigners,
(01:54):
and soon they had resorted to rioting, killing and raping
Christian missionaries and convert At first, King troops attempted to
suppress the boxers, but in January of nineteen hundred, Empress
Dowager Suchi ordered that they not be considered criminals. King
officials encouraged boxers in their anti foreign and anti Christian actions,
(02:18):
despite the fact that violence was escalating. Many people who
faced persecution chose to stay or did not have the
resources to leave. By mid nineteen hundred, the rebellion had
reached Beijing. Boxers were burning churches and intimidating and killing
people who tried to quell the rebellion. On foreign ministers
(02:40):
in Beijing requested troops be sent to Beijing, and international
forces began arriving in the following days to protect Westerners
and Christians. But the Boxers were wreaking havoc around Beijing,
destroying technology and infrastructure and committing gruesome murders. They even
cut the telegraph wires going out of Beijing. Great Britain's
(03:02):
senior foreign minister, Sir Claude McDonald, had called for help,
and a multinational relief force of people was sent from
Tianjin to Beijing, but the Empress Dowager ordered imperial troops
to block their advance and they were turned back. She
also ordered that all foreigners must leave Beijing, as they
(03:23):
were not able to or feared to do so, many
foreigners were stuck in Beijing. On June twenty, the German
minister was killed and Boxers besiege the Legation Quarter in Beijing,
or the Diplomatic District. The quarter was home to diplomats
from many Western countries, Japan, and Russia, and it contained
(03:44):
many international shops, missionaries, journalists, and travelers. A few thousand
foreign soldiers, foreign civilians, and Chinese Christians lived or had
taken refuge in the district. After the siege began, the
Empress Dowager escalated tensions, opposing foreigners and aligning with the Boxers.
In Beijing, a library was burned, a mine was set
(04:07):
off under French legation, and people were killed. Violence continued
outside of Beijing as well. The Ching government declared a
ceasefire on legations on July seventeenth, but the siege would
last for fifty five days. Another international relief force of
about twenty thou people was sent from Tianjin to Beijing
(04:29):
in early August, reaching the city on August fourteen. Empress
Dowager she fled to present day chian The Boxer Rebellion
ended when the Boxer Protocol was signed in September of
nineteen oh one. China was ordered to pay millions of
dollars in reparations to foreign nations involved in the conflict.
(04:51):
Boxers and Chinese officials implicated in the rebellion were ordered
to be punished, and Western nations were allowed to keep
troops stationed in a Jane. Estimates of the death toll
in the Boxer Rebellion vary, but many of the people
killed word civilians, particularly Chinese Christians. The King dynasty fell
(05:11):
about ten years after the end of the rebellion. I'm
each Deathcote 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
(05:33):
i h C podcast. And if you'd like to learn
more about the Boxer Rebellion, check out the episode of
Stuff You Missed in History Class called Boxer Rebellion. And
if you haven't listened already, you can check out another
show I host called Unpopular. Unpopular is about people in
history who challenge the status quo and sometimes had to
(05:55):
face really harsh consequences for it. 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 tidbit of history every day. The day
(06:22):
was June ninety. The thriller film Jaws was released, directed
by Steven Spielberg and based on the nineteen seventy four
novel by Peter Benchley. The movie was at one point
the highest grossing film it didn't hold that title for long,
but it remains a pivotal blockbuster in Hollywood history. The
(06:43):
novel Jaws is about a great white shark that attacks
people in a resort town and the subsequent effort to
kill the shark. The author of the book, Peter Benchley,
had been interested in sharks for a while and was
considering writing a story that had to do with a shark.
He read an article about a great white shark that
fisherman for Monday scot in nineteen sixty four and found
more inspiration to write Jaws. Benchley was also inspired by
(07:06):
events like the Jersey Shore shark attacks of nineteen sixteen.
After the book was published in nineteen seventy four, it
was picked up by book sales clubs and gained a
lot of traction. Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown, producers
at Universal Pictures, read the book and purchased the film rights.
Steven Spielberg, who had just directed his first theatrical feature,
(07:27):
The sugar Land Express, was chosen to direct Jaws. Filming
began in May of nineteen seventy four and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
Mechanical sharks were made for production and they shot the
movie in the Ocean. Technological issues and delays put production
over budget, but the malfunctions and delays are said to
have helped the movie since they require Spielberg to shoot
(07:49):
many scenes where the shark was not visible and its
presence was only hinted at. Barrels were used to represent
the shark's location, and many of the shots were just
of the shark's dorsal fin. The suspense built from not
seeing the shark has become one of the film's most
defining and memorable features. John Williams composed the score for
(08:11):
the movie, which is known for its ominous shark theme.
Principal photography went more than one hundred days over schedule.
Spielberg commented that he thought his career was over because
the film was so delayed, but Universal spent a lot
of money on marketing the film. Spielberg, e Benchley, Zando,
and Brown toured cities promoting the book and movies. Universal
(08:33):
spent seven hundred thousand dollars on a TV ad campaign
on June. Jaws was released in around four hundred and
sixty movie theaters in the US and Canada. As the
novel garnered more attention, the film gained more steam at
the box office. On June, Jaws landed on the cover
(08:53):
of Time magazine. The film was successful, so a bunch
of merchandise was created to promote its release. It was
expanded to hundreds more theaters, and by early ninety six
it had become the highest grossing film in the world.
The film and its score won several awards. Film historians
credit Jaws with paving the way for later summer Hollywood
(09:16):
blockbusters like Star Wars. It influenced the popularity of the
summer movie season, but it also influenced a lot of
films revolving around large predatory animals and left a huge
mark on pop culture. I'm Eve Jeff Coote and hopefully
you know a little more about history today than you
did yesterday. And if you have any commerce oar suggestions,
(09:39):
you can send them to us at this day at
I heart Media dot com. You can also follow us
on social media where at t D I h C podcast.
Thanks so much for listening to the show and we'll
see you tomorrow. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit
(10:01):
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 Hey, I'm Eves and Welcome to This Day in
History Class, a show that uncovers history one day at
a time. The day was June twenty, nineteen hundred. The
(00:24):
Siege of the Legation Quarter in Beijing, China, began when
Boxers and the Chinese Imperial Army attacked the thousands of
foreigners and Chinese Christians who had taken refuge there. The
Boxer Rebellion erupted in China in the late eighteen nineties
in response to growing Western influence in the country. After
China had taken losses in the Opium Wars and the
(00:47):
First Sino Japanese War, people had grown frustrated with foreign
control and Chinese economic affairs. Western culture and technology were
upending society. A lot of the ire directed towards Western
influence targeted Chinese people who had converted to Christianity. Christian
missionaries took the side of Chinese Christians, and non Christians
(01:09):
in the country took offense to this. This is where
the Boxers come in. Also known as the Righteous and
Harmonious Fists, the name of Boxers given to the group
by foreigners came from the martial arts they practice, which
they believed gave them special powers. The boxers were largely
unemployed peasants and farmers. They harbored anti foreign sentiments, and
(01:33):
they often resorted to violent action to express their anger
with foreign influence. Many boxers were from Shandong Province, a
place that had faced lots of natural disasters and had
been carved up by Western imperial powers. The province became
a center of the uprising. Boxers spread rumors about foreigners,
(01:54):
and soon they had resorted to rioting, killing and raping
Christian missionaries and convert At first, King troops attempted to
suppress the boxers, but in January of nineteen hundred, Empress
Dowager Suchi ordered that they not be considered criminals. King
officials encouraged boxers in their anti foreign and anti Christian actions,
(02:18):
despite the fact that violence was escalating. Many people who
faced persecution chose to stay or did not have the
resources to leave. By mid nineteen hundred, the rebellion had
reached Beijing. Boxers were burning churches and intimidating and killing
people who tried to quell the rebellion. On foreign ministers
(02:40):
in Beijing requested troops be sent to Beijing, and international
forces began arriving in the following days to protect Westerners
and Christians. But the Boxers were wreaking havoc around Beijing,
destroying technology and infrastructure and committing gruesome murders. They even
cut the telegraph wires going out of Beijing. Great Britain's
(03:02):
senior foreign minister, Sir Claude McDonald, had called for help,
and a multinational relief force of people was sent from
Tianjin to Beijing, but the Empress Dowager ordered imperial troops
to block their advance and they were turned back. She
also ordered that all foreigners must leave Beijing, as they
(03:23):
were not able to or feared to do so, many
foreigners were stuck in Beijing. On June twenty, the German
minister was killed and Boxers besiege the Legation Quarter in Beijing,
or the Diplomatic District. The quarter was home to diplomats
from many Western countries, Japan, and Russia, and it contained
(03:44):
many international shops, missionaries, journalists, and travelers. A few thousand
foreign soldiers, foreign civilians, and Chinese Christians lived or had
taken refuge in the district. After the siege began, the
Empress Dowager escalated tensions, opposing foreigners and aligning with the Boxers.
In Beijing, a library was burned, a mine was set
(04:07):
off under French legation, and people were killed. Violence continued
outside of Beijing as well. The Ching government declared a
ceasefire on legations on July seventeenth, but the siege would
last for fifty five days. Another international relief force of
about twenty thou people was sent from Tianjin to Beijing
(04:29):
in early August, reaching the city on August fourteen. Empress
Dowager she fled to present day chian The Boxer Rebellion
ended when the Boxer Protocol was signed in September of
nineteen oh one. China was ordered to pay millions of
dollars in reparations to foreign nations involved in the conflict.
(04:51):
Boxers and Chinese officials implicated in the rebellion were ordered
to be punished, and Western nations were allowed to keep
troops stationed in a Jane. Estimates of the death toll
in the Boxer Rebellion vary, but many of the people
killed word civilians, particularly Chinese Christians. The King dynasty fell
(05:11):
about ten years after the end of the rebellion. I'm
each Deathcote 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
(05:33):
i h C podcast. And if you'd like to learn
more about the Boxer Rebellion, check out the episode of
Stuff You Missed in History Class called Boxer Rebellion. And
if you haven't listened already, you can check out another
show I host called Unpopular. Unpopular is about people in
history who challenge the status quo and sometimes had to
(05:55):
face really harsh consequences for it. 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 tidbit of history every day. The day
(06:22):
was June ninety. The thriller film Jaws was released, directed
by Steven Spielberg and based on the nineteen seventy four
novel by Peter Benchley. The movie was at one point
the highest grossing film it didn't hold that title for long,
but it remains a pivotal blockbuster in Hollywood history. The
(06:43):
novel Jaws is about a great white shark that attacks
people in a resort town and the subsequent effort to
kill the shark. The author of the book, Peter Benchley,
had been interested in sharks for a while and was
considering writing a story that had to do with a shark.
He read an article about a great white shark that
fisherman for Monday scot in nineteen sixty four and found
more inspiration to write Jaws. Benchley was also inspired by
(07:06):
events like the Jersey Shore shark attacks of nineteen sixteen.
After the book was published in nineteen seventy four, it
was picked up by book sales clubs and gained a
lot of traction. Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown, producers
at Universal Pictures, read the book and purchased the film rights.
Steven Spielberg, who had just directed his first theatrical feature,
(07:27):
The sugar Land Express, was chosen to direct Jaws. Filming
began in May of nineteen seventy four and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
Mechanical sharks were made for production and they shot the
movie in the Ocean. Technological issues and delays put production
over budget, but the malfunctions and delays are said to
have helped the movie since they require Spielberg to shoot
(07:49):
many scenes where the shark was not visible and its
presence was only hinted at. Barrels were used to represent
the shark's location, and many of the shots were just
of the shark's dorsal fin. The suspense built from not
seeing the shark has become one of the film's most
defining and memorable features. John Williams composed the score for
(08:11):
the movie, which is known for its ominous shark theme.
Principal photography went more than one hundred days over schedule.
Spielberg commented that he thought his career was over because
the film was so delayed, but Universal spent a lot
of money on marketing the film. Spielberg, e Benchley, Zando,
and Brown toured cities promoting the book and movies. Universal
(08:33):
spent seven hundred thousand dollars on a TV ad campaign
on June. Jaws was released in around four hundred and
sixty movie theaters in the US and Canada. As the
novel garnered more attention, the film gained more steam at
the box office. On June, Jaws landed on the cover
(08:53):
of Time magazine. The film was successful, so a bunch
of merchandise was created to promote its release. It was
expanded to hundreds more theaters, and by early ninety six
it had become the highest grossing film in the world.
The film and its score won several awards. Film historians
credit Jaws with paving the way for later summer Hollywood
(09:16):
blockbusters like Star Wars. It influenced the popularity of the
summer movie season, but it also influenced a lot of
films revolving around large predatory animals and left a huge
mark on pop culture. I'm Eve Jeff Coote and hopefully
you know a little more about history today than you
did yesterday. And if you have any commerce oar suggestions,
(09:39):
you can send them to us at this day at
I heart Media dot com. You can also follow us
on social media where at t D I h C podcast.
Thanks so much for listening to the show and we'll
see you tomorrow. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit
(10:01):
the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
This Day in History Class News
Host
Gabe Luzier
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