All Episodes

February 9, 2021 13 mins

On this day in 1907, thousands of suffragists marched from Hyde Park to Exeter Hall in London in what became known as the Mud March. / On this day in 1909, singer, actress, and dancer Carmen Miranda was born in Portugal.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

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):
Hello everyone, it's Eves checking in here to let you
know that you're going to be hearing two different events
in history in this episode. They're both good, if I
do say so myself. On with 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

(00:29):
was February nine, nine seven. About three thousand women from
more than forty suffrage organizations marched from Hyde Park to
Exeter Hall in London to advocate for women's right to vote.
The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, or in u
w s S, had organized the United Procession of Women,

(00:53):
as it was officially called, led by suffragist Milicent Fawcett,
Lady Jane's j G, Lady Francis Balfour, and Kier Hardy,
and organized by Lady Jane's daughter Philippas JC. The march
was the first of a series of open air processions
that were meant to bring attention to the cause. Because

(01:16):
of the dreary, rainy weather that day, this event became
known as the mud March. But even though the marching
women had to check through muddy, rain soaked streets, the
event was still successful at drawing large crowds of spectators,
increasing awareness about the movement and affecting future change. The

(01:38):
National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies formed in eight and
Milicent Fawcett headed up the organization, which created petitions, held
public meetings, handed out literature, and used other non confrontational
means to sway public opinion and convince governments that women

(01:59):
should have the right to vote. At the same time,
many others who believed women should be able to vote
did not jibe with the constitutionalist methods of the n
u w s S and other organizations, so the Suffragets
emerged on the opposite end of the spectrum from the Suffragists.

(02:20):
In nineteen o three, Imminent Pankhurst founded the Women's Social
and Political Union, which grew to include a lot more
working class women and used direct action to get their
point across. The Suffragetts, as members of this organization came
to be known, interrupted political meetings, heckled government officials, chained

(02:42):
themselves to railings, destroyed property, staged hunger strikes while they
were in prison, and were otherwise super militant in their advocacy.
The organization's motto Deeds not words pretty much sums up
with the suffragets were all about. These women were often

(03:03):
decried as violent, called names like shrieking sisterhood, and even assaulted.
Not all suffragettes agreed with the direct action tactics in
the Pancurts leadership, though, and eventually the Women's Social and
Political Union split. Needless to say, the movement for women's

(03:23):
suffrage in the United Kingdom was fractured. But despite the
differences in thought and approach among all the organizations, suffragists
and suffragettes recognize their common goal. That was to get
some women the vote. I say some women because the

(03:44):
people fighting for women's suffrage often just wanted property owning
women to be able to cast their votes. Anyway, the
suffragists wanted to prove that they too could mobilize a strong,
attention grabbing protest, and they wanted to persuade Parliament that
women were totally behind the idea of suffrage and that

(04:06):
it was a good idea to enact legislation around it.
So in November nineteen o six, the Central Society for
Women's Suffrage proposed a demonstration that would happen around the
same time the next session of Parliament opened in Philippa Stracy,
Lady Stracy's daughter, set to work on organizing a march.

(04:29):
The goal was to bring together a bunch of suffrage
societies to participate in the march, but that was not
an easy task because a lot of those groups disagreed
with one another on suffrage issues. In fact, the Women's
Social and Political Union was not officially invited to the
march because groups like the British Women's Temperance Association refused

(04:53):
to show up if they were But regardless of hostilities,
the show went on. The Artists Suffrage League was established
in January nineteen oh seven to create posters, postcards and
banners for the procession, and the march started near Hyde
Park Corner on February nine, nineteen o seven. There was

(05:17):
a band watching, crowds, decorated cars and carriages, scheduled speakers
and women from all walks of life. Though I might
add that the role of women of color in the
British Women's suffrage movement is hardly noted. But the marchers
and spectators stuck it out through the ugly weather, even

(05:39):
though the march wasn't as much of a spectacle as
say the smashing windows and setting off bombs that some
suffragettes were known for, it still was a very public
act of defiance. At the time, the social expectation was
still kind of this idea that women should be seen
and not her and taking to the streets to protest

(06:02):
wasn't exactly the most respectable thing to do. Many women
expected to lose their jobs, damaged their reputations, and be
shamed if they marched, which made the march that much
more exciting and Worthwhile the march got a considerable amount
of press, both positive and negative, and Member of Parliament

(06:25):
Willoughby Dickinson did introduce a bill that would extend voting
rights to some women that same month, though it floundered,
but the march was the largest of his kind at
the time, and it spawned other large scale processions in
the women's suffrage movement. A segment of women over the

(06:46):
age of thirty won the right to vote in the
United Kingdom in nineteen eighteen, and suffrage was extended to
everyone over age one in nineteen I'm Eve Steff Coote
and hope fully you know a little more about history
today than you did yesterday. Here's a cool little tipit

(07:08):
that I found while I was researching this episode, and
that's that. The term suffragette was supposed to be this
term of derision, but as happens with a lot of terms,
the group that it was meant to offend co opted
it and made it their own. So the suffix et
is meant to be a kind of diminutive, but some

(07:30):
Suffragettes switched up the meaning of that suffix. For instance,
Lady Hugh Bill said that that et suffix should be
turned into jet, which could refer to the jet of
enthusiasm and the suffrage movement, and the pank Hurst suggested
that jet that suffix could instead be pronounced as get,

(07:53):
as in get the vote. See you tomorrow for another episode.
You can subscribe to This Day in History Class on
Apple Podcasts, the I Heart Radio app, or wherever you
get your podcasts. Hello again, I'm Eves and you're listening

(08:21):
to This Day in History Class, a show where we
dropped history knowledge every single day. The day was February nine,
nine nine. Singer, dancer and actress Carmen Miranda was born.
Miranda was known for the fruit hat and costumes that

(08:43):
she wore in her films. Miranda was born Maria Ducarma
Miranda da Cuna in Portugal. She was christened with the
nickname Carmen and her childhood reportedly after the opera of
the same name by George Baze. When she was a
small child, her parents moved the family to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
There her father worked as a salesman and barber. Carmen

(09:06):
was raised in a strict Roman Catholic household. She went
to the convent school of Santa Todasin, but by age
fourteen she was working to help support the family. Carmen
gained an interest in singing and dancing early on. For
a while she worked as a department store model. In salesperson,
she would sing songs for her coworkers, and eventually a

(09:28):
guitarist invited her to sing with him on a radio show.
An American record label soon offered her a contract, and
she began recording songs and getting offers to perform at nightclubs.
So her father was initially against Carmen being a performer.
Carmen continued to record songs with composer and violinist Josua

(09:49):
ju Bajos. Her early records struggled to gain an audience,
but by nineteen thirty she had recorded Pravose Go Star
did You Meme, a traditional Brazili in Marches song by
composer Joebert Jouke Curvaljo. At that point, Miranda and her
singing style became more popular. She made her on screen
debut in the short film AVOs Giuccarnoval, which was released

(10:13):
in three Two years later, she appeared in her first
feature film, 'allo 'allo rassil. She continued to make more
films and toured across South America, usually backed by her
own band, named Banda Daluna. By ninety nine, she had
made hundreds of records and had become a celebrity throughout

(10:35):
the continent. When Philadelphia theater manager Lee Schubert saw Miranda
at a nightclub in Rio, he offered her a role
on Broadway. Audiences and critics took notice of the Brazilian bombshell,
as she eventually came to be known. She dressed in
her spin on the Clothes Women in Bahia War, donning

(10:55):
long flared skirts, halter tops with ruffled sleeves, plat form shoes,
a lot of jewelry, and a turban with a basket
of fruit on top. She's sang in Portuguese, so she
gained a lot of popularity in the United States. When
she returned to Brazil after the Broadway show closed, some
Brazilians and Argentineans were unhappy with the way she depicted

(11:18):
their customs. Many thought she was uplifting stereotypes of women
in Latin America and was becoming Americanized, and others thought
that she was being appropriative and inappropriate in her style,
which was associated with black women. Samba, of Brazilian genre
that Miranda embraced, was born in black communities. She went

(11:39):
back to the United States when the studio twentieth Century
Fox offered her a contract. Miranda's colorful garb inspired fashion
trends in the US. By nine, Miranda was the highest
paid entertainer in Hollywood. Miranda often appeared in films that
helped promote the US is Good Neighbor policy, making her

(12:00):
a sort of goodwill ambassador representing Brazil in other South
American countries. Over the years, Miranda became a household name
in the US. Her musical career flourished, even as her
film career declined. For the most part, Miranda kept her
private life under wraps. She died in California in August

(12:20):
of nineteen. Though her image was controversial, her music had
global appeal and shot her to the status of a
superstar who drew attention to samba music and Brazilian culture.
I'm Eve chef Cote and hopefully you know a little
more about history today than you did yesterday. Send your
best history memes to us at t d i h

(12:44):
C Podcast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You can also
shoot us an email at this Day at i heart
media dot com. Thank you for listening to today's episode.
We'll see you again tomorrow with an another one. For

(13:05):
more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

This Day in History Class News

Advertise With Us

Follow Us On

Host

Gabe Luzier

Gabe Luzier

Show Links

About

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC

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

Stuff You Should Know

Stuff You Should Know

If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.