Trial of Mary, Queen of Scots Began / Chuck Yeager piloted supersonic flight - October 14

The trial of Mary, Queen of Scots began on this day in 1586. / On this day in 1947, American test pilot Chuck Yeager became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound.

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Episode Transcript

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 V. Wilson, and it's October. The trial of Mary,
Queen of Scott's began on this day in fifties six.
So that's Mary, Queen of Scott's, also known as Mary Stewart,
infamous for a series of ill fated marriages and a
really turbulent rule over Scotland and her rivalry with her cousin,
Queen Elizabeth the First. There was so much to this rivalry.

(00:45):
There was political power, ongoing tensions between Scotland and England
in general, and religion. Elizabeth was Protestant and Mary was Catholic.
In fifteen sixty five, the first of a series of
events happened that led to Mary's downfall. She married her
cousin Henry Stewart, Earl of Darnley, this was just not
a good match, and as she was considering how or

(01:08):
whether she could get out of it, Darnley was strangled
to death while trying to escape the house where he
had been staying, which had blown up. Mary remarried James Hepburn,
the fourth Earl of Bothwell, a few months later after
he had abducted her. He was also the lead suspect
and the death of Lord Darnley, but was later acquitted. Then,

(01:32):
in fifteen sixty seven, Mary's new husband was exiled and imprisoned,
and he died the following year. Mary was forced to
abdicate in favor of her son, James, who was still
a baby. She was held captive for a time, but
fled to England, hoping to take refuge with her cousin
Elizabeth in spite of their very long rivalry. Instead, though

(01:54):
Elizabeth imprisoned her in a series of English castles for
more than eighteen year years. Then, in fifteen eighties six,
Mary was implicated in the Babington plot, which was named
for its ringleader Anthony Babington. This was a plot to
free Mary from her imprisonment and to assassinate Elizabeth. Ciphered

(02:16):
letters were being smuggled in and out of where Mary
was being held, but these letters were intercepted and decoded.
English authorities actually knew about this plot for a while
before making any moves to arrest anyone, because they had
enough information to convict some of the co conspirators, but
they really wanted to make sure they had enough information
to also convict Mary. They finally intercepted a letter from

(02:40):
her that said, quote, when all is ready, the six
gentlemen must be set to work, and you will provide
that on their design being accomplished, I may be myself
rescued from this place. This, of course, was ready as
her approval for this plot that was being hatched against
the Queen. Babington and twelve co conspirators were captured, tried,

(03:03):
and hanged, and then Mary was put on trial for
two days. She was ultimately found guilty. During this trial
and even before, Mary argued that she was not a
subject of Queen Elizabeth. She could not commit treason against
a queen that she was not a subject of. She
also argued that she just wasn't subject to English jurisdiction

(03:24):
she was the Queen of Scotland. She also said that
the evidence that was being used against her had been forged,
but none of this was to any avail. It did
take Elizabeth months to sign the death warrant for her
cousin Mary, but ultimately Mary was beheaded in the Great
Hall of Fatheringay Castle on February eighth of fifteen eighty seven.

(03:47):
Her son James did eventually become the King of England,
though he ascended to the throne after the death of
Queen Elizabeth the first. Thanks to Terry Harrison for her
audio work on this podcast, and you can subscribe to
This Day in History Class on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts
and wherever else that you get your podcasts, and you
can tune in tomorrow. I know we just had an execution,

(04:07):
but we're going to have another execution. Welcome back. I'm
your host, Eves, and you're tuned into This Day in
History Class, a show that takes history and squeezes it
into bite size stories. The day was October nineteen. American

(04:37):
test pilot Chuck Yeager piloted the first flight to go
faster than the speed of sound in a Bell X
one aircraft. By this point, attempts had already been made
to break the so called sound barrier the UK's Ministry
of Aviation wanted to develop an aircraft that could achieve
supersonic flight. Motivated by secret intelligence of Agent Reman Supersonic

(05:01):
Long Range Bomber project, the British worked with Miles Aircraft
to create the prototype M fifty two, which was designed
to go up to one thousand miles per hour or
one thousand, six hundred nine kilometers per hour in level flight.
The M fifty two employed a lot of innovative technology
and its airframe design and construction, jet engine and flying controls,

(05:26):
but the project was canceled before it could claim the
supersonic record. A mock number indicates the speed of something
by comparing it to the speed of sound. Mark one
is about seven hundred and sixty miles per hour at
sea level. Since sound moves slower in cold air, the
speed required to break the sound barrier decreases higher in

(05:47):
the atmosphere. Other pilots like George schwartz Welch and Hans
Guido Mutka claimed to have broken the sound barrier before Gager,
but their claims are not officially recognized because the lights
in question lacked adequate measuring equipment. The bill X one
was a joint project between the National Advisory Committee for

(06:08):
Aeronautics later known as NASA and the U. S Air Force.
It was built by the Bill Aircraft Corporation. The US
and Bill Aircraft Company were given access to the research
and design of the M fifty two, and they used
that information to advance their project. The X one was

(06:28):
a rocket plane, or an aircraft that uses a rocket
engine for propulsion. It was originally called the X S one,
where the X S stood for Experimental Supersonic, but the
S was dropped early in the program. The X one
had a four chamber rocket engine that produced twenty six
thousand five new ends of static thrust. Instead of taking

(06:51):
off from the ground, it was dropped from the bomb
bay of a Boeing B twenty nine super Fortress, accelerated
quickly and then glided to a land day. Yeager was
chosen to attempt to break the speed record after he
graduated from Flight Performance School in New Rock, California. His
first test launch of the X one, which he dubbed

(07:13):
Glamorous Glennys after his wife, was on August nine nine.
On each subsequent test launch leading up to his first
supersonic flight, he increased his speed. There were challenges. For instance,
he lost control of the plane's elevator in one flight
and had to cut the engines and dump the fuel.

(07:34):
But in October fourte the X one reached a speed
of seven hundred miles per hour or one thousand, one
d seven kilometers per hour. As he reached mark one
oh six, controllers on the ground heard the sonic boom.
The plane traveled at supersonic speed for about twenty seconds
before it decelerated, making Yeager the first to travel faster

(07:56):
than the speed of sound and level flight when mark nine,
Yeager reached mark one four five in the X one.
Information about Yeager's flights was classified and not revealed to
the public until nineteen. The series of X experimental projects,
both crude and uncrude, continues today. The Bell X one

(08:20):
that Yeager flu is in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
I'm Eves Jeff Coote and hopefully you know a little
more about history today than you did yesterday. Keep up
with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, at T D
I h C podcast, or if you are so inclined,
you can send us a message at this day at

(08:43):
I heart media dot com. Thanks for listening. We'll see
you again tomorrow with another episode. For more podcasts from
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(09:04):
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.