March 27, 2021 • 11 mins
On this day in 1915, domestic cook Mary Mallon was quarantined for the second, and final, time on North Brother Island for being a typhoid carrier. / On this day in 1964, a 9.2 magnitude earthquake hit Alaska.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, y'all, we're rerunning two episodes today. Enjoy the show,
Hi um Eve's Welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that reveals a little bit more about history
day by day. The day was March nineteen fifteen. A
(00:25):
cook named Mary Mallon, also known as typhoid Mary, was
quarantined for the last time. Mary had been infecting people
with Salmonella TYPEE, the bacterium that causes typhoid fever, for years.
She had been quarantined once before and then released, but
this time Mary was quarantined for good or North Brother
(00:49):
Island in New York City's East River. Mary Mallon was
born in eighteen sixty nine in Ireland and moved to
the United States in eighteen eighty three or eighteen eighty four,
just a few years before scientists confirmed that salmonella caused
typhoid fever, a disease spread through contaminated food and water
(01:10):
that can be deadly if left untreated. People who have
had the illness can become carriers of the bacteria and
cause outbreaks. When Mary moved to the US, she became
a domestic servant, usually taking cook jobs. In nineteen o six,
Mary took a summer job as a cook for New
York banker Charles Henry Warren and his family an Oyster Bay,
(01:32):
Long Island, but on August one of the daughters got
typhoid fever. Then Warren's wife, two maids, the gardener, and
another daughter caught typhoid. By September three, six of the
eleven people in the house had gotten sick with typhoid fever.
At this time, typhoid fever was fatal in about ten
(01:55):
percent of cases. The Warrens were renting the home from
George Thompson, who was scared that he wouldn't be able
to rent the house again without finding out where the
outbreaks started, so after hiring investigators who couldn't track down
the source, Thompson landed on George Soaper, a New York
City Department of Health sanitary engineer who specialized in typhoid
(02:18):
fever epidemics. Soaper first thought that freshwater clams were responsible
for the outbreak, but soon after realizing not everyone who
had the illness had eaten the clams, he began to
suspect Mary was the source. He researched Mary's employment history
back to nineteen hundred and he discovered that everywhere Mary
(02:39):
popped up, so did typhoid outbreaks. From nineteen hundred to
nineteen oh seven, twenty two people exhibited signs of typhoid
fever at seven places where Mary worked, including some people
who died. While Soper was digging into Mary's past. She
kept working in households around New York City as a cook.
(03:00):
But Soper was convinced Mary was the issue. He tried
to get samples of her feces, urine, and blood, but
she was not willing to cooperate. Here's what Soper later
said about one of his encounters with Mary. I had
my first talk with Mary in the kitchen of this house.
I was as diplomatic as possible, but I had to
(03:21):
say I suspected her of making people sick, and that
I wanted specimens of her urine, feces, and blood. It
did not take Mary long to react to this suggestion.
She seized a carving fork and advanced in my direction.
I passed rapidly down the long, narrow hall, through the
tall iron gate, and so to the sidewalk. I felt
(03:42):
rather lucky to escape. That's how well she reacted when
Soper tried to get samples from her again, so the
Health Department put Dr. Sarah Josephine Baker in the case,
and Baker forcibly took Mary to the Willard Parker Hospital,
where they found Salmonella type in her stool. Mary was
the first asymptomatic carrier of typhoid to be identified. In
(04:06):
nineteen o seven, about three thousand people in New York
had been infected with the bacterium, and Mary was pegged
as being responsible for all those cases. At this time,
there was no immunization or antibiotic treatment for Salmonella TYPEE.
Since Mary wouldn't agree to have her gallbladder removed, which
was a risky operation, then the Health Department sent her
(04:29):
to live in isolation on North Brother Island. While she
was quarantined, she was subjected to all sorts of testing,
though nobody had explained to her what being a carrier
of Salmonella TYPEE meant. She didn't know how she could
be spreading typhoid yet never have had the disease, as
she wasn't aware that a person could have typhoid fever
(04:50):
but not show its usual symptoms like fever, headaches, and diarrhea.
She felt persecuted and like a peep show for everybody,
as she put it so. In nineteen o nine she
soothed the Health Department, but to no avail. Nineteen o
nine was also the year an article in New York
American first dubbed her Typhoid Mary. She wasn't released from
(05:15):
quarantine until February nineteenth, nineteen ten, under the condition that
she never worked as a cook again. But Mary went
back to cooking when the pay from just working as
a laundress wasn't cutting it. When a typhoid epidemic broke
out at Sloan Maternity Hospital in Manhattan and a sanatorium
in Newfoundland, New Jersey, soap were tracked down Mary, who
(05:38):
had worked at both places. On March seven, nineteen fifteen,
the New York Sanitary Police found her in a home
in Westchester County, New York, and sent her back to
North Brother Island. She lived out the rest of her
days there in quarantine, and she died in nineteen thirty eight,
years after a stroke had paralyzed her. Estimates have directly
(06:02):
linked her to more than fifty cases of typhoid fever,
including three deaths. Mary Mallan became known as the woman
who got a lot of other people sick with typhoid fever,
but her story raises questions about how disease carriers have
been treated in the U s health care system and
how the line between civil liberties and public health should
(06:22):
be drawn. By the time she died, hundreds of other
healthy carriers have been identified, though none received the treatment
and enduring stigma she did. I'm Eve Stefco and hopefully
you know a little more about history today than you
did yesterday. Keep up with us on Twitter, Instagram, and
Facebook at t d I h C podcast. Thanks for
(06:47):
tuning in, and we'll see you tomorrow. Hey everyone, it's
Eaves and welcome to this Saint History class US. I
am still at home, but I am still bringing you episodes,
so I hope you enjoy. The day was March nineteen
(07:13):
sixty four. A magnitude nine point to earthquake hit Alaska,
destroying buildings and triggering landslides and tsunamis. It was the
second largest earthquake ever recorded, after the nineteen sixty Valdivia earthquake.
The disaster is sometimes known as the Good Friday earthquake
(07:33):
because it occurred on the holiday at five thirty six pm.
Local time. An earthquake struck Alaska in the area near
Prince William Sound when a fault between the Pacific and
North American plates ruptured. The epicenter was about six miles
or ten kilometers east of the mouth of College Fjord.
The ruptures started at a depth of about sixteen miles
(07:56):
or kilometers. The quake lasted between or in five minutes.
States as far away as Texas felt its effects. The
aftershock zone of the earthquake extended from Prince William Sound
to the southwestern part of Kodiak Island. Thousands of aftershocks
occurred over the next year, with larger ones in the
(08:17):
first day after the event and smaller ones in the
following months. The earthquake devastated cities in the area. It
caused damage in many towns, including Anchorage, Hope, Moves Pass,
and Valdis. Property destruction was extensive and Anchorage where most
damage occurred. Homes and buildings were destroyed, roads split apart,
(08:41):
water sewer and gas lines broke, Telephone and electrical systems failed.
Coastal forests were destroyed. Parts of the Alaskan coast sank
several feet, and other parts rows around fifteen people died
in the initial quakes. Even more people died in the
waves generated by the tsunamis and landslides that followed. The
(09:03):
biggest landslide happened an anchorage at turnog In Heights. Around
one d and thirty acres were affected by displacements caused
by the landslide and around homes were destroyed. Some Alaska
Native villages like Shaniga were wiped out. Janiga and other
places had to move to better ground, and estimated one
(09:25):
hundred and thirty one people were killed in the disaster.
That included people who lost their lives in places as
distant as Oregon in California. Tsunamis caused damage along the
northwestern coast of the United States, though not as extensive.
They also caused damage in Hawaii and Japan. The quake
(09:45):
and tsunamis were estimated to cause at least three hundred
million dollars worth of property damage along the Pacific coast.
At magnitude nine point two, it was the most powerful
earthquake ever recorded in US. Stree that said, the death
toll was much lower than the quake had potential for
due to low population density in Alaska and the fact
(10:09):
that it was a holiday evening. Disaster relief was organized
for people who lost their homes. A day after the quake,
U S President Lyndon Johnson declared Alaska a major disaster area. Eventually,
the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers spent around one
million dollars repairing infrastructure, rebuilding communities, and cleaning up the
(10:33):
West coast, and Alaska's Tsunami Warning Center was created in
the wake of the disaster. Anchorages Earthquake Park stands as
a commemoration of the nineteen sixty four disaster. I'm each
Chef Coote, and hopefully you know a little more about
history to day than you did yesterday. If you want
to send us a note on social media, you can
(10:55):
do so on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram at t d
HC podcast, and you can also send us a note
via email at this Day at I heart media dot com.
Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you tomorrow. For
(11:19):
more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, y'all, we're rerunning two episodes today. Enjoy the show,
Hi um Eve's Welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that reveals a little bit more about history
day by day. The day was March nineteen fifteen. A
(00:25):
cook named Mary Mallon, also known as typhoid Mary, was
quarantined for the last time. Mary had been infecting people
with Salmonella TYPEE, the bacterium that causes typhoid fever, for years.
She had been quarantined once before and then released, but
this time Mary was quarantined for good or North Brother
(00:49):
Island in New York City's East River. Mary Mallon was
born in eighteen sixty nine in Ireland and moved to
the United States in eighteen eighty three or eighteen eighty four,
just a few years before scientists confirmed that salmonella caused
typhoid fever, a disease spread through contaminated food and water
(01:10):
that can be deadly if left untreated. People who have
had the illness can become carriers of the bacteria and
cause outbreaks. When Mary moved to the US, she became
a domestic servant, usually taking cook jobs. In nineteen o six,
Mary took a summer job as a cook for New
York banker Charles Henry Warren and his family an Oyster Bay,
(01:32):
Long Island, but on August one of the daughters got
typhoid fever. Then Warren's wife, two maids, the gardener, and
another daughter caught typhoid. By September three, six of the
eleven people in the house had gotten sick with typhoid fever.
At this time, typhoid fever was fatal in about ten
(01:55):
percent of cases. The Warrens were renting the home from
George Thompson, who was scared that he wouldn't be able
to rent the house again without finding out where the
outbreaks started, so after hiring investigators who couldn't track down
the source, Thompson landed on George Soaper, a New York
City Department of Health sanitary engineer who specialized in typhoid
(02:18):
fever epidemics. Soaper first thought that freshwater clams were responsible
for the outbreak, but soon after realizing not everyone who
had the illness had eaten the clams, he began to
suspect Mary was the source. He researched Mary's employment history
back to nineteen hundred and he discovered that everywhere Mary
(02:39):
popped up, so did typhoid outbreaks. From nineteen hundred to
nineteen oh seven, twenty two people exhibited signs of typhoid
fever at seven places where Mary worked, including some people
who died. While Soper was digging into Mary's past. She
kept working in households around New York City as a cook.
(03:00):
But Soper was convinced Mary was the issue. He tried
to get samples of her feces, urine, and blood, but
she was not willing to cooperate. Here's what Soper later
said about one of his encounters with Mary. I had
my first talk with Mary in the kitchen of this house.
I was as diplomatic as possible, but I had to
(03:21):
say I suspected her of making people sick, and that
I wanted specimens of her urine, feces, and blood. It
did not take Mary long to react to this suggestion.
She seized a carving fork and advanced in my direction.
I passed rapidly down the long, narrow hall, through the
tall iron gate, and so to the sidewalk. I felt
(03:42):
rather lucky to escape. That's how well she reacted when
Soper tried to get samples from her again, so the
Health Department put Dr. Sarah Josephine Baker in the case,
and Baker forcibly took Mary to the Willard Parker Hospital,
where they found Salmonella type in her stool. Mary was
the first asymptomatic carrier of typhoid to be identified. In
(04:06):
nineteen o seven, about three thousand people in New York
had been infected with the bacterium, and Mary was pegged
as being responsible for all those cases. At this time,
there was no immunization or antibiotic treatment for Salmonella TYPEE.
Since Mary wouldn't agree to have her gallbladder removed, which
was a risky operation, then the Health Department sent her
(04:29):
to live in isolation on North Brother Island. While she
was quarantined, she was subjected to all sorts of testing,
though nobody had explained to her what being a carrier
of Salmonella TYPEE meant. She didn't know how she could
be spreading typhoid yet never have had the disease, as
she wasn't aware that a person could have typhoid fever
(04:50):
but not show its usual symptoms like fever, headaches, and diarrhea.
She felt persecuted and like a peep show for everybody,
as she put it so. In nineteen o nine she
soothed the Health Department, but to no avail. Nineteen o
nine was also the year an article in New York
American first dubbed her Typhoid Mary. She wasn't released from
(05:15):
quarantine until February nineteenth, nineteen ten, under the condition that
she never worked as a cook again. But Mary went
back to cooking when the pay from just working as
a laundress wasn't cutting it. When a typhoid epidemic broke
out at Sloan Maternity Hospital in Manhattan and a sanatorium
in Newfoundland, New Jersey, soap were tracked down Mary, who
(05:38):
had worked at both places. On March seven, nineteen fifteen,
the New York Sanitary Police found her in a home
in Westchester County, New York, and sent her back to
North Brother Island. She lived out the rest of her
days there in quarantine, and she died in nineteen thirty eight,
years after a stroke had paralyzed her. Estimates have directly
(06:02):
linked her to more than fifty cases of typhoid fever,
including three deaths. Mary Mallan became known as the woman
who got a lot of other people sick with typhoid fever,
but her story raises questions about how disease carriers have
been treated in the U s health care system and
how the line between civil liberties and public health should
(06:22):
be drawn. By the time she died, hundreds of other
healthy carriers have been identified, though none received the treatment
and enduring stigma she did. I'm Eve Stefco and hopefully
you know a little more about history today than you
did yesterday. Keep up with us on Twitter, Instagram, and
Facebook at t d I h C podcast. Thanks for
(06:47):
tuning in, and we'll see you tomorrow. Hey everyone, it's
Eaves and welcome to this Saint History class US. I
am still at home, but I am still bringing you episodes,
so I hope you enjoy. The day was March nineteen
(07:13):
sixty four. A magnitude nine point to earthquake hit Alaska,
destroying buildings and triggering landslides and tsunamis. It was the
second largest earthquake ever recorded, after the nineteen sixty Valdivia earthquake.
The disaster is sometimes known as the Good Friday earthquake
(07:33):
because it occurred on the holiday at five thirty six pm.
Local time. An earthquake struck Alaska in the area near
Prince William Sound when a fault between the Pacific and
North American plates ruptured. The epicenter was about six miles
or ten kilometers east of the mouth of College Fjord.
The ruptures started at a depth of about sixteen miles
(07:56):
or kilometers. The quake lasted between or in five minutes.
States as far away as Texas felt its effects. The
aftershock zone of the earthquake extended from Prince William Sound
to the southwestern part of Kodiak Island. Thousands of aftershocks
occurred over the next year, with larger ones in the
(08:17):
first day after the event and smaller ones in the
following months. The earthquake devastated cities in the area. It
caused damage in many towns, including Anchorage, Hope, Moves Pass,
and Valdis. Property destruction was extensive and Anchorage where most
damage occurred. Homes and buildings were destroyed, roads split apart,
(08:41):
water sewer and gas lines broke, Telephone and electrical systems failed.
Coastal forests were destroyed. Parts of the Alaskan coast sank
several feet, and other parts rows around fifteen people died
in the initial quakes. Even more people died in the
waves generated by the tsunamis and landslides that followed. The
(09:03):
biggest landslide happened an anchorage at turnog In Heights. Around
one d and thirty acres were affected by displacements caused
by the landslide and around homes were destroyed. Some Alaska
Native villages like Shaniga were wiped out. Janiga and other
places had to move to better ground, and estimated one
(09:25):
hundred and thirty one people were killed in the disaster.
That included people who lost their lives in places as
distant as Oregon in California. Tsunamis caused damage along the
northwestern coast of the United States, though not as extensive.
They also caused damage in Hawaii and Japan. The quake
(09:45):
and tsunamis were estimated to cause at least three hundred
million dollars worth of property damage along the Pacific coast.
At magnitude nine point two, it was the most powerful
earthquake ever recorded in US. Stree that said, the death
toll was much lower than the quake had potential for
due to low population density in Alaska and the fact
(10:09):
that it was a holiday evening. Disaster relief was organized
for people who lost their homes. A day after the quake,
U S President Lyndon Johnson declared Alaska a major disaster area. Eventually,
the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers spent around one
million dollars repairing infrastructure, rebuilding communities, and cleaning up the
(10:33):
West coast, and Alaska's Tsunami Warning Center was created in
the wake of the disaster. Anchorages Earthquake Park stands as
a commemoration of the nineteen sixty four disaster. I'm each
Chef Coote, and hopefully you know a little more about
history to day than you did yesterday. If you want
to send us a note on social media, you can
(10:55):
do so on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram at t d
HC podcast, and you can also send us a note
via email at this Day at I heart media dot com.
Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you tomorrow. For
(11:19):
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
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