U.S. Invaded Puerto Rico / First person born via IVF - July 25

The U.S. invaded Puerto Rico on this day in 1898, during the Spanish-American War. / On this day in 1978, Louise Joy Brown became the first person to be born through in vitro fertilization.

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Episode Transcript

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 Vault, so you'll also here to hosts.
Consider it a double feature. Enjoy the show. Welcome to
this Day in History Classes July. On this day in

(00:22):
the United States invaded Puerto Rico. This happened during the
Spanish American War. It was not a very long war,
It only lasted for four months. Spain, when the war began,
had two main possessions in the Caribbean. One was Cuba
and the other was Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico had been
Spanish territory for about four hundred years. Originally, the United

(00:44):
States plan had been to take over Puerto Rico first
during this war, and then to use Puerto Rico was
sort of a stepping stone into an invasion of Cuba.
The focus was really on Cuba. Cua was the more
important target from the American point of view. Under the
direction of the War Department, Lieutenant Harry F. Whitney had
even investigated the island of Puerto Rico while disguised as

(01:06):
a crewman aboard a British ship. But President William McKinley
ordered the military to go directly for Cuba since that
was the ultimate goal, so instead of using Puerto Rico
as a step in that process. Instead, the invasion of
Puerto Rico happened only after Spanish forces in Cuba surrendered,
which is on July. Really, by the time the United

(01:29):
States invaded Puerto Rico, it already seemed pretty certain that
Spain was going to surrender, but invading met the United
States was already going to have a presence in Puerto
Rico once everyone came to negotiating table to formally end
the war. The order to attack Puerto Rico came on
July eighteenth, the day after Spain had surrendered in Cuba,

(01:52):
but it took three days to get the necessary escort
ships to actually start the mission. When the mostly volunteer
force land did on twenty five, they were mostly unopposed,
and throughout the fighting, American forces saw very few casualties,
while Spanish forces saw a lot more. My August, the
US military had secured the island and Spain signed an

(02:15):
armistice on August twelve, and then the Treaty of Paris
in December of eight ended the war and formally approved
United States possession of Puerto Rico. However, no Puerto Ricans
had a seat at the negotiating table in all of this,
nor did anyone from any of the other islands that
were part of this war, which included Cuba, Guam, and

(02:38):
the Philippines. When all this happened, movements for independence and
colonial reform and the abolition of slavery and other changes
had been sweeping through Puerto Rico for almost forty years,
but in the end, Puerto Rico became the only Spanish
territory in the America's not to gain independence. Today, port

(03:00):
Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States. Puerto
Ricans were granted full United States citizenship in nineteen seventeen.
Eventually it became an autonomous commonwealth, with a new constitution
being adopted on the fifty fourth anniversary of this invasion.
Puerto Rico has held five different referenda on the subject

(03:20):
of becoming a United States state, with voters approving statehood
in the last two, but that last one, which took
place in seventeen, had a very low voter turnout, probably
because of a boycott. So the subject of statehood for
Puerto Rico was currently in the hands of Congress, which
has not chosen to address it. Thanks to Christopher Hasciotis

(03:41):
for his research on today's episode and Statari Harrison for
her editing on all of these episodes. You can subscribe
to This Day in History Class on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,
and wherever else you get your podcasts. Tune in tomorrow
for a declaration of Independence. Hi, I'm Eves, and welcome

(04:09):
to This Day in History Class, a show that uncovers
a little bit more about history every day. The day
was July PM. Luis Joy Brown became the first person

(04:30):
to be born via in vitro fertilization. In vitro fertilization,
or IVF, is an assisted reproductive technology that helps with fertilization,
embryo development, and implantation so a person can get pregnant.
I VF can be used as an infertility treatment or
to prevent passing on genetic disorders. The term in vitro

(04:53):
means the process takes place in a test tube, culture dish,
or somewhere else outside of the body, as opposed to
in vivo, which means a process takes place inside the
body of a living organism. While the actual procedure of
IVF was established at the end of the twentieth century,
the science behind it dates back to the late nineteenth century.

(05:15):
In eighteen seventy eight, embryologist Samuel Leopold Shank collected ova,
or egg seals from rabbits and guinea pigs. When he
added sperm or male reproductive cells to the ova, he
noted that cell division could occur outside of a mammal's body.
In eighteen ninety, scientist Walter Heap transferred a fertilized egg

(05:36):
from an Angora rabbit to a Belgian hair rabbit, which
then gave birth to Angora rabbits. It was the first
successful mammalian embryo transfer, and in nineteen thirty four, Gregory
Pinkus and Ernst vin zin's Ensman introduced sperm to rabbit
eggs while they were outside of the body, implanted the
eggs back into the rabbit, and the rabbit became pregnant.

(06:00):
But they had implanted the eggs before they had fully matured,
and fertilization had actually occurred inside the rabbit's body, not
in vitro. In nineteen fifty nine, scientists mean to a
chong successfully used IVF to impregnate a rabbit, but it
was the collaboration between gynecologist Patrick Steptoe and professor of

(06:24):
human reproduction Robert Edwards that would produce the first human
pregnancy via IVF. Debto and Edwards began working together in
nineteen sixty. In nineteen seventy six, they started working with
Leslie and John Brown. The couple have been trying to
have a baby for years with no success, but in

(06:45):
November of nineteen seventy seven, Leslie successfully had an embryo
and planted into her uterus from a petri dish. On
July nineteen seventy eight, Luise Joy Brown was born to
Leslie and John Brown via Cisterian section at Oldham and
District General Hospital in Manchester, England. The procedure in the

(07:07):
birth of the first so called test two baby we're controversial.
Religious groups spoke out against IVF as an unnatural form
of conception. Articles questioned the ethic cality of IVF, and
the Browns got hate mail as well as letters of congratulations.
Questions have arisen over who owns the embryos and whether

(07:29):
scientists should be allowed to perform experiments for stem cell
research with cryo preserve embryos that are not implanted. IVF
is also associated with high rates of multiple births. Still,
research into IVF continue to be funded. The first private
IVF clinic opened in nineteen eighty. Luis's younger sister, Natalie,

(07:52):
was also conceived by IVF. Natalie was the first person
born via IVF to give birth. Since Luise was born,
IVF technology has improved and millions of babies have been
born through IVF. Today, it's the most popular assisted reproductive technology.

(08:13):
I'm Eve Jeff Coote and hopefully you know a little
more about history today than you did yesterday. We love
it if you left us a comment on Twitter, Instagram
or Facebook. At t d i h C podcast, thanks
for showing up. We'll meet here again tomorrow. For more

(08:37):
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