On this day in 1953, Watson and Crick's article on their discovery of the structure of DNA was published in the journal Nature. / On this day in 1917, American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald was born.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, y'all, We're re running two episodes today in Troy,
the show Welcome to This Day in History Class, where
we bring you a new tidbit from history every day.
The day was a nineteen fifty three, scientists James Watson
(00:25):
and Francis Crick announced their discovery of the structure of
DNA in an article in the journal Nature. The article,
titled Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids, A structure for deoxy
ribos nucleic acid, began with the following statement, we wish
to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxy ribos
(00:46):
nucleic acid DNA. This structure has novel features which are
of considerable biological interests. Nature also published shorter articles by
scientists Maurice will Kinds and Rosalind Franklin, who had contributed
to the discovery, in that same issue after Watson and
Craig's article. In nineteen sixty two, Watson and Crick and
(01:10):
Wilkins received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for
the discovery, but Franklin, who died in nineteen fifty eight,
did not receive widespread recognition for her contributions the discovery.
Was a watership moment in the history of science, but
it was one that became mired in controversy. The nineteen
(01:30):
fifty three discovery of DNA structure came after decades of research.
A Swiss chemist named Friedrich Meischer identified DNA or what
he called nucleon as a distinct molecule in eighteen sixty nine.
In nineteen forty four, Oswald Avery and his colleagues published
a paper showing how jeans are composed of DNA, among
(01:53):
other observations about DNA structure. Austrian biochemists Irwin Chargaff found
out that at a mean and thymine always appeared in
equal amounts, as did cytoscene and guanine. By the early
nineteen fifties, thanks to the work of scientists like Phoebus Levine,
researchers knew that DNA was made of nucleotides, each of
(02:14):
which contains a base, a molecule of sugar, and a
molecule of phosphoric acid. The sugar was deoxy ribos in.
The four nitrogenous basis were at A nine, guanine, cytosine,
and thymine, But researchers did not know exactly what DNA
looked like or how it was copied. In early nineteen
(02:34):
fifty three, chemist Linus Pauling proposed and an accurate model
of DNA that showed it as a three stranded helix.
At the time, Watson and Crick were working at the
University of Cambridge. Maurice Wilkins, Rosalind Franklin, and graduate student
Raymond Gosling were at King's College London using X ray
(02:54):
diffraction to study DNA. Franklin was experienced in X ray crystallography,
a technique that scientists used to determine the structure of crystals.
When the crystallized form of a molecule is exposed to
X rays, the X rays to fract inform a pattern
that scientists can use to understand the molecule structure. Franklin
(03:15):
and Gosling took an X ray diffraction photograph of a
DNA molecule known as Photo fifty one that looked like
an X and revealed the molecules helical structure. Wilkins, who
spent time at Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge with Crick, ended
up showing Photo fifty one to Watson. Watson and Crick
thrilled with Photo fifty one, and worried Pauling would beat
(03:38):
them to the punch, proposed a new model for DNA structure.
Watson and Crick did not do any of their own experiments. Instead,
they relied on drawing conclusions from existing data, including Photo
fifty one. The pair used data they got from an
informal report Franklin gave to scientists Max Perups at Cambridge,
even though they didn't act Franklin for mission to interpret
(04:00):
the data. Ironically, Pauling had advanced the method of model
building that made Watson and Crick's discovery possible. Watson and
Crick shifted around cardboard cutouts of the molecules, and with
the help of chemist Jerry Donohue, eventually figured out the
structure of DNA. On February nineteen fifty three, Watson and
(04:23):
Crick determined that DNA was a double stranded, anti parallel,
right handed helix. They found that the outside of the
helix is made up of sugar phosphate backbones and the
inside is made up of hydrogen bonded pairs of the
nitrogenous basis. On April, the journal Nature published Watson and
(04:44):
Crick's findings, followed by articles from Franklin and Wilkins. In
the paper, Watson and Crick described the structure of DNA.
Krick's wife, O'Dell, created schematic drawings at the DNA double
helix that accompanied the text. The discover refueled a ton
of scientific advancement, from DNA fingerprinting to genetic engineering. Franklin
(05:07):
died of cancer in nineteen fifty eight, four years before Watson, Crick,
and Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize. Nobel Prizes are
not awarded posthumously. Watson published a book on the discovery
of DNA structure in nineteen sixty eight. I'm Eves, Jeff
Coote and hopefully you know a little more about history
(05:29):
today than you did yesterday. If you like to learn
more about Rosalind Franklin, listen to the episode of Stuff
you missed in History Class called Rosalind Franklin DNA's Dark Lady.
We love it. If you left us a comment on Twitter,
Instagram or Facebook. At T d i h C podcast,
(05:50):
we'll see you tomorrow. Hi everyone, I'm Eves and welcome
to the Same History class, a pod ask that brings
you a new slice of history every day. The day
(06:13):
was a nineteen seventeen American jazz singer. Ella Fitzgerald was born.
Fitzgerald has been affectionately dubbed the First Lady of Song.
Ella Jane Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia. Her parents,
William Fitzgerald and Temperance Fitzgerald, separated soon after she was born.
(06:35):
Ella moved to Yonkers, New York with her mother, and
they moved in with Temperance's boyfriend. Ella maate friends easily
in her new neighborhood, and she was already developing her
interest in the arts. She studied music in school, saying
in the glee club and took piano lessons. She was
exposed to formal music making through her family's attendance at
(06:55):
the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church. She listened to artists
being Crosby, the Boswell sisters and Louis Armstrong, and she
often went to Harlem to go to theaters. But when
Ella was a teenager, her mother died. Ella's aunt, Virginia,
stepped in to take care of her. She had a
hard time adjusting to this change, and her grades dropped
(07:17):
as she often skipped school. She was eventually sent to
a reform school, where she was often beaten by the staff.
In four Ella competed in an amateur night at the
Apollo Theater. While she had intended to go on stage
and dance, she faced stiff competition in that arena, so
she decided to sing instead. She's sang the Object of
(07:38):
My Affections by the Boswell Sisters, and the crowd loved
her performance. She got first prize that day, and she
went on to enter and win more talent contests. In
January of nineteen thirty five, Ella performed with the Tiny
Bradshaw Band at the Harlem Opera House. There she met
drummer and bandleader Chick Webb. Soon she began traveling with
(08:00):
Webb's band as a singer. Her first recording, Love and Kisses,
was released under the Decca label. She began performing with
Webb's band at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom, and in nineteen thirty
eight she recorded a version of the nursery rhyme A
Tisket a tasket. The song was popular and performed well
on the music charts, and Ella garnered more fame as
(08:21):
a singer. After Webb died in nineteen thirty nine, the
band continued under the name Ella Fitzgerald in her famous orchestra.
The band performed well for a while, but broke up
in nineteen forty two. At that point, Ella began her
solo career. She recorded with Louis Armstrong, and she went
on tour with Dizzy Gillespie's band in nineteen forty six,
(08:43):
where she fell in love with bassist Ray Brown. The
couple married and eventually adopted a son, Fitzgeryl mastered scat singing,
moving toward be bob as the swing era ended and
jazz music changed rapidly. When she joined the jazz at
the Philharmonic Tour and Norman Grands became her manager, her
popularity shot up. Grants founded Verve Records to feature Fitzgerald's
(09:08):
music in the nineteen fifties, and in nineteen sixties she
recorded covers of other musicians songs like those of Cole Porter,
Duke Ellington, and Johnny Mercer, and she made television appearances
on shows like The Bing Crosby Show and The Ed
Sullivan Show. Fitzgerald continued to tour around the world, and
(09:29):
she recorded live concert albums. In nineteen seventy four, she
spent a couple of weeks in New York, performing with
Frank Sinatra and Count Basie. By the nineteen seventies, her
health was declining. Over the course of her career, she
won fourteen Grammy Awards, including one for Lifetime Achievement, and
she was awarded the National Medal of Arts and the
(09:51):
Presidential Medal of Freedom in nineteen eighties, seven and nineteen
ninety two, respectively. By the nineteen nineties, she had recorded
more than two two hundred albums. She had continued to
perform and record sporadically while dealing with respiratory and heart issues,
as well as diabetes, but she never fully recovered from
surgery she had late in her life when her legs
(10:13):
were amputated below the knees. She died in n I'm
Eve Jeff Cote and hopefully you know a little more
about history today than you did yesterday. And if you
have any comments or suggestions or just want to send
us a nice note, you can send those to us
via social media at t d I HC Podcast. You
(10:34):
can also hit us up via email at this Day
at iHeart media dot com. Thanks again for listening to
the show and we'll see you tomorrow for more podcasts
from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts,
(10:54):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, y'all, We're re running two episodes today in Troy,
the show Welcome to This Day in History Class, where
we bring you a new tidbit from history every day.
The day was a nineteen fifty three, scientists James Watson
(00:25):
and Francis Crick announced their discovery of the structure of
DNA in an article in the journal Nature. The article,
titled Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids, A structure for deoxy
ribos nucleic acid, began with the following statement, we wish
to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxy ribos
(00:46):
nucleic acid DNA. This structure has novel features which are
of considerable biological interests. Nature also published shorter articles by
scientists Maurice will Kinds and Rosalind Franklin, who had contributed
to the discovery, in that same issue after Watson and
Craig's article. In nineteen sixty two, Watson and Crick and
(01:10):
Wilkins received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for
the discovery, but Franklin, who died in nineteen fifty eight,
did not receive widespread recognition for her contributions the discovery.
Was a watership moment in the history of science, but
it was one that became mired in controversy. The nineteen
(01:30):
fifty three discovery of DNA structure came after decades of research.
A Swiss chemist named Friedrich Meischer identified DNA or what
he called nucleon as a distinct molecule in eighteen sixty nine.
In nineteen forty four, Oswald Avery and his colleagues published
a paper showing how jeans are composed of DNA, among
(01:53):
other observations about DNA structure. Austrian biochemists Irwin Chargaff found
out that at a mean and thymine always appeared in
equal amounts, as did cytoscene and guanine. By the early
nineteen fifties, thanks to the work of scientists like Phoebus Levine,
researchers knew that DNA was made of nucleotides, each of
(02:14):
which contains a base, a molecule of sugar, and a
molecule of phosphoric acid. The sugar was deoxy ribos in.
The four nitrogenous basis were at A nine, guanine, cytosine,
and thymine, But researchers did not know exactly what DNA
looked like or how it was copied. In early nineteen
(02:34):
fifty three, chemist Linus Pauling proposed and an accurate model
of DNA that showed it as a three stranded helix.
At the time, Watson and Crick were working at the
University of Cambridge. Maurice Wilkins, Rosalind Franklin, and graduate student
Raymond Gosling were at King's College London using X ray
(02:54):
diffraction to study DNA. Franklin was experienced in X ray crystallography,
a technique that scientists used to determine the structure of crystals.
When the crystallized form of a molecule is exposed to
X rays, the X rays to fract inform a pattern
that scientists can use to understand the molecule structure. Franklin
(03:15):
and Gosling took an X ray diffraction photograph of a
DNA molecule known as Photo fifty one that looked like
an X and revealed the molecules helical structure. Wilkins, who
spent time at Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge with Crick, ended
up showing Photo fifty one to Watson. Watson and Crick
thrilled with Photo fifty one, and worried Pauling would beat
(03:38):
them to the punch, proposed a new model for DNA structure.
Watson and Crick did not do any of their own experiments. Instead,
they relied on drawing conclusions from existing data, including Photo
fifty one. The pair used data they got from an
informal report Franklin gave to scientists Max Perups at Cambridge,
even though they didn't act Franklin for mission to interpret
(04:00):
the data. Ironically, Pauling had advanced the method of model
building that made Watson and Crick's discovery possible. Watson and
Crick shifted around cardboard cutouts of the molecules, and with
the help of chemist Jerry Donohue, eventually figured out the
structure of DNA. On February nineteen fifty three, Watson and
(04:23):
Crick determined that DNA was a double stranded, anti parallel,
right handed helix. They found that the outside of the
helix is made up of sugar phosphate backbones and the
inside is made up of hydrogen bonded pairs of the
nitrogenous basis. On April, the journal Nature published Watson and
(04:44):
Crick's findings, followed by articles from Franklin and Wilkins. In
the paper, Watson and Crick described the structure of DNA.
Krick's wife, O'Dell, created schematic drawings at the DNA double
helix that accompanied the text. The discover refueled a ton
of scientific advancement, from DNA fingerprinting to genetic engineering. Franklin
(05:07):
died of cancer in nineteen fifty eight, four years before Watson, Crick,
and Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize. Nobel Prizes are
not awarded posthumously. Watson published a book on the discovery
of DNA structure in nineteen sixty eight. I'm Eves, Jeff
Coote and hopefully you know a little more about history
(05:29):
today than you did yesterday. If you like to learn
more about Rosalind Franklin, listen to the episode of Stuff
you missed in History Class called Rosalind Franklin DNA's Dark Lady.
We love it. If you left us a comment on Twitter,
Instagram or Facebook. At T d i h C podcast,
(05:50):
we'll see you tomorrow. Hi everyone, I'm Eves and welcome
to the Same History class, a pod ask that brings
you a new slice of history every day. The day
(06:13):
was a nineteen seventeen American jazz singer. Ella Fitzgerald was born.
Fitzgerald has been affectionately dubbed the First Lady of Song.
Ella Jane Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia. Her parents,
William Fitzgerald and Temperance Fitzgerald, separated soon after she was born.
(06:35):
Ella moved to Yonkers, New York with her mother, and
they moved in with Temperance's boyfriend. Ella maate friends easily
in her new neighborhood, and she was already developing her
interest in the arts. She studied music in school, saying
in the glee club and took piano lessons. She was
exposed to formal music making through her family's attendance at
(06:55):
the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church. She listened to artists
being Crosby, the Boswell sisters and Louis Armstrong, and she
often went to Harlem to go to theaters. But when
Ella was a teenager, her mother died. Ella's aunt, Virginia,
stepped in to take care of her. She had a
hard time adjusting to this change, and her grades dropped
(07:17):
as she often skipped school. She was eventually sent to
a reform school, where she was often beaten by the staff.
In four Ella competed in an amateur night at the
Apollo Theater. While she had intended to go on stage
and dance, she faced stiff competition in that arena, so
she decided to sing instead. She's sang the Object of
(07:38):
My Affections by the Boswell Sisters, and the crowd loved
her performance. She got first prize that day, and she
went on to enter and win more talent contests. In
January of nineteen thirty five, Ella performed with the Tiny
Bradshaw Band at the Harlem Opera House. There she met
drummer and bandleader Chick Webb. Soon she began traveling with
(08:00):
Webb's band as a singer. Her first recording, Love and Kisses,
was released under the Decca label. She began performing with
Webb's band at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom, and in nineteen thirty
eight she recorded a version of the nursery rhyme A
Tisket a tasket. The song was popular and performed well
on the music charts, and Ella garnered more fame as
(08:21):
a singer. After Webb died in nineteen thirty nine, the
band continued under the name Ella Fitzgerald in her famous orchestra.
The band performed well for a while, but broke up
in nineteen forty two. At that point, Ella began her
solo career. She recorded with Louis Armstrong, and she went
on tour with Dizzy Gillespie's band in nineteen forty six,
(08:43):
where she fell in love with bassist Ray Brown. The
couple married and eventually adopted a son, Fitzgeryl mastered scat singing,
moving toward be bob as the swing era ended and
jazz music changed rapidly. When she joined the jazz at
the Philharmonic Tour and Norman Grands became her manager, her
popularity shot up. Grants founded Verve Records to feature Fitzgerald's
(09:08):
music in the nineteen fifties, and in nineteen sixties she
recorded covers of other musicians songs like those of Cole Porter,
Duke Ellington, and Johnny Mercer, and she made television appearances
on shows like The Bing Crosby Show and The Ed
Sullivan Show. Fitzgerald continued to tour around the world, and
(09:29):
she recorded live concert albums. In nineteen seventy four, she
spent a couple of weeks in New York, performing with
Frank Sinatra and Count Basie. By the nineteen seventies, her
health was declining. Over the course of her career, she
won fourteen Grammy Awards, including one for Lifetime Achievement, and
she was awarded the National Medal of Arts and the
(09:51):
Presidential Medal of Freedom in nineteen eighties, seven and nineteen
ninety two, respectively. By the nineteen nineties, she had recorded
more than two two hundred albums. She had continued to
perform and record sporadically while dealing with respiratory and heart issues,
as well as diabetes, but she never fully recovered from
surgery she had late in her life when her legs
(10:13):
were amputated below the knees. She died in n I'm
Eve Jeff Cote and hopefully you know a little more
about history today than you did yesterday. And if you
have any comments or suggestions or just want to send
us a nice note, you can send those to us
via social media at t d I HC Podcast. You
(10:34):
can also hit us up via email at this Day
at iHeart media dot com. Thanks again for listening to
the show and we'll see you tomorrow for more podcasts
from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts,
(10:54):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
This Day in History Class News
Host
Gabe Luzier
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