What Happened Today

What Happened Today

By The Productive Leisure NetworkSociety & CultureHistory
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What Happened Today episodes

  • October 2 - 1835 - The Battle of Gonzales
    As a military engagement, the Battle of Gonzales was extremely minor. A small detachment of Mexican troops were sent to the town of Gonzales in Texas to retrieve a small cannon, which the Texans refused to give up. The immediate inciting incident was the 1835 proclamation of the "Siete Leyes," or "Seven Laws," by Mexico's President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Effectively, it made Santa Anna a dictator and rolled back liberal reforms. Among the many people to object were the settlers in the area of Texas. These were mostly English-speaking Americans from the Southern states of the United States who had brought slaves to Mexico and resented the centralized Mexican government. Yet open fighting did not immediately take place. What was needed was an inciting incident, and the effort to retrieve Gonzales' cannon. Just 100 Mexican troops were sent, and, when faced with even a token resistance by Texan militias, they retreated rather quickly without achieving their objective. Two Mexican soldiers were killed, while one Texan received a bloody nose while being bucked from his horse. Still, the Texas Revolution had started.
    13 min
  • October 1 - 1910 - The Los Angeles Times Bombing
    When the Los Angeles Times building was blown apart by a bomb at 1 AM, the kind of people who had planted it was fairly easy to guess. The Times had been crusading against organized labor, particularly the Iron Workers union, which had a history of bombing their opponents. Additionally, the publisher of the Los Angeles Times, Harrison Gray Otis, and the head of the Merchant and Manufacturers' Association, Felix Zeehandelaar, had bombs planted at their houses. Still, nailing down the specific identification of the bombers was difficult. This changed because James J. MacNamara, John B. MacNamara, and Ortie McManigal, all leaders among the Iron Workers, confessed to an undercover agent for the Burns Detective Agency. Despite the peculiarities around the men's arrest, which took place in Detroit, the trial began in Los Angeles in April of 1912. The labor movement got behind the MacNamaras, except for their lawyer, Clarence Darrow. With McManigal having turned state's evidence and the consistent bragging of the MacNamaras, Darrow convinced the two to plead guilty. Yet the case turned as Darrow was charged with jury tampering. All in all, the MacNamaras went to jail, Darrow was disgraced, and the labor movement was set back because some of their own had bombed the Los Angeles Times building.
    15 min
  • September 30 - 1955 - The Death of James Dean

    James Dean died at the age of 24 in a car wreck in rural California. He was already a star, having been featured in East of Eden and in the soon to be released Rebel Without a Cause. Dean was driving from Los Angeles to Salinas to compete in a road race. Accompanying him was a mechanic, while following Dean were a stunt man and photographer, ready to produce a photo story about Dean's love of car racing. James Dean's death happened before two of the three movies he starred in were released. Unsurprisingly, the greatest legacy of James Dean's death is a series of what ifs about the career James Dean never had.

    9 min
  • September 29 - 1829 - The Metropolitan Police Force Take to the Streets of London

    Sir Robert Peel created the Metropolitan Police Force as a new way to effect policing in the United Kingdom, focused on London. The Metropolitan Police addressed two different problems, the inadequacy of a constabulary and the opposition to a military police. So Peel hit on concepts known as "The Peelian Principles," but summed up neatly by the concept of policing by consent. The Metropolitan Police were intentionally positioned as civilians in uniform, rather than military figures. They also were meant to reflect the citizenry they were charged to protect. While Peel's ideas were rather naive and hopeful, the notion of policing by consent is a bedrock of most modern police forces.

    10 min
  • September 28 - 1928 - Alexander Fleming Discovers Penicillin

    Alexander Fleming was a well-known scientific researcher when he discovered penicillin. Yet his discovery of the fungus that would lead to antibiotics was almost accidental. Fleming had left his cultures stacked on a bench when he went on holiday, and he returned to find that one of them had grown mold while he was away because he was not as neat as his colleagues. Fleming also noticed that it had killed the bacteria that it was near. Fleming could never isolate or develop penicillin until he went to chemists at Oxford. By the 1940s, this research allowed Allied troops in World War II to survive various bacterial diseases.

    10 min
  • September 27 - 1908 - The First Model T Leaves the Ford Plant

    Henry Ford wanted to make a car that could be used by everyday people for everyday purposes, which stood in stark contrast to the typical view of cars in the late 19th and 20th centuries. As a capable mechanic and inventor, Ford attempted to make a car of his own for years. Finally, Ford was able to hit on an affordable car by perfecting an assembly line that was remarkably efficient. His own goal was to make a car his own workers would use, which meant he also made a very easy car to use. This fit in well with his beliefs about the role of capitalism and its benefits to society. Unfortunately, it also fit in well with Ford's nastier beliefs. 

    11 min
  • September 26 - 1983 - The Soviet Nuclear False Alarm
    While doing his regular job of monitoring missile warnings at Soviet Air Defense, Stanislav Petrov got a signal that one missile had been launched from the United States of America. At the time, the Cold War was ratcheting up, as U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov both used inflammatory rhetoric and further developed nuclear weaponry. The Soviet command structure was absolutely convinced that the United States would send a first strike nuclear attack. Under those circumstances, Stanislav Petrov got a warning that a missile had been launched. Those circumstances were also the reason why Petrov knew it was a false alarm. The United States would not have started a nuclear attack with one missile, but with an entire arsenal, because the Soviet response would certainly be an entire arsenal. Petrov would get no commendation, award, or medal, but he also would not be reprimanded, either. Petrov would be transferred and then leave the service within a year. The entire incident was completely unknown for 15 years, when Petrov's commander would mention it in his memoirs.
    12 min
  • September 24 - 1991 - Nirvana's Nevermind is Released
    Nirvana was one of many bands in the Seattle scene in the early 1990s, and very few people would have predicted they would have become the biggest band of that group. Basically no one thought they would become the biggest band in the world. As they recorded their album Nevermind in the summer of 1991, Nirvana's frontman Kurt Cobain tried to create a slightly different sound than was featured on their debut album Bleach. Cobain was looking for a more melodic, almost pop sound. Yet the band also hired producer Butch Vig because they appreciated his ability to produce a very heavy sound. When the album was released, Nirvana got some good press for the new album and went on tour. Then the opening track and lead single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit," got significant MTV airplay. By the end of the year, Nevermind was selling faster than anyone expected. In January of 1992, it overtook Michael Jackson to become the number one record on the Billboard Charts. With that, Nirvana would become the biggest band in the world, and Kurt Cobain would be hailed as the voice of his generation.
    11 min
  • September 23 - 1780 - Benedict Arnold's Plot is Uncovered
    Benedict Arnold was a significant Continental Army General in the early part of the Revolutionary War. He also had a knack for alienating and annoying most of his fellow officers. Arnold was a pre-war businessman, and many people felt he was always looking out to enrich himself. After leading the Connecticut militia at Fort Ticonderoga and playing a significant role in the invasion of Quebec, Arnold was placed in command of the military district of Philadelphia when that city was taken by the Continental Army. There, he moved in elite social circles and married Peggy Shippen, the 18 year old daughter of a prominent Judge. Peggy had also been courted by a British officer, Major John Andre, and she kept an open line of communication between her new husband and her former suitor. Once Benedict Arnold was placed in command of the strategic fortification at West Point on the Hudson, his discussions with Andre revolved around the relinquishing of the Fort to the British. Arnold's plan was foiled after Andre sought a face to face meeting and was arrested returning to New York carrying a fake passport and six papers detailing their plot in Arnold's hand. Andre would be promptly hanged, while Arnold would make it to the British lines. Nonetheless, Benedict Arnold's name would become a byword for traitor.
    16 min
  • September 22 - 1862 - The Emancipation Proclamation is Preliminarily Issued
    When Abraham Lincoln announced an Emancipation Proclamation in September of 1862, no slaves were immediately freed. First, Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which was due to come into effect in 100 days, on January 1, 1863. Second, the Emancipation Proclamation actually only officially freed slaves in territory then in open rebellion against the United States of America. Slaves in the four border slave states that did not secede, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, were not freed, and slaves in territory taken by the Union previously were not immediately freed. Yet the Emancipation Proclamation shifted the very meaning of the Civil War. Now, the Union was not merely fighting to reunite the country as it had been in 1860, but was fighting to end slavery throughout the nation. After the official issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, no European nations showed any willingness to support the South. More importantly, many newly freed slaves would join the Union war effort as soldiers, taking the fight to their former masters. Once the Emancipation Proclamation was in place, the Civil War became a War of Emancipation.
    14 min

About What Happened Today

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An exploration of what happened on every date, examining its meaning for today and why it matters.