Hi, I’m Sen, and this is Today in History.

You should try and listen to today’s historical events at least twice. This first time through, you don’t need to worry about understanding everything. You should just let the sounds and rhythm wash over you.

Are you ready? Then let’s begin. Here’s what happened today in history.

On July 11, 1405, Chinese Muslim explorer Zheng He embarked on his first maritime voyage to explore the “Western Oceans”. Commissioned by the emperor, he led 62 ships with 28,000 crew. The fleet visited what is now Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, India, the east coast of Africa and Sri Lanka.

On July 11, 1901, politician, business woman and women’s rights activist Gwendolyn Margaret Smith was born in what is now called Belize, formerly known as British Honduras. Nicknamed Madam Liz, she was a grassroots advocate for women’s voting and labor rights, including equal pay, and became known as a tenacious and hands-on organizer. She later became the first woman elected to the British Honduras government and was appointed Minister of Education, Housing and Social Services in 1961.

On July 11, 1946, Chinese American painter Martin Wong was born. An openly gay artist with mixed Chinese and Mexican heritage, he was known for painting gritty, yet tender portraits of the life around him in New York City from the 1970s to 90s. His portraits centered the Asian, Latinx and Black communities in the Lower East Side, depicting them in urban landscapes and earthy tones. Many of his paintings contained a unique blend of homoeroticism, textures and coded statements in stylised American Sign Language.

How was that? Now, rewind, and try focusing more on the content of the episode. See if you can make sense of individual words and sentences.

That’s it for today. Be sure to join me on tomorrow’s episode of Today in History.