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

You’re going to hear a set of historical events twice. On this first listen, don’t worry about understanding everything. You should just feel the rhythm of the speech, and let the sounds fill your head.

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

On July 11, 1405, Chinese Muslim explorer Zheng He set sail for the first time to explore the “Western Oceans”. He was chosen by the emperor to lead 62 ships with 28,000 people. They 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 Belize, formerly British Honduras. Known by the nickname Madam Liz, she fought for women’s voting and labor rights, including equal pay. She was a tenacious political organizer. She was the first woman elected to the government and became 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 roots, his paintings showed life in New York City from the 1970s to 90s, with a focus on the Asian, Latinx and Black communities in the Lower East Side. Repeated themes of his art included identity, multilingualism, and queer sexuality.

How was that? Now for a second listen. Remember, see if you can make sense of some individual words and phrases this time. I’ll explain some of the more difficult ones afterwards. Or you can even find them in the episode notes.

On July 11, 1405, Chinese Muslim explorer Zheng He set sail for the first time to explore the “Western Oceans”. He was chosen by the emperor to lead 62 ships with 28,000 people. They 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 Belize, formerly British Honduras. Known by the nickname Madam Liz, she fought for women’s voting and labor rights, including equal pay. She was a tenacious political organizer. She was the first woman elected to the government and became 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 roots, his paintings showed life in New York City from the 1970s to 90s, with a focus on the Asian, Latinx and Black communities in the Lower East Side. Repeated themes of his art included identity, multilingualism, and queer sexuality.

Did any words catch your attention? You might already know that an ‘emperor’ is someone who rules over an empire. It was the emperor of the Ming dynasty in China who asked Zheng He to lead the ships on their trip. And how about ‘tenacious’? That refers to a person who does not give up easily, even when in a difficult situation. And finally, we have ‘Latinx’, which refers to people of Latin American cultural and ethnic identity in the United States, and is a gender-neutral alternative to “Latina” or “Latino”.

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

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Episode notes:

emperor: a person who rules over an empire
tenacious: someone who does not give up easily
Latinx: gender-neutral term used to describe people of Latin American cultural or ethnic identity in the US.