LANE: Welcome back to Touring History, the podcast where we discover that every day in history was somehow both more boring and more insane than you'd expect. I'm Lane.
DAVE: And I'm Dave, and before we dive into today's buffet of historical chaos, we need to talk about something that actually matters—good food. Today's episode is brought to you by BAVA Brothers at bavabrothers.com.
LANE: Now, Dave and I have been doing this show for a while now, and we've learned that literally every day in history, someone somewhere was dealing with political upheaval, war, or existential dread. You know what helps with that? Authentic Italian sopressata made by people who actually know what they're doing.
DAVE: The BAVA Brothers aren't just selling you processed meat—they're carrying on a family tradition that probably started around the time half the events we're about to discuss were happening. Their sopressata is made with traditional methods, quality ingredients, and the kind of care that makes you remember why humans invented civilization in the first place.
LANE: Which is perfect timing, because today we're talking about June 10th, and let me tell you, this date has seen some things. So grab your favorite cured meat—preferably from bavabrothers.com—and let's get weird.
DAVE: Alright, let's start with birthdays, because June 10th apparently decided to be the day when the universe just threw a bunch of interesting people at the wall to see what would stick.
LANE: We've got Judy Garland, born 1922. You know, Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz? But here's the thing that gets me—she was born Frances Gumm, which sounds like a name you'd make up if you were trying to be a 1920s gangster but weren't very good at it.
DAVE: "Hey, it's Frances Gumm here, see? I'm gonna... gum up your works!" But seriously, Garland's story is one of those Hollywood tragedies that makes you realize the entertainment industry has been systematically destroying talented people for literally decades.
LANE: Right, and then we jump to Prince Philip, born 1921. Now, there's a guy who lived through basically everything we're about to talk about today. World War II, the Cold War, the invention of the internet, probably the rise and fall of seventeen different boy bands.
DAVE: Prince Philip was also born into Greek and Danish royalty but ended up as a British royal, which is like... imagine if you were born in Ohio but somehow ended up running a Dairy Queen in Alaska. European royalty is just geography with extra steps.
LANE: Oh, and Elizabeth Hurley, born 1965. You know that reminds me of a story, Dave. I was reading about how she became famous, and apparently she got attention at a movie premiere by wearing a safety pin dress. In 1994. Just... safety pins. Holding fabric together.
DAVE: That's the most British approach to fashion I've ever heard. "Well, I haven't got proper fasteners, but I've got these sharp metal things." It's like when you're moving and you run out of tape, so you just start stapling boxes shut.
LANE: And then there's Sasha Obama, born 2001, which means she's now 24 and has probably never known a world without social media, which is either incredibly depressing or incredibly liberating, depending on how you look at it.
DAVE: Can you imagine being the president's daughter in the age of TikTok? Like, your dad's making foreign policy decisions, and you're trying to figure out if your dance moves are going to accidentally cause an international incident.
LANE: Now, let's get chronological, because June 10th has been busy for a long time. We're starting in 1692 with something that's not going to be fun to talk about—the Salem witch trials.
DAVE: Right, June 10th, 1692, Bridget Bishop becomes the first person executed in Salem. And here's what gets me about the Salem witch trials—they lasted less than a year, but they've become this symbol of mass hysteria that we're still referencing today.
LANE: Twenty people died, Dave. Twenty. In a community of maybe 2,000 people. That's like if everyone in your neighborhood decided that Karen from the HOA was definitely a witch and needed to be executed.
DAVE: The whole thing started because some kids got sick and started having fits, and instead of thinking "Maybe they ate something weird" or "Maybe they're just kids being dramatic," the adults went straight to "WITCHCRAFT!"
LANE: Although, to be fair, if you've ever been around a group of teenage girls, the witch explanation does start to make a certain amount of sense...
DAVE: [laughing] Lane, I don't think you can say that.
LANE: I'm just saying, have you seen what they can do with eyeliner? That's basically magic.
DAVE: Moving on—jumping ahead to 1898, we've got U.S. Marines landing at Guantánamo Bay during the Spanish-American War. And this is where it gets interesting, because most people don't realize that Guantánamo Bay has been a U.S. naval base since 1903.
LANE: That's... over 120 years. We've been there longer than we've had the Panama Canal, longer than we've had the Federal Reserve, longer than we've had the income tax.
DAVE: The Spanish-American War is one of those conflicts that feels like it was invented by someone who was really bad at risk management. "Hey, let's fight Spain! What could go wrong?" And then suddenly we're a colonial power with territories in the Pacific.
LANE: It's like when you're playing Monopoly and you keep buying properties without really thinking about it, and then suddenly you own half the board and you're not sure how that happened.
DAVE: Okay, here's something that's actually cool—1907, the Autochrome Lumière process for color photography gets introduced. This is basically the first commercially viable color photography process.
LANE: Before this, if you wanted a color photograph, you had to hand-paint it, which sounds like the most tedious art project in human history.
DAVE: The Lumière brothers—and yes, their name literally means "light" in French, which is either the most perfect coincidence or the most obvious career choice ever—they figured out how to use potato starch to create color filters.
LANE: Potato starch, Dave. They revolutionized photography using potatoes. This is like if someone invented smartphones using corn husks.
DAVE: But here's what's amazing—those early Autochrome photographs have this dreamy, ethereal quality that digital photography still can't quite replicate. There's something about the way the light filters through those microscopic potato starch grains...
LANE: You're getting that look again, Dave. The "I'm about to spend twenty minutes explaining why old technology was superior" look.
DAVE: I'm not—okay, maybe I am. But seriously, we went from black and white to color in the span of about sixty years, and then from color to digital in another sixty years. At this rate, by 2067, we'll be taking photographs with our thoughts.
LANE: Great, so future historians will have to deal with accidentally documented bathroom thoughts. "And here we see a rare glimpse into the mind of a 2067 human: 'Did I remember to feed the cat? Also, why is my left toe itchy?'"
LANE: Now we're getting into the 1930s, and June 10th, 1935, Alcoholics Anonymous is founded in Akron, Ohio.
DAVE: This is actually a fascinating story. Bill Wilson, who was a stockbroker—which, given that this is 1935, probably means he was having some challenges with alcohol—he meets Dr. Bob Smith, and they basically invent the twelve-step program.
LANE: The timing is incredible, right? The Great Depression is happening, people are losing their jobs, their homes, their hope, and these two guys are like, "You know what? Let's create a support system for people who are struggling."
DAVE: And the thing is, the twelve-step model that AA developed has been adapted for everything. Narcotics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous... there's probably a support group for people who are addicted to buying houseplants.
LANE: "Hi, my name is Sarah, and I have a problem with succulents." [pause] "Hi, Sarah."
DAVE: But seriously, the idea that you can create a community of people who support each other through shared experience—that's revolutionary. Especially in 1935, when mental health and addiction weren't exactly topics of polite conversation.
LANE: Right, this is the era when the medical advice for depression was "take a vacation" and the treatment for alcoholism was "have you tried not drinking?"
DAVE: Moving into the 1960s, we've got two major events. June 10th, 1963, President Kennedy signs the Equal Pay Act into law.
LANE: This is one of those moments where you realize how recently basic civil rights were established. 1963. That's not ancient history—that's like, your parents' lifetime.
DAVE: The Equal Pay Act was supposed to guarantee equal pay for equal work, regardless of gender. And here we are, sixty-plus years later, still having conversations about the wage gap.
LANE: It's like passing a law that says "gravity applies to everyone equally" and then spending the next six decades arguing about whether gravity is real.
DAVE: But then, four years later, June 10th, 1967, we get the end of the Six-Day War with a UN-brokered ceasefire.
LANE: The Six-Day War is one of those conflicts that sounds like it should be simple because it was short, but it completely redrew the map of the Middle East. Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria—six days of fighting that are still influencing geopolitics today.
DAVE: It's like if you had a really intense argument with your neighbors about property lines, and then fifty years later, your kids are still dealing with the consequences.
LANE: And the thing is, calling it the "Six-Day War" makes it sound almost quaint, like it was a very brief disagreement. But wars don't really end just because the shooting stops.
DAVE: You know what, Lane? Speaking of things that don't end just because they're supposed to, let's talk about our relationship with good food.
LANE: Oh, here we go. Dave's got opinions about charcuterie.
DAVE: I do have opinions about charcuterie! And specifically, I have opinions about BAVA Brothers sopressata, which is what's keeping us fed while we research these episodes.
LANE: Dave discovered bavabrothers.com about three months ago, and now he's basically become a walking advertisement for traditional Italian cured meats.
DAVE: Look, when you're spending hours reading about historical disasters, you need something that reminds you that humans are capable of creating beautiful things. BAVA Brothers sopressata is made with traditional methods, quality ingredients, and the kind of attention to detail that makes you remember why civilization was worth developing.
LANE: Plus, and this is important, when you're stress-eating while researching the Salem witch trials, you want to make sure you're eating something that's actually good for you. BAVA Brothers uses no artificial preservatives, no weird chemicals, just traditional Italian curing methods that have been working for centuries.
DAVE: It's like eating a piece of history, but in a good way. Not like those historical dishes where you're like, "Wow, people in 1847 really didn't know about seasoning."
LANE: So if you want to support the show and also eat incredibly good sopressata, go to bavabrothers.com. Tell them Lane and Dave sent you, and they'll know you have excellent taste in both podcasts and cured meats.
DAVE: Now, back to our regularly scheduled historical chaos.
LANE: Alright, 1978, and we're getting into some lighter territory. Affirmed wins the Triple Crown in horse racing.
DAVE: This is actually a great story, because Affirmed was in this incredible rivalry with another horse named Alydar. They raced against each other ten times, and Affirmed won seven of those races, but most of them were incredibly close.
LANE: The Belmont Stakes that year—the race that clinched the Triple Crown—Affirmed won by a nose. Literally a nose. The photo finish was so close that if someone had sneezed at the wrong moment, the outcome might have been different.
DAVE: And here's what I love about horse racing—it's one of the few sports where the athletes have no idea they're competing. Affirmed wasn't thinking, "I need to win this to make history." He was thinking, "I'm a horse, and I'm running because humans told me to."
LANE: Although, to be fair, that's probably what most professional athletes are thinking too. "I'm a human, and I'm running because other humans told me to, and apparently money is involved."
DAVE: But then, the very next year, 1977—wait, that's backwards. Time is hard.
LANE: Dave's having a temporal crisis. This is what happens when you spend too much time thinking about history. You start to lose track of what year it actually is.
DAVE: Okay, 1977, June 10th, James Earl Ray escapes from prison. James Earl Ray, the man who assassinated Martin Luther King Jr.
LANE: And this is where the story gets weird, because Ray escaped with six other prisoners by hiding in a truck loaded with bread. Which means his escape plan was literally "hide in the carbs."
DAVE: He was on the run for three days before they caught him. Three days! The man who committed one of the most notorious assassinations in American history was recaptured after a long weekend.
LANE: It's like if you planned the perfect crime and then got caught because you stopped to buy gas and forgot to wear a disguise.
DAVE: Moving into more recent history, we've got some heavy stuff. June 10th, 2009, there was a shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
LANE: This one's tough to talk about, but it's important. An 88-year-old white supremacist opened fire, killing a security guard named Stephen Tyrone Johns.
DAVE: What gets me about this is that it happened at a Holocaust memorial. A place specifically designed to remind people about the consequences of hatred and extremism. And someone decided that was the perfect target for an act of hatred and extremism.
LANE: Stephen Johns was working security, doing his job, protecting visitors to a museum. He died protecting people who were there to learn about history so it wouldn't be repeated.
DAVE: It's a reminder that museums and memorials aren't just about the past. They're about the present, and about making sure we don't forget why these places exist.
LANE: [pause] On a much lighter note, 2018, NASA's Opportunity rover sends its final message from Mars.
DAVE: Oh, this one got me. Opportunity was supposed to last 90 days on Mars. It lasted almost 15 years. It's like if you bought a car that was supposed to last until your next oil change, and instead it lasted until your kids graduated college.
LANE: And the final message—according to the internet, anyway—was basically "My battery is low and it's getting dark." Which is either the most poetic ending to a space mission ever, or the most depressing.
DAVE: I love that we sent a robot to Mars, and it became this beloved character that everyone was rooting for. People were genuinely sad when Opportunity stopped communicating.
LANE: It's like Wall-E, but real, and on Mars, and it spent fifteen years taking pictures of rocks and sending them back to Earth like a proud parent.
DAVE: And finally, we get to 2020, which was... a year. June 10th, 2020, a statue of Jefferson Davis was toppled in Richmond, Virginia.
LANE: This was during the nationwide protests following George Floyd's death, and people were finally saying, "You know what? Maybe we don't need statues of the president of the Confederacy in our public squares."
DAVE: Jefferson Davis was the president of a government that existed for four years, lost a war, and was specifically created to preserve slavery. Having statues of him is like having statues of the CEO of Enron.
LANE: Although, to be fair, the CEO of Enron probably didn't cause a war that killed 600,000 people.
DAVE: The statue thing is fascinating to me, because it's this physical manifestation of how we choose to remember history. What we put up, what we take down, what we choose to commemorate.
LANE: Right, because statues aren't just decoration. They're statements about what we value, what we want to remember, what we want to celebrate.
DAVE: And the fact that it took until 2020 to remove a statue of Jefferson Davis from Richmond—which, by the way, was the capital of the Confederacy—that tells you something about how slowly these conversations happen.
LANE: So there you have it, June 10th: witches, wars, color photography, horse racing, prison escapes, civil rights, space robots, and statue removal.
DAVE: It's like someone took the entire human experience and compressed it into a single day. We've got art, science, tragedy, triumph, and people making questionable decisions with profound consequences.
LANE: And somehow, through all of this, people kept making sopressata. Which brings us back to BAVA Brothers at bavabrothers.com, who are carrying on traditions that have survived everything we just talked about.
DAVE: History is chaos, but good food is eternal. That's probably not a real quote, but it should be.
LANE: Next week, we're looking at June 17th, which apparently decided to be the day when everything goes wrong in the most interesting possible ways.
DAVE: Until then, remember that today is history too, so try to make it interesting.
LANE: But not too interesting. We've got enough material already.
DAVE: I'm Dave.
LANE: I'm Lane.
BOTH: And this has been Touring History.
LANE: [fade out] Seriously though, go buy some sopressata. We're running out of snacks.
[TOTAL RUNTIME: Approximately 11-12 minutes]
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