DAVE: Welcome back to Touring History, where we prove that literally every single day in the past was somehow both completely predictable and absolutely insane. I'm Dave.
LANE: And I'm Lane, and before we dive into today's collection of "how did humans survive this long," we need to talk about something that actually makes sense in this world—BAVA Brothers sopressata from bavabrothers.com.
DAVE: You know, Lane and I have been doing this show long enough to realize that throughout all of human history, during wars, plagues, political upheavals, and celebrity scandals, people have consistently done two things: made terrible decisions and made excellent cured meats.
LANE: The BAVA Brothers represent the second category. Their sopressata is made using traditional Italian methods that have been perfected over generations—the kind of craftsmanship that survives empires, outlasts governments, and makes you remember why humans invented civilization in the first place.
DAVE: Which is perfect, because today we're talking about June 11th, a date that includes everything from royal weddings to prison escapes to one of the most famous movies ever made. So grab your favorite Italian cured meat—preferably from bavabrothers.com—and let's see what humanity was up to on this particular day.
LANE: Let's start with birthdays, because June 11th apparently decided to specialize in people who are really, really good at pretending to be other people.
DAVE: Hugh Laurie, born 1959. Most people know him as Dr. House, the brilliant, misanthropic doctor who solved medical mysteries while consuming dangerous amounts of Vicodin.
LANE: But here's what gets me about Hugh Laurie—he's British. Like, really British. He was in Cambridge Footlights, he did comedy with Stephen Fry, he's basically the embodiment of British wit. And then he comes to America and convinces everyone he's a grumpy American doctor.
DAVE: It's like if Gordon Ramsay moved to Italy and everyone believed he was authentically Italian. Except Hugh Laurie did it so well that most Americans had no idea he wasn't actually American until they heard him speak in interviews.
LANE: And then there's Peter Dinklage, born 1969, who took the acting world by storm in Game of Thrones and basically redefined what it means to be a leading man on television.
DAVE: Dinklage is interesting because he refused to take the typical roles that Hollywood offered actors with dwarfism. He was like, "No, I'm not going to be your comic relief or your magical creature. I'm going to be a complex, intelligent character who happens to be the smartest person in the room."
LANE: Tyrion Lannister was basically the moral center of Game of Thrones, which is saying something, because that show's moral center was... complicated.
DAVE: And speaking of complicated, we've got Shia LaBeouf, born 1986, who went from Disney Channel to Transformers to... performance art pieces where he watches his own movies?
LANE: Shia LaBeouf is what happens when child stardom meets existential crisis meets art school. He's like if someone took a normal Hollywood career and put it in a blender with a philosophy degree.
DAVE: But you know what? I respect the journey. He could have just done Transformers movies forever and bought a mansion in Malibu. Instead, he's out there doing weird performance art and making people question what celebrity even means.
LANE: And then we've got Joe Montana, born 1956, who is basically the reason why "clutch" became a thing in sports.
DAVE: Joe Cool. Four Super Bowl wins, three Super Bowl MVPs, the guy who threw "The Catch" to Dwight Clark. Montana is one of those athletes who was so good that he made difficult things look effortless.
LANE: Although, can we talk about how quarterback is basically the most stressful job in sports? Like, everyone else on the field is trying to tackle you specifically, and if you mess up, millions of people will analyze your failure in slow motion.
DAVE: Right, and Montana did that for 16 years and made it look like he was having a casual conversation with friends.
LANE: Alright, let's get chronological, starting with 1509, when King Henry VIII marries Catherine of Aragon.
DAVE: This is Henry's first marriage, which is important because, spoiler alert, there are going to be five more, and it's not going to go well for most of the wives.
LANE: Catherine of Aragon was actually married to Henry's older brother Arthur first, but Arthur died young, so Henry married his brother's widow, which was... complicated, politically and religiously.
DAVE: This marriage lasted about 24 years, which by Henry VIII standards is basically a lifetime commitment. But it ended when Henry decided he needed a male heir and Catherine couldn't provide one.
LANE: And this is where Henry basically broke with the entire Catholic Church, created the Church of England, and started the English Reformation, all because he wanted a divorce.
DAVE: It's like if someone changed the entire legal system because they wanted to get out of a lease. Except instead of a lease, it was a marriage, and instead of changing local laws, he changed the religious foundation of an entire country.
LANE: Now jumping ahead to 1776, June 11th, the Continental Congress appoints the Committee of Five to draft the Declaration of Independence.
DAVE: The Committee of Five: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman. Which sounds like the worst law firm name ever.
LANE: But here's what's interesting—they appointed this committee on June 11th, but the Declaration wasn't actually signed until July 4th. So we've been celebrating the wrong date this whole time.
DAVE: Well, not the wrong date, but... it's complicated. The Continental Congress approved the final wording on July 4th, but most of the delegates didn't actually sign it until August 2nd.
LANE: So Independence Day is really "Final Draft Approval Day," and the actual signing was like a month later. It's like if we celebrated Christmas on the day someone decided to buy presents instead of the day they actually gave them.
DAVE: Although, to be fair, "Final Draft Approval Day" doesn't have the same ring to it. Plus, can you imagine trying to fit that on fireworks?
LANE: Okay, 1770, and we've got Captain James Cook running aground on the Great Barrier Reef, which is basically the 18th-century equivalent of backing your car into a fire hydrant, except the car is a ship and the fire hydrant is one of the world's largest coral reef systems.
DAVE: Cook was on his first voyage to the Pacific, mapping the coast of Australia, and he basically discovered the Great Barrier Reef by crashing into it.
LANE: This is like being the first person to discover a wall by walking face-first into it. "Good news, everyone! I've found something! Bad news, it's currently puncturing our hull!"
DAVE: But here's what's amazing—Cook and his crew spent almost seven weeks repairing the ship, and during that time, they became some of the first Europeans to interact with Indigenous Australians and document Australian wildlife.
LANE: So Cook accidentally discovered one of the world's most important ecosystems, nearly died because of it, and then spent two months basically doing the world's first nature documentary.
DAVE: It's like if someone got lost on a hiking trail, fell into a hidden valley, discovered a new species, and then had to write a research paper about it while figuring out how to get home.
LANE: And now, 250 years later, the Great Barrier Reef is dying because of climate change, which means Cook's accidental discovery might not be around much longer for future accidental discoveries.
DAVE: That's... depressing. Should we move on to something lighter?
LANE: Dave, this is a history podcast. "Lighter" is relative.
DAVE: Fair point. 1919, Sir Barton becomes the first Triple Crown winner in U.S. horse racing.
LANE: Now this is interesting, because Sir Barton won the Triple Crown, but nobody called it the "Triple Crown" yet. The term wasn't coined until 1930, so Sir Barton won something that didn't have a name.
DAVE: It's like being the first person to eat a sandwich before anyone knew what a sandwich was. You're just putting meat between bread and people are like, "What are you doing?" and you're like, "I don't know, but it's working."
LANE: Sir Barton was also a bit of an underdog. He wasn't considered the best horse of his generation, but he just kept winning the big races.
DAVE: Sometimes the best strategy is just showing up and doing the work. Revolutionary concept.
LANE: Speaking of showing up and doing the work, 1987, Margaret Thatcher wins her third consecutive term as UK Prime Minister.
DAVE: The Iron Lady. Love her or hate her, Thatcher was one of those political figures who completely changed the trajectory of her country.
LANE: She was the first female Prime Minister of the UK, and she held the job for eleven years, which is longer than most people keep the same phone number.
DAVE: Thatcher's economic policies basically dismantled the post-war consensus in Britain. She privatized industries, broke the power of trade unions, and fundamentally changed how the British economy worked.
LANE: It's like if someone became the manager of a restaurant and decided to change everything from the menu to the furniture to the way they took orders. Except the restaurant was an entire country.
DAVE: And the thing is, whether you think her policies were good or bad, you have to admit they were decisive. Thatcher didn't do anything halfway.
LANE: Alright, we need to talk about 1955, and this one's not going to be fun. The Le Mans disaster.
DAVE: June 11th, 1955, during the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, driver Pierre Levegh's car crashes into the crowd, killing 83 spectators and Levegh himself.
LANE: This is still the deadliest accident in motorsport history. Levegh's car flew into the stands and basically disintegrated, sending parts and debris into the crowd.
DAVE: The race continued for hours after the accident, which seems insane now, but at the time, the organizers were worried that stopping the race would cause traffic chaos and interfere with emergency vehicles.
LANE: It's one of those decisions that makes sense in the moment but looks absolutely horrific in hindsight. Like, "Yes, people are dying, but we need to finish this race."
DAVE: The accident led to major changes in motorsport safety—barriers, run-off areas, better car design. It's a reminder that sometimes progress only happens after tragedy.
LANE: And it's why modern racing, while still dangerous, is exponentially safer than it was in the 1950s. Every safety innovation in motorsport can be traced back to someone who didn't make it home.
DAVE: You know what, Lane? Speaking of things that have gotten better over time, let's talk about BAVA Brothers sopressata.
LANE: Oh no, Dave's in full charcuterie mode again.
DAVE: Look, we just talked about a racing disaster from 1955, and you know what wasn't a disaster in 1955? Traditional Italian curing methods. Those were working perfectly then, and they're working perfectly now.
LANE: BAVA Brothers at bavabrothers.com represents the kind of craftsmanship that doesn't need to be reinvented every generation. They're using techniques that have been perfected over centuries.
DAVE: When you're researching historical disasters and human folly, it's reassuring to know that some things have remained consistently excellent. BAVA Brothers sopressata is made with quality ingredients, traditional methods, and the kind of attention to detail that makes you remember why humans developed civilization in the first place.
LANE: Plus, and this is important for podcast hosts who spend way too much time reading about terrible things that happened in the past, their sopressata is actually good for you. No weird chemicals, no artificial preservatives, just meat and time and traditional Italian knowledge.
DAVE: It's like eating a piece of history, but in the best possible way. Not like hardtack or gruel or whatever people in 1347 were eating during the plague.
LANE: So if you want to support the show and also eat something that connects you to centuries of Italian tradition, 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: Speaking of chaos, June 11th, 1962, three inmates escape from Alcatraz, and their fate remains unknown to this day.
DAVE: Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin. They spent months digging through their cell walls with improvised tools, created dummy heads to fool the guards during bed checks, and then disappeared into San Francisco Bay on a makeshift raft.
LANE: The dummy heads were made from soap, toilet paper, and real hair they collected from the prison barbershop. Which means they were basically arts and crafts enthusiasts who happened to be in prison.
DAVE: The FBI investigated for 17 years and officially concluded that the prisoners drowned in the bay. But their bodies were never found, and there have been alleged sightings and supposed evidence that they survived.
LANE: It's like the ultimate "did they or didn't they" mystery. Either they pulled off the most famous prison escape in American history, or they died in the attempt and became legends anyway.
DAVE: Alcatraz was supposed to be escape-proof. It's on an island, surrounded by cold water and strong currents, and it was specifically designed to hold the most dangerous criminals in America.
LANE: And these three guys were like, "Challenge accepted." They turned prison into a long-term engineering project.
DAVE: The thing is, even if they died in the escape attempt, they succeeded in the sense that they're more famous now than they ever would have been if they'd just served their sentences.
LANE: Death or freedom, but either way, they weren't staying in prison. That's commitment to a goal.
DAVE: Moving on to 1963, and we've got a really significant moment in civil rights history. June 11th, the University of Alabama is desegregated when Governor George Wallace steps aside.
LANE: This is the famous "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door" moment, where Wallace literally stood in the doorway of the University of Alabama to prevent Black students from enrolling.
DAVE: Wallace had campaigned on the slogan "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever," which is about as unambiguous as political rhetoric gets.
LANE: But when federal marshals and the Alabama National Guard showed up, Wallace stepped aside, and Vivian Malone and James Hood became the first Black students to enroll at the University of Alabama.
DAVE: This is one of those moments where you can see the arc of history bending. Wallace was playing to his political base, but the federal government was like, "No, this is happening whether you like it or not."
LANE: And here's what's interesting—Wallace later changed his political positions and apologized for his earlier stance on segregation. People can actually change, even when they've been very publicly wrong.
DAVE: Although it's worth noting that it took him decades to apologize, and by then, a lot of damage had been done.
LANE: Right, redemption is possible, but it doesn't erase the harm that was caused. It's complicated, which is basically the theme of all civil rights history.
DAVE: Now we're getting into more recent history, and it's heavy. June 11th, 2001, Timothy McVeigh is executed for the Oklahoma City bombing.
LANE: McVeigh killed 168 people, including 19 children, when he bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995. It was the deadliest domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history.
DAVE: What's particularly disturbing about McVeigh is that he was motivated by anti-government ideology. He saw the federal government as tyrannical and decided that mass murder was an appropriate response.
LANE: The execution was actually broadcast live on closed-circuit television to survivors and victims' families, which was controversial but understandable. People wanted to see justice done.
DAVE: McVeigh's case is a reminder that terrorism isn't just something that comes from outside the country. Sometimes the most dangerous threats come from people who grew up here and became radicalized by extremist ideologies.
LANE: And it's worth noting that McVeigh's execution was one of the last federal executions for almost 20 years. The federal government basically stopped executing people after 2003 and didn't resume until 2020.
DAVE: It's like the country collectively decided that maybe we needed to think more carefully about state-sanctioned killing, even for the worst criminals.
LANE: Moving into the 21st century, June 11th, 2009, the World Health Organization declares H1N1 influenza a global pandemic.
DAVE: H1N1, also known as swine flu. And here's what's weird—this was a pandemic, but it feels like ancient history now because we just lived through COVID-19.
LANE: H1N1 infected about 1.4 billion people worldwide and killed between 151,700 and 575,400 people, depending on which estimates you believe.
DAVE: But the response was completely different from COVID. There were no lockdowns, no mask mandates, no remote work. The world just... kept going.
LANE: It's like we collectively decided that a pandemic was just something that happened, like a particularly bad flu season, and we'd deal with it without changing our daily lives.
DAVE: And then COVID happened, and suddenly we remembered that pandemics can actually shut down the entire world if they're serious enough.
LANE: On a much lighter note, 2010, the FIFA World Cup opens in South Africa, making it the first World Cup held in Africa.
DAVE: The vuvuzelas! Remember the vuvuzelas? Those plastic horns that made every match sound like a swarm of angry bees?
LANE: The vuvuzelas were... an acquired taste. Either you loved the authentic South African atmosphere, or you wanted to throw your television out the window.
DAVE: But it was historically significant. After decades of apartheid and international isolation, South Africa was hosting the world's biggest sporting event.
LANE: And finally, 1982, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is released in theaters, and suddenly everyone wants to phone home.
DAVE: E.T. was a cultural phenomenon. It was the highest-grossing film of all time until Jurassic Park came along in 1993.
LANE: Steven Spielberg made a movie about a friendly alien who just wants to go home, and it made people cry for decades. That's the power of good storytelling.
DAVE: Although, let's be honest, if an alien actually landed in someone's backyard today, the first thing that would happen is someone would livestream it on TikTok.
LANE: So there you have it, June 11th: royal marriages, founding fathers, coral reef crashes, horse racing, political courage, prison escapes, civil rights, terrorism, pandemics, World Cups, and aliens who just want to phone home.
DAVE: It's like someone took every possible human experience and crammed it into 24 hours. We've got love, death, triumph, tragedy, and people making both brilliant and terrible decisions with world-changing consequences.
LANE: And through all of it, people kept making sopressata. Which brings us back to BAVA Brothers at bavabrothers.com, who represent the kind of consistency and quality that survives everything we just talked about.
DAVE: History is chaos, but good food is a constant. That should be our show's motto.
LANE: Next week, we're looking at June 18th, which apparently decided to be the day when everything happens at once, but in the most historically significant way possible.
DAVE: Until then, remember that you're living through history right now, so try to make it interesting.
LANE: But not Alcatraz-escape interesting. We're not prepared for that level of commitment.
DAVE: I'm Dave.
LANE: I'm Lane.
BOTH: And this has been Touring History.
LANE: [fade out] Seriously though, if you're planning a prison escape, maybe just watch a movie instead. E.T. is still good.
[TOTAL RUNTIME: Approximately 11-12 minutes]
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