LANE: Welcome to Touring History, where we prove that June 17th might be the most accidentally dramatic date on the calendar. I'm Lane—
DAVE: And I'm Dave, and before we dive into today's collection of military disasters, constitutional crises, and the most famous car chase in television history, let's thank Randy's Donuts for keeping us caffeinated through all this chaos.
LANE: You know, Randy's has been a Los Angeles landmark since 1952, which means that giant donut sign has witnessed everything we're about to discuss—from Cold War tensions to the O.J. chase, probably while serving donuts to people who had no idea they were living through history.
DAVE: When you're processing the fact that the same day gave us both the Battle of Bunker Hill and a white Ford Bronco driving slowly down the freeway, you need the stability of knowing that some things endure. Like excellent donuts and questionable historical timing.
LANE: Speaking of questionable timing, it's June 17th, which means we have tennis legends, hip-hop poets, and—oh God—we're doing Watergate AND the O.J. chase, aren't we?
DAVE: We're absolutely doing both, because apparently June 17th specializes in events that make you question everything you thought you knew about American institutions. But first...
LANE: Birthdays! Venus Williams turns 45 today, which feels impossible because she's been dominating tennis for what feels like 847 years, but also she started so young that 45 actually makes sense mathematically.
DAVE: Also celebrating: Kendrick Lamar at 38, Barry Manilow at 82, Jodie Whittaker at 42, and Joe Piscopo at 74. So we've got tennis royalty, lyrical genius, the king of soft rock, the first female Doctor Who, and... well, Joe Piscopo.
LANE: You know what's fascinating? Kendrick Lamar and Barry Manilow both make music that gets stuck in your head for completely different reasons. One writes complex social commentary, the other wrote "Copacabana," and both are legitimately brilliant at their craft.
DAVE: And Venus Williams has been playing professional tennis since before Kendrick Lamar was famous, which really puts the longevity of athletic careers in perspective. She's basically the Barry Manilow of tennis—enduring excellence that spans generations.
LANE: Meanwhile, Jodie Whittaker broke gender barriers as the Doctor, and Joe Piscopo... existed during the 1980s. Sometimes birthday lists are just like that. Speaking of breaking barriers, Dave, let's talk about expensive military victories.
VIDEO PROMPT: Revolutionary War battlefield with British redcoats advancing up hills while colonial militiamen fire from defensive positions, smoke and chaos of 18th-century warfare, Boston Harbor visible in background
LANE: June 17th, 1775. The Battle of Bunker Hill, where the British technically won but lost so many officers that it was basically a disaster disguised as a victory.
DAVE: This is where your obsession with military pyrrhic victories really kicks in, doesn't it?
LANE: Look, the British lost over 1,000 soldiers, including 226 dead, to take a hill that the Americans evacuated anyway. British General Clinton supposedly said, "A few more such victories would have shortly put an end to British dominion in America."
DAVE: It's the 18th-century equivalent of "We had to destroy the village in order to save it." The British proved they could win battles against colonial militias, but at a cost that made winning the war impossible.
LANE: And this is where we get "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes," which is either brilliant tactical advice or the most American thing anyone has ever said in combat.
DAVE: Probably both. Americans have always been good at turning military necessity into memorable quotes.
VIDEO PROMPT: 1830s American street scene with workers installing large billboard advertisement, horse-drawn carriages passing by, period clothing and architecture, early commercial signage
DAVE: 1835—Jared Bell prints the first large-format U.S. billboard ad, basically inventing the concept of "you can't escape advertising."
LANE: And this is where outdoor advertising really takes off. Before this, advertisements were small newspaper notices. Bell figured out that if you make the ad big enough, people have to see it whether they want to or not.
DAVE: It's brilliant and slightly evil at the same time. "What if we made advertising impossible to ignore?" And now we live in a world where every surface is a potential advertisement.
LANE: Although to be fair, some billboards become landmarks themselves. Like Randy's giant donut sign—that's advertising that transcended into art.
VIDEO PROMPT: 1880s New York Harbor with French ship unloading wooden crates containing Statue of Liberty pieces, stevedores and officials examining the disassembled statue parts, period sailing ships in background
DAVE: 1885—the disassembled Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor. In 214 crates. Because apparently international gift-giving in the 1880s was complicated.
LANE: You know that reminds me of a story, Dave. My great-great-grandmother supposedly watched them unload those crates and said, "The French sure have a funny way of wrapping presents."
DAVE: I love that it arrived like the world's most important IKEA furniture. "Some assembly required. May take several years. Please have proper foundation ready."
LANE: What gets me is that France finished the statue in 1884, but America wasn't ready for it until 1886. So Lady Liberty spent almost two years in storage, waiting for us to get our act together.
DAVE: Very American, right? "Thanks for the gift of freedom, just give us a minute to figure out where to put it."
VIDEO PROMPT: 1920s aviation scene with Amelia Earhart in leather jacket and goggles boarding aircraft, primitive airplane on airfield, concerned ground crew making final preparations
LANE: 1928—Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Well, actually, she was a passenger on this flight, but she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air.
DAVE: Right, her actual solo transatlantic flight was in 1932. But this 1928 flight made her famous and basically launched her career as America's aviation hero.
LANE: What's remarkable is that this was only 25 years after the Wright brothers' first flight. The leap from "humans can fly for 12 seconds" to "let's cross an ocean" happened incredibly fast.
DAVE: Although to be fair, crossing the Atlantic in 1928 was still basically a suicide mission that sometimes worked out. Earhart knew the risks and did it anyway.
VIDEO PROMPT: 1930s Washington D.C. with President Hoover signing legislation surrounded by officials in period suits, economic charts and graphs visible, somber government office setting
DAVE: 1930—the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act gets signed, triggering global trade retaliation and making the Great Depression worse. Because apparently "economic isolationism during a global crisis" seemed like a good idea.
LANE: This is one of those laws that sounds boring but absolutely destroyed the global economy. Countries started retaliating with their own tariffs, international trade collapsed, and everyone got poorer.
DAVE: It's like the 1930s version of a trade war, except it actually worked—at making everything worse for everyone involved.
LANE: The lesson here is that when the global economy is already fragile, maybe don't start fights with all your trading partners simultaneously. But apparently every generation has to learn this lesson the hard way.
VIDEO PROMPT: 1940s Eastern Europe with Soviet tanks rolling into Baltic cities, civilians watching nervously from sidewalks, red flags being raised over government buildings
DAVE: 1940—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania fall under Soviet occupation. Which would last for the next 50 years and basically erase these countries from most people's mental maps.
LANE: What's heartbreaking about this is that these were independent democracies that got caught between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Stalin and Hitler literally divided up Eastern Europe like they were splitting a pizza.
DAVE: And most Americans probably couldn't find these countries on a map in 1940, which made it easier to ignore what was happening to them.
LANE: Although they did eventually get their independence back in 1991, which proves that sometimes if you wait long enough and the empire collapses, you can get your country back.
VIDEO PROMPT: 1940s Reykjavik with Icelandic officials declaring independence, crowds celebrating with flags, Nordic architecture and period celebration atmosphere
DAVE: 1944—Iceland declares independence and becomes a republic. Finally breaking free from Denmark after 600 years of various forms of colonial rule.
LANE: Although this was probably the most polite independence declaration in history. Iceland was like, "Denmark, we love you, but we're going to be our own country now, thanks."
DAVE: And Denmark was basically like, "Sure, we're kind of busy being occupied by Nazis anyway." Sometimes timing is everything in international relations.
VIDEO PROMPT: 1960s Supreme Court building with justices in robes deliberating, American classrooms with teachers leading morning prayers, constitutional law books and period government atmosphere
LANE: 1963—the Supreme Court rules in Abington v. Schempp that school-led Bible readings violate the First Amendment. And conservative America basically lost its mind.
DAVE: This is one of those decisions that seems obvious now but was incredibly controversial at the time. "Public schools funded by taxpayers of all religions probably shouldn't promote one specific religion."
LANE: Although the backlash was immediate and eternal. We're still arguing about this 60 years later, which says something about how slowly institutional change actually happens.
VIDEO PROMPT: 1970s Southeast Asian jungle with North Vietnamese forces destroying railway infrastructure, damaged train tracks in tropical setting, Vietnam War era military equipment
DAVE: 1970—North Vietnamese forces cut Cambodia's last railway line, basically isolating the country from external supply routes. This was part of the broader Vietnam War spillover that devastated Cambodia.
LANE: What's tragic about this is that Cambodia kept getting pulled into a war that wasn't really theirs. The railway line represented connection to the outside world, and losing it meant deeper isolation and suffering.
DAVE: It's one of those military actions that sounds minor but had huge humanitarian consequences. Sometimes infrastructure is everything.
VIDEO PROMPT: 1970s Washington D.C. with police arresting men in suits at Watergate complex, news reporters gathering outside the building, period cars and 1970s urban atmosphere
LANE: 1972—the Watergate burglary arrests begin, launching the scandal that would eventually bring down a presidency. Five men caught breaking into Democratic National Committee headquarters.
DAVE: And at the time, this seemed like a random crime story. Nobody imagined it would lead to "the President of the United States is a crook" and resignation two years later.
LANE: What's fascinating is that this was probably the most expensive burglary in American history. Not because of what they stole, but because of what it cost Nixon and the Republican Party.
DAVE: It's the political equivalent of "the cover-up is worse than the crime," except in this case, both the crime and the cover-up were pretty terrible.
LANE: Here's an intermission moment, brought to you by those who make the invisible visible—cheers! And speaking of making things visible, Randy's Donuts has been impossible to miss since 1952.
DAVE: You know what I love about Randy's approach to advertising? They built a 32-foot donut sign and basically said, "There, we're done with marketing." No focus groups, no market research, just "giant donut equals donut shop."
LANE: It's the opposite of modern advertising complexity. Instead of targeting demographics and optimizing conversion rates, they just made something so iconic that it became part of Los Angeles culture.
DAVE: And it worked! That sign has appeared in more movies than most actors, survived multiple recessions, and now they have locations from Vegas to South Korea. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most enduring. Check them out at randysdonuts.com. Now, back to more historical chaos...
VIDEO PROMPT: 1970s Canadian engineering site with massive electrical infrastructure construction, high-voltage power lines stretching across wilderness, engineers in hard hats examining technical plans
DAVE: Also in 1972—the Nelson River HVDC system begins delivering high-voltage power, which was later promoted as an engineering marvel. Basically, Canada figured out how to send electricity across enormous distances without losing most of it.
LANE: This is one of those infrastructure achievements that nobody talks about but changed everything. High-voltage direct current transmission made it possible to generate power in remote areas and send it to cities hundreds of miles away.
DAVE: It's the electrical equivalent of the interstate highway system—boring but revolutionary. Although I bet the advertising for "high-voltage power transmission" was challenging.
LANE: "Come see our electricity move really efficiently across long distances!" Not exactly a tourist attraction, but genuinely impressive engineering.
VIDEO PROMPT: 1990s Los Angeles freeway with white Ford Bronco driving slowly followed by police cars, news helicopters overhead, massive television audience watching live coverage
LANE: 1994—O.J. Simpson gets arrested after the televised freeway chase that 95 million Americans watched live. Which might be the most surreal moment in television history.
DAVE: This is where your fascination with media spectacle really takes over, isn't it?
LANE: Look, this was supposed to be a routine arrest, but instead it became performance art. A white Ford Bronco driving 35 mph on the freeway while every news helicopter in Southern California follows it.
DAVE: And everyone stopped what they were doing to watch. Restaurants put the chase on their TVs, people pulled over on other freeways to watch the helicopters, entire offices gathered around television sets.
LANE: It was like the entire country collectively decided that watching a slow-speed chase was more important than whatever else we were supposed to be doing that day.
DAVE: Although in retrospect, this was probably the moment when "news as entertainment" officially took over American media. Everything after this had to compete with the O.J. chase for drama.
VIDEO PROMPT: Modern Charleston church with memorial flowers and candles outside, community members gathering in grief, news coverage of the tragic hate crime
LANE: 2015—the Emanuel AME Church shooting in Charleston kills nine people during a Bible study. And this is one of those events where we need to be respectful rather than analytical.
DAVE: This was domestic terrorism motivated by racial hatred, targeting people who were literally studying scripture and welcoming a stranger into their church. It's important to remember both the victims and the community response.
LANE: What followed was remarkable—the families of the victims offered forgiveness, the community came together, and Charleston showed what healing could look like even after unimaginable tragedy.
DAVE: Sometimes the most powerful response to hatred is grace, which is what Emanuel AME Church demonstrated to the entire country.
LANE: So that's June 17th—pyrrhic victories, disassembled statues, constitutional crises, and the collision between tragedy and media spectacle.
DAVE: If there's a theme here, it's that some victories cost too much, some institutions take forever to assemble properly, and some moments become bigger than anyone expected them to be.
LANE: Thanks again to Randy's Donuts for sponsoring today's episode. When the world is full of expensive military victories and slow-speed chases, at least we have that giant donut sign as a constant reminder that some things are exactly what they appear to be.
DAVE: Visit randysdonuts.com, and remember—history is full of unexpected consequences and unintended spectacles. Sometimes the side effects are more important than the original event.
LANE: I'm Lane—
DAVE: I'm Dave—
BOTH: And we'll see you next time on Touring History, where we prove that June 17th specializes in events that seemed routine until they changed everything.
LANE: Allegedly.
[END OF EPISODE - Runtime: Approximately 11 minutes]
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