Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. A great king does more than just rule.
Speaker 1: Being a successful king is about compassion and unity. It's
Speaker 1: about bringing together disparate groups of people under one banner
Speaker 1: so that the kingdom can flourish. Denmark had flourished under
Speaker 1: kings before, but it's very first superstar king was often
Speaker 1: considered Gorm the Old. He and his wife Tira ruled
Speaker 1: from the village of Yelling for about twenty years between
Speaker 1: nine thirty six and night, and they had three sons, Canute,
Speaker 1: Tokey and Harold. Now these young men were warriors in
Speaker 1: the truest sense. Every summer they would leave Denmark and
Speaker 1: travel to a new land which they would pillage and conquer.
Speaker 1: One night in Dublin, after the Gormson's had spent the
Speaker 1: day battling, Canute was killed by a vengeful Irish archer.
Speaker 1: Gorm was heartbroken over his son's death, but it wouldn't
Speaker 1: be the last in the family. After Gorm's own passing in,
Speaker 1: Harold took his father's place on the throne, and Harold
Speaker 1: had grand plans for Denmark too. The theme of his
Speaker 1: reign was unification, bringing it all together. First, he started
Speaker 1: by erecting a large runic stone and yelling to honor
Speaker 1: his late parents. He then ordered the construction of five forts,
Speaker 1: all shaped like giant rings, in five separate parts of
Speaker 1: the country. These forts were made to bolster his military
Speaker 1: presence throughout Denmark, which of course they did, and then
Speaker 1: he brought his growing army to Normandy, where he fought
Speaker 1: alongside his ally Richard the Fearless. Later, he and his
Speaker 1: nephew Harold Great Cloak killed Norway's King Haakon the First.
Speaker 1: Great Cloak was then named the vassal King of Norway,
Speaker 1: but his reign was cut short in nine seventy when
Speaker 1: he was assassinated by the former king's son. Because life
Speaker 1: has a way of evening things out, sometimes, doesn't it, So,
Speaker 1: Harold Gormanson himself stepped in as the acting king, and
Speaker 1: if you're keeping track, he now had control of both
Speaker 1: Denmark and Norway. He would eventually add Normandy, northern Poland,
Speaker 1: areas of northeastern Germany, and even parts of Sweden, all
Speaker 1: of it unified as one kingdom under Harold. While he
Speaker 1: waged his wars overseas, the interior of his kingdom was peaceful. However,
Speaker 1: he didn't resign himself to uniting countries only through force.
Speaker 1: He also broke away from his Norse roots and converted
Speaker 1: to Christianity sometime in the nine sixties. The hope was
Speaker 1: to spread it across Denmark and Norway. Now. The story
Speaker 1: surrounding his conversion differ depending on who you read. A
Speaker 1: contemporary of Harold wrote that a cleric name Papa turned
Speaker 1: him on to this new religion, and in order to
Speaker 1: prove his faith, Harold had to carry a heavy hot
Speaker 1: iron without burning him. Another author named Adam of Bremen
Speaker 1: wrote his own take of Harold's conversion about one years
Speaker 1: after the king's death. According to Adam's account, the king
Speaker 1: had lost a major battle against Holy Roman Emperor Otto
Speaker 1: the First, who had forced him to convert to Christianity.
Speaker 1: Whatever the case, Harold lost much of his army after
Speaker 1: his defeat by Otto the First. The power shift caused
Speaker 1: Norway to rebel against him and drive him out. Harold
Speaker 1: managed to keep control of northeastern Germany for a short while,
Speaker 1: but the clock was ticking. You see, his son, Spain
Speaker 1: fork Beard, had grown tired of waiting around for his
Speaker 1: father to die. He turned on Harold and took up
Speaker 1: arms against his father, and the uprising worked too. Harold
Speaker 1: Gormson died fighting to defend his throne in Night six,
Speaker 1: making his son the new King of Denmark. But Harold's
Speaker 1: story doesn't end there. A little known fact about the
Speaker 1: former king was that he had a bit of a
Speaker 1: sweet tooth and his treats of choice blueberries. A thousand
Speaker 1: years later, his reputation for uniting Denmark under one kingdom,
Speaker 1: as well as his taste for the little blue fruit,
Speaker 1: inspired an engineer by the name of Jim Cardak. Cardak
Speaker 1: was working for Intel on a project that would allow
Speaker 1: computers and mobile phones to talk to each other. In
Speaker 1: a sense, it was a way to unite everything under
Speaker 1: one ruler. The project has grown over the past few
Speaker 1: decades and now it's found everywhere. In fact, every mobile phone, tablet, computer,
Speaker 1: and wireless headset we used today is evidence of Harold's legacy,
Speaker 1: a legacy built right into the logo for the technology itself,
Speaker 1: which is a combination of the two runs for his
Speaker 1: initials H and B. Understandably, Cardak didn't want to call
Speaker 1: his new wire list technology Gormson. Instead, he used the
Speaker 1: nickname that Harold was better known by thanks to his
Speaker 1: love for blueberries. So the next time you click on
Speaker 1: your headphones and pair them to your mobile device, spare
Speaker 1: a thought for the man that technology is named after,
Speaker 1: Harold Bluetooth daredevils make their living by cheating death. Whether
Speaker 1: they're walking a tight rope between two skyscrapers or jumping
Speaker 1: a motorcycle over the Grand Canyon, these stunt performers never
Speaker 1: failed to disappoint well. Usually born in eighteen fifty eight
Speaker 1: in Cornwall, England, Bobby aspired to that sort of greatness.
Speaker 1: He had always wanted to do something fantastic with his life,
Speaker 1: something that would leave his mark on the world. He'd
Speaker 1: gotten his start as a performer in the Barnum and
Speaker 1: Bailey circus, but were eventually striking out on his own.
Speaker 1: Bobby wanted to become the first person to complete the
Speaker 1: Triple Challenge at Niagara Falls. This included three events, going
Speaker 1: through the rapids and a barrel and ending at the whirlpool,
Speaker 1: then taking that barrel over the falls to the bottom,
Speaker 1: until finally jumping off the upper steel arch bridge with
Speaker 1: a parachute on their back. Bobby accomplished his first task
Speaker 1: by parachuting off the bridge on July one, nineteen oh eight.
Speaker 1: Two years later, he arrived at Niagara Falls with the barrel,
Speaker 1: which he attempted to ride through the rapids. The jagged
Speaker 1: rocks in the water, however, severed the rope that connected
Speaker 1: him to the anchor that he needed to guide the
Speaker 1: barrel through the water. Without that anchor, Bobby was tossed
Speaker 1: around the rapids and had to be rescued by a
Speaker 1: fellow daredevil, William red Hill, who pulled the unconscious body
Speaker 1: from the barrel and then climbed in and wrote it
Speaker 1: to the whirlpool himself. But Bobby wasn't discouraged. He managed
Speaker 1: to successfully ride the river to the whirlpool rapids three
Speaker 1: more times during the summer of nineteen ten, but it
Speaker 1: was the final act of his triple challenge that he
Speaker 1: looked forward to the most. You See, Bobby had heard
Speaker 1: about American School teacher Annie Taylor and her trip over
Speaker 1: the Niagara Falls in a barrel in nineteen o one,
Speaker 1: and he'd been inspired to do the same. Although he
Speaker 1: could no longer claim to be the first person to
Speaker 1: go over the falls, he would make it his mission
Speaker 1: to become the first man to do so. In July
Speaker 1: of nineteen eleven, he did just that, except instead of
Speaker 1: using a standard wooden barrel as Taylor had done, Bobby
Speaker 1: had constructed one out of metal. Around three o'clock on
Speaker 1: the afternoon of July, Bobby crawled into the two and
Speaker 1: a half meter long tube and then launched himself over
Speaker 1: the falls. Upon reaching the bottom, the tube was pulled
Speaker 1: out by Fred Bender, an employee of the Ontario Power Company.
Speaker 1: He swam out to Bobby, tied a rope around the barrel,
Speaker 1: and then pulled it to shore, where he opened it
Speaker 1: to find Bobby's shake and battered, but alive. Like Annie Taylor,
Speaker 1: Bobby had survived the drop, but not without a few
Speaker 1: scars to show for it. He ended up being hospitalized
Speaker 1: for a whole six months with two broken kneecaps, a
Speaker 1: broken jaw, and a bunch of other minor injuries. The
Speaker 1: consequences though We're worth it. After recovery, Bobby used his
Speaker 1: experiences to travel the country on a speaking tour. He
Speaker 1: talked to audiences about his time with the circus, his
Speaker 1: feats at the falls, and he always brought along his
Speaker 1: metal barrel for photo ops. Over the next decade, Bobby
Speaker 1: found work running a pool hall in Niagara, but he
Speaker 1: still dreamt of his earlier fame in his sixties. At
Speaker 1: that point, he tried to swim across the falls on
Speaker 1: multiple occasions, but it's rough waters proved too hazardous to cross.
Speaker 1: He had to be saved more than once, and after
Speaker 1: several attempts, he just sort of gave up. With his
Speaker 1: pride shattered and the restlessness growing inside him, Bobby went
Speaker 1: act on the road. This time he traveled overseas to
Speaker 1: New Zealand, where he picked up his lecture tour once more,
Speaker 1: and it was there that Bobby met his unfortunate end.
Speaker 1: He performed one final drop, which resulted in a broken leg.
Speaker 1: Shortly after, the fracture became infected and then it turned gangrenus.
Speaker 1: Doctors attempted to amputate, but by the time they had
Speaker 1: reached the infection and had spread too far throughout his body.
Speaker 1: The elderly Bobby Leech passed away from complications on April
Speaker 1: six of nineteen. But oddly enough, it wasn't a new
Speaker 1: stunt that had killed him. No, he hadn't gone over
Speaker 1: another waterfall in his metal barrel. He hadn't tried to
Speaker 1: swim across raging rapids either. Bobby had slipped on an
Speaker 1: orange peel that someone had carelessly tossed on the ground.
Speaker 1: A tragic, senseless accident. Indeed, and you'll have to forgive
Speaker 1: me for saying, but while Bobby might have been someone
Speaker 1: to look up to, it's fair to say that he
Speaker 1: himself should have been doing a lot more looking down.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,