LOSE YOURSELF IN 1963
THE HELL OF ‘63
The Elfstedentocht, meaning ‘Eleven cities tour’ is a skating event that has been sporadically held in the north of the Netherlands since at least 1760. More recent stagings have seen 300 speed-skating competition contestants and around 16,000 more leisurely participants undertake the 120-mile course.
But in 1963, things went badly wrong. What became known as ‘The Hell of ‘63’ saw 10,000 start, but so harsh was the weather that just 69 finished. Despite many wearing newspapers under their clothes to keep warm, they faced a harsh wind, blizzards and temperatures as low as -18˚C. The results were frostbite, broken bones and damaged eyes.
The winner was Reinier Paping, who became a national celebrity when he crossed the finishing line – which he couldn’t actually see because he was practically snow-blind.
The next Elfstedentocht wasn’t held until 1985 – 22 years later.
I’M NOT A DOUGHNUT
One of the most famous speeches of the Cold War was made on 26 June, when US President John F Kennedy visited West Berlin, less than two years after the Berlin Wall had gone up. Speaking in front of a crowd of 450,000 – which Donald Trump would probably claim to get just for visiting one of his golf clubs – JFK confirmed American support for West Germany and made his famous ‘ Ich bin ein Berliner’ proclamation.
Unfortunately, for such a powerful, morale-boosting address during difficult times, the speech is more remembered now for the myth that Kennedy actually asserted he was a doughnut, as he should have said ‘Ich bin Berliner’. In reality, his phrasing was perfectly fine and understandable by the cheering masses – ‘Berliner’ is an abbreviation for a ‘Berliner pfannkuchen’ in some parts of Germany, but in Berlin itself, just ‘pfannkuchen’ is used.