Hieronymus was better known as Baron von Münchhausen, a German nobleman and Captain in the Russian Cavalry, and would become the inspiration for Rudolf Erich Raspe's ‘The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen’.​
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The Breezer - the joyride for a curious mind: A weekly newsletter from Steve Winduss at the Batting the Breeze podcast. Spend a few minutes with me discovering historical snippets and fascinating facts related to the forthcoming week. Add to that updates relating to the podcast, a touch of humour and a dash of "lots more". 11 May 2025.

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Happy Sunday!
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Social media receives a lot of flak for many reasons, among which is the creation of too much noise and not enough signal.
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In other words, truth is becoming harder to disseminate from reality as the algorithms hunt for ever-more extreme content regardless of validity.
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In a broad sense, algorithms - step-by-step procedures for solving problems - have existed for thousands of years. But when it comes to blurring the lines between fact and fable, I propose that it started in earnest in the early 18th century.
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​Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Münchhausen was born three hundred and five years ago today, 11 May 1720. Hieronymus was better known as Baron von Münchhausen, a German nobleman and Captain in the Russian Cavalry.

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Although fighting for a different country may seem odd, in 18th-century Europe it was common for aristocrats to serve as officers in foreign armies.
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Job prospects for the common-or-garden aristocrat weren’t too rosy in the early 1700s. Primogeniture - leaving property to the eldest son - was widespread across Europe. As a result, younger sons often found their only realistic prospects lay in the church or the military.
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Out of Curiosity…
“Common-or-garden” is a peculiarly British expression meaning ‘ordinary’. It originated in the 16th century when plants might be described as ‘ common’, meaning that they were found in the wild, or ‘garden’ when they were cultivated in domestic gardens.

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Fighting as an officer in the military was a noble calling, regardless of which nation you were fighting for. Aristocrats formed an informal brotherhood across Europe. Fighting together offered a chance to build cross-border ties and reinforce elitist social status.
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After Baron von Münchhausen retired in 1760, he put his military prowess to great use. He became recognised as a raconteur of some repute, regaling stories of wartime heroics in ever more colour each time they were retold.
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Aristocratic circles couldn’t get enough of the Baron as he spun simple war experiences into outrageous caricatures of reality. Guests were enthralled as the wit and hyperbole grew more daring with each glass of wine.
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Münchhausen’s skill was in providing entertainment built on real experiences but told in an obviously ridiculous way. Everyone realised they were listening to high-class yarns but loved them all the same.
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In England in 1785, the German scholar Rudolf Erich Raspe published ‘Baron Munchausen’s Narrative of His Marvellous Travels and Campaign in Russia’, later renamed the slightly more pithy ‘The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen’.
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The stories were based on the real Baron himself and were even more fanciful than Münchhausen’s most colourful tales.

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In 1951, the British physician Richard Asher coined the term 'Munchausen Syndrome', inspired by the Baron's extraordinary adventures. He had observed that some of his patients pretended to be ill, while others actually made themselves sick, in order to gain attention or sympathy.
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Twenty years later, the paediatrician Roy Meadow introduced the extension ’Munchausen by proxy'. Most commonly, a parent would induce an illness into their child rather than feign one themselves; in other words, Munchausen syndrome through a third party.
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Today Munchausen by proxy is clinically referred to as ‘Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another’.

Dates with History

Today…
​Bradford City Football Club were in celebratory mood 40 years ago today, 11 May 1985. The soccer club had won promotion from Division Three into the second tier of English football. Bradford's last game of the season was at their home ground, Valley Parade, against Lincoln City.
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The day also marked an opportunity to say farewell to the main stand, which would be demolished immediately after the match. The largely wooden structure had stood since 1907 and was long overdue for replacement.
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As the record 11,000 crowd eagerly awaited the kick-off, a far more tragic farewell was about to be played out.
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A couple of minutes before the half-time of an uneventful game, fans started spilling onto the pitch at the right-hand end of the main stand. Fire had been spotted in block G towards the back, spreading at a terrifying rate.
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The raging fire climbed up the stand to the roof, a patchwork of wood, tarpaulin, asphalt and bitumen. The roof ignited immediately, and the wind drove the sheet of fire across the remainder of the main stand in moments. Survivors talked about the fire "racing towards us along the roof".
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The fire brigade arrived within eight minutes, by which time the stand was a raging inferno and 56 spectators had lost their lives.
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Subsequent investigation showed that the fire was started by a discarded cigarette which had fallen through the wooden floorboards and nestled into years-old rubbish accumulated since 1907.
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The situation was exacerbated because the stand was built into a hill. With the turnstiles at the back of the stand, fans surged upwards only to find the exits locked and unmanned. They were trapped.
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I visited Valley Parade a few years ago and sat in the area that today replaces the old main stand. It is a testament to the memory of those who died and a permanent reminder of the overhaul of stadium safety catalysed in the UK by this horrific event.

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Thursday…
The Isle of Wight is the small blip on a map, sitting centrally just under the line of the south coast of England. Farringford is a historic estate on the island, near Freshwater Bay, towards the Western tip.
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Farringford is not remembered today for its original builder, Edward Rushworth, but for being the home of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, from 1853 until his death in 1892.
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One hundred and thirty-five years ago this Thursday, 15 May 1890, the celebrated Victorian poet received a visit at Farringford from two gentleman, Colonel Gouraud and Mr Stiegler.
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The pair had been sent by the inventor Thomas Edison, who had created the wax cylinder phonograph thirteen years earlier in 1877.
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The wax cylinder phonograph was an invention which heralded the arrival of commercial sound recording. A hollow tube with an outer layer of wax allowed a stylus to etch the sound vibrations into the wax. The recorded sound could then be heard when the stylus retraced its steps through the grooves.
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By 1890, Edison had improved the quality of his phonograph to a point where he could set about recording the voices of renowned figures of the day for posterity… and for the coffers.
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In the 1890s, US copyright law did not protect British poetry, making Alfred, Lord Tennyson a profitable subject.
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By that time in his eighties, Tennyson recorded several of his poems on the day, the most notable of which was ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’.
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It was a thought-provoking experience to listen to Tennyson reciting his classic poem from 135 years ago. The good news is that you can listen too; check out Tennyson reading The Charge of the Light Brigade.
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What did you think?

Where are they now?

When Olga Valentinovna Korbut took up gymnastics in 1962 at the age of seven, her coach marked her down as ‘unremarkable’.
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Ten years later, the ‘Sparrow from Minsk’ had won three gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Although Korbut would win a team gold at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, 1972 is the occasion for which she is best remembered.
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The textbooks note that Korbut was loved for her diminutive stature and daring routines. As an eight-year-old, knowing little about gymnastics, all I remember is Olga’s beaming smile.

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In 1991, the Belarusian moved to the United States following the fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear plant in neighbouring Ukraine.
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Korbut became a US citizen in 2000 and worked as a gymnastics coach and advocate for the victims of Chernobyl.
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Today, Olga Korbut lives in Scottsdale, Arizona. She is still coaching but is also a prominent ambassador for her sport. The gymnastics legend was born on 16 May 1955 and will celebrate her 70th birthday this Friday.

Question of the Week

Ten years ago today, 11 May 2025, the painting, “The Women of Algiers (version ‘O’)”, sold at auction for a record $179.3 million at Christie’s in New York.

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‘Version ‘O’’ refers to the 15th in the series “The Women of Algiers”. The painting measures 45 x 57.6 inches. It previously sold at auction for $31.9 million in 1997.
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Who was the artist?

And Finally…

Lyman Baum was born on 15 May 1856 in Chittenango, New York. Due to a weak heart, he was home-schooled, which shaped his personality and eventual career path. Baum’s tutor described him as ‘whimsical,’ as an interest in reading and storytelling developed.
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Lyman’s early attempts at writing best sellers may have looked a little misguided when he published his first book, “The Book of the Hamburgs: A Brief Treatise upon the Mating, Rearing, and Management of the Different Varieties of Hamburgs”; a helpful manual if you are interested in raising a specific breed of chicken.
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At the age of 40, Baum turned his attention to children’s books. His first attempt, ‘Mother Goose in Prose’, was a moderate success, earning enough to encourage him to quit his job as a travelling salesman and pursue writing as a full-time career.
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It would be three more years before L. Frank Baum would become a household name.

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Out of Curiosity… ​
Lyman Baum had fallen out of love with his first name from an early age. He preferred his middle name, ‘Frank’, so for most of his life, he was called Frank and wrote under the name L. Frank Baum. Baum also wrote under at least nine other pseudonyms.

One hundred and twenty-five years ago next Saturday, 17 May 1900, Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published.
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The book was an instant hit. It gained recognition for its ability to entertain children and adults as well as for its colourful story and engaging characters; Dorothy, Toto the dog, The Scarecrow, The Tin Man, The Cowardly Lion and, of course, The Wicked Witch of the West.
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The first edition ran to 10,000 copies. Within 18 months, 35,000 books had been sold. By the time the copyright period expired in 1956, that number ran to more than three million.

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The story was translated into a number of silent films, but it was the 1939 MGM film starring Judy Garland that gave the story its enduring appeal.
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Last week I carried out a spontaneous straw poll among the first ten people I encountered: “Have you seen the film “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”? Ten out of ten. I am guessing you have seen the film at some point, too? That’s quite a legacy, some 125 years later.
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Baum would write a further 14 sequels to his original story up until his death in 1919.

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Thank you for joining me. Have a great week!

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Steve

HOST & CHIEF STORY HUNTER

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P:S: Incidentally, I am always keen to receive your feedback to help me continuously improve this newsletter and the podcast. Just hit reply to this email and...... let it rip! I respond to every email that I receive.

Question of the week… answer

The artist who painted “The Women of Algiers (version ‘O’)” was Pablo Picasso.
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Picasso, born in Spain in 1881, was baptised “Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso”.
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Pablo was the master of ‘cubism’. This is the art style where objects and figures are broken down and reformed into geometric shapes in a two-dimensional format.
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Picasso died in 1973 at the age of 91 in Mougins, near Cannes in the south east of France.