Captain Matthew Webb swam breaststroke across the English Channel and landed on the beach at 10:41 am at Calais, France on August 24th 1875.

He started before 1:00 pm the day before, diving off Admiralty Pier, Dover in England and swam through the night. After the swim, he was taken to Hotel de Paris shown in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News drawing above from the archives of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

The atmosphere of his historic landing must have been electric…and laid the groundwork and inspired the dreams of thousands after him.

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