Dan Snow's History Hit
Episodes
The Winter of Discontent
04 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the bitter winter of 1978-1979 petrol ran short, panic buying was rife, rubbish piled up in the streets and bodies went unburied as a wave of indus...
William Wallace
03 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
William Wallace is a legendary figure in Scottish history as one of the leaders of the First War of Scottish Independence. He led the Scots to a famou...
James Holland on The Sherwood Rangers: Legendary Tank Regiment
02 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry was one of the best tank regiments of the Second World War and was at the speartip of the British Army from the North Africa...
Æthelred the Unready
30 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
His 38 years as king make him one of the longest-ruling monarchs in English history, and yet he is remembered as unsuccessful, naive and overly harsh ...
Bond, The Secret Service & Exporting Britain's Influence
29 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
James Bond is a character that has come to define a certain kind of Britishness but what, if any, role does 007 play in the real world of intelligence...
James Bond
28 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
James Bond is one of the most successful films and book franchises of all time and with the arrival of a new addition to the canon it seemed the perfe...
The Last Witches of England
27 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1682 three women, Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles and Susannah Edwards, from the town of Bideford were tried and hanged as witches. They were convi...
Sir Ranulph Fiennes on Shackleton
26 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sir Ranulph Fiennes is possibly the most famous living explorer but he believes that the greatest ever polar explorer is Sir Ernest Shackleton. Althou...
Duke of Windsor: The Nazi King?
25 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Edward VIII abdicated the throne in December 1936 his desire to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson was cited as the main cause but did hi...
The Rise of Hannibal
24 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
He was one of the greatest enemies the Romans ever faced. An excellent general and a larger-than-life figure, he led an army across the alps and dealt...
Child Survivors of the Holocaust
23 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Holocaust was perhaps the most infamous and traumatic event of the Twentieth century and it seared itself into the consciousness of the world but ...
A History of Sex for Sale
22 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes referred to as the world's oldest profession sex workers have been part of human society for as long as recorded history, but how have socie...
History of the Taliban
21 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In August 2021 the Taliban swept to power in Afghanistan for the second time capturing Kabul and ousting the American backed regime, but where do they...
Twelve Caesars with Mary Beard
20 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The title of Caesar has echoed down the ages as the pinnacle of absolute power and perhaps even tyranny. A single man at the head of a nation or empir...
The Harlem Hellfighters of World War One
19 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
During World War One the 369th Infantry Regiment of the US Army gained a fearsome reputation. One of the most effective fighting units they spent more...
The Frontiers of Science & History with A.C. Grayling
18 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A. C. Grayling is one of the foremost minds of his generation and his new book explores some of the biggest questions that face humanity. What do we k...
Henry VIII's Break with Rome
17 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
King Henry VIII was deeply religious and started out as a staunch supporter of the Pope and the Roman Catholic church. But everything changed when Hen...
Hunting Stolen Nazi Art
16 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As the Nazi war machine rampaged across Europe it did not just take territory and resources from its conquests but also many thousands of pieces of ar...
The Battle of Britain
15 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
15 September marks Battle of Britain Day when the Luftwaffe sought a final decisive final battle over the skies of Britain with the RAF. In a day of c...
The Last Hanging in Cardiff Prison
14 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In September 1952 Mahmood Hussein Mattan became the last to be hanged at Cardiff Prison, but Mahmood had in fact been framed by the police and 45 year...
Viking Legend: Ragnar Lothbrok
13 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ragnor Lothbrook is a legendary Viking figure who straddled the line between myth and reality. His adventures and deeds appear in the Viking sagas, bu...
9/11: The Legacy
12 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The tragic events of 9/11 left thousands dead and injured and the impact of that loss is still being felt twenty years later by the families. It was a...
9/11: The Fire Commissioner at Ground Zero
11 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On the morning of September 11th, 2001 terrorists flew planes into both the World Trade Centre towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington with ...
The Blitz: An Alternative History
10 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Between September 1940 and May 1941, the German Luftwaffe relentlessly pounded British cities with bombs in an attempt to force the British to surrend...
America's Secret President
09 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In October 1919 President Woodrow Wilson suffered a massive stroke leaving him paralyzed and partially blind. In the face of this crisis of leadership...
Trident: Does the Nuclear Deterrent Work?
08 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
With the release of the nuclear submarine TV series, Vigil, Dr Nick Ritchie, Senior Lecturer at the University of York and the UK’s leading expert o...
The Normans
07 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Norman conquest of England in 1066 was one of the great milestones of English history but there were in fact many Norman invasions and their influ...
A New History of the Middle Ages with Dan Jones
06 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Do the 21st Century and the Middle Ages really share that much in common? Climate change, pandemics, technological disruption, interconnected global t...
Winston Churchill: From Failures to Finest Hour
05 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Churchill is one of the great figures of history and this totemic figure is often cited as one of the greatest British figures of all time. However, w...
The Unheard Tapes of Bomber Command
04 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Over 55,500 men died flying with Bomber Command during World War Two; more than the number who serve in the Royal Air Force today. Flying at night ove...
The Start of WWII
03 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On September 1 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland followed two days later by France and the United Kingdom declaring war on Germany and beginning the Se...
Digging Medieval Battlefields
02 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How different is battlefield archaeology compared to other disciplines? Do local legends ever help track down evidence in a field? And why are potato ...
Are Mandatory Vaccines New?
01 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Vaccines have become a subject of great controversy in recent months but the requirement to have them is far from new. Almost since the earliest examp...
John Simpson: Six Decades of Warzones
31 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Over six decades John Simpson has been on the frontline of reporting bringing news from some of the most dangerous places on the planet to the televis...
The Secret History of the SBS
30 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The SBS was formed out of the Commandos during the Second World War to help counter Nazi domination of Europe. This small unit made up of regulars as ...
Britain's Economy: How We Got Here
29 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The industrial revolution began in Britain and became one of the most extraordinary economic miracles in human history but the next two centuries have...
Martin Luther King Jr
28 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On 28 August 1963 Martin Luther King Jr delivered his 'I have a dream' speech stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. to an audience...
The Invasion of Poland in World War Two
27 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode from the archive, Roger Moorhouse discusses the Polish campaign of 1939 comprehensively, separating the myths from reality and outlini...
The Shortest War in History
26 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On 27 August 1896, the British Empire went to war with the Zanzibar Sultanate for approximately 38 minutes! It is the shortest war in history. It came...
WW2: The Great Imperial War
25 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Most consider the Second World War to have been fought between 1939-1945 but, as you'll hear in this podcast, Richard Overy believes that the conflict...
Ancient Afghanistan: The Land of a Thousand Cities
24 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Stretched along the north of the Hindu Kush mountain range and the south of the Oxus river, the history of the ancient region of Bactria envelops some...
The Fall of the Soviet Union
23 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In August 1991 there was an attempted coup in the Soviet Union as communist hard-liners sought to re-establish the dominance of Soviet rule in Russia ...
National Security in Trump's White House
22 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
H. R. McMaster is both a soldier and a scholar and has served at the highest level in government as National Security Advisor to President Trump. He s...
The Witches of Lorraine
21 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Between 1570 and 1630, there was intense persecution and thousands of executions of suspected witches in Lorraine, a small duchy on the borders of Fra...
80th Anniversary of the First Arctic Convoy
20 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As the Soviet Union reeled from the shock of the German invasion in 1941 it asked for aid from Britain and its allies and the arctic convoys was a key...
What Went Wrong in Afghanistan?
19 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
History is vital for contextualising current events but as Professor Paul Miller argues in today's episode of the podcast it cannot tell us all we nee...
Afghanistan: History Repeating Itself?
18 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The collapse of the Afghan army and government and takeover by the Taliban has evoked many historical comparisons, but how valid are they? To find out...
The Rise of Oliver Cromwell
17 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Oliver Cromwell is the only English commoner to become head of state and is one of the most remarkable and controversial figures in history. Energised...
Bonnie Prince Charlie
16 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In August 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie led a rebellion that brought the Jacobite cause closer to seizing the throne than almost any other. He had landed...
The Jewish Commandos Who Helped Defeat the Nazis
15 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
During the Second World War, a special commando unit was formed in Britain from Jewish refugees from Germany, Austria and other parts of occupied Euro...
The Fall of the Aztec Empire
14 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In August 1521 after a last stand on the steps of their temple buildings, the Aztec defenders of Tenochtitlan surrendered to the Spanish forces of Her...
Escaping the Berlin Wall
13 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There were many attempts to escape over and under the Berlin Wall but Tunnel 29 was highly unusual for tunnelling into East Berlin rather than out to ...
Gallipoli: What Led to Britain's WW1 Disaster?
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What does the price of wheat and global food supplies have to do with one of the greatest disasters in the history of warfare? Why was the decision ma...
England's Great Viking Battle
11 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On 11 August 991 one of the most important anglo-Viking battles took place near Maldon in Essex. This clash was immortalised in one of the finest exam...
Royal Mistresses
10 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The role of the royal mistress may, on the face of it, seem a simple position but in reality, there was a lot more to being a royal mistress than it m...
The Bombing of Nagasaki
09 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The second atomic strike on the city of Nagasaki is less well known than the one a few days earlier on Hiroshima, but was it more influential in forci...
The Ultimate Cold War Spy Story
07 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A Soviet double agent at the top of his game, a deadly game of cat and mouse with the KGB and one of the most daring escapes of the Cold War from the ...
The Origins of English
07 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Approximately 1.35 billion people use it, either as a first or second language, so English and the way that we speak it has a daily impact on huge num...
The Birth of the Internet
06 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the last 30 years, the internet has utterly changed the world in which we live and is now as vital as electricity in our daily lives. August 6, 199...
Canada Confronts Its Past
05 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves at former Canadian residential schools have has led to a crisis of identity for the country as it comes t...
How WWI Began
04 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On August 4, 1914, Britain declared war on Germany and entered the First World War. This was a conflict of unparalleled savagery with industrialized s...
Britain's Forgotten Olympic Heroes
03 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Olympics are a sporting event like no other and in this episode, we celebrate two great British Olympians of the past Anita Neil and Hugh 'Jumbo' ...
The Fall and Rise of India's Royal Families
02 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
One aspect of India's independence that is often overlooked is the role of India's princely states; the Maharajas. During the Raj, these states had be...
The Spanish Armada
01 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1588 the English Navy defeated one of the greatest fleets ever assembled; the Spanish Armada. A week of running battles in the English Channel culm...
Decoding the Roman Dead
31 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Often known as ‘Britain’s first town’, Colchester is a city rich in ancient history and on 24 July 2021, a new exhibition will open at the Colch...
Liverpool's Historic Docks
30 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Just 17 years after Liverpool’s historic waterfront was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, the city was stripped of its prestigious status.The ...
England and Spain's Battle for Global Supremacy
29 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week in 1588 the Spanish Armada fought running battles in the Channel with the English Navy. It was sent by King Phillip of Spain who ruled half ...
The Real Thomas Cromwell
28 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On this day in 1540, Thomas Cromwell was executed. On the same day Henry VIII married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard. To mark the anniversary we've ...
The Fight to Save Archaeology
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Archaeology is not just about digging, it’s about understanding the human experience of existence. In the space of a few weeks there have been ...
Pathfinders: Bomber Command's Elite
26 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Pathfinders were ordinary men and women who transformed the efficiency of the Allies' air campaign over mainland Europe and helped deliver victory...
What is Going on With Democracy?
25 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Democracy is in crisis around the world. Dr Robert Saunders, from Queen Mary University of London, is back on the podcast to discuss why it is under t...
The Woman Who Flew Spitfires in WW2
24 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Ellis was a pioneering and courageous aviator who flew hundreds of fighters and bombers to Britain’s frontline airfields. She was one of the fi...
The Olympic Games
23 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From Ancient Greece to when it was reborn in 1896, the tournament has nearly 3,000 years of history. Sports historian, Professor Martin Polley from De...
Rival Queens: Elizabeth I and Catherine de' Medici
22 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The relationship between Elizabeth I and Catherine de' Medici - the two most powerful Queens of their time - is one of the most intriguing and captiva...
The Rise of Stalin
21 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How did a young boy from Georgia become a merciless politician who shaped the Soviet Empire in his own brutal image? Historian and bestselling author,...
How Timekeeping Changed the World
20 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Accurate timekeeping is at the very root of all of the technological advances in the modern world, but how did it all begin? From Roman sundials to me...
Dancing Mania
19 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the summer of 1518, one of the most bizarre afflictions in history struck the city of Strasburg; dancing mania. This epidemic of dancing spread, al...
Robin Hood
18 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Robin Hood is one of the most famous legends of British history, but did he exist and if so who was he? Gareth Morgan, Learning Development Officer at...
Saladin and the Crusades
17 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Saladin was one of the greatest Sultans of the middle ages, and the first sultan of Egypt and Syria. He famously defeated the Crusader army at the Bat...
Why the Statues Are Coming Down
16 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Recent years have seen a spate of statue removals from the toppling of Confederate statues in the United States, the tearing down of the Edward Colsto...
Mythbusting Medieval Buildings
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From spiral stairs to tunnels leading to pubs and brothels, to witch markings; join us as we find out the truth about medieval buildings. Matt Lewis, ...
The Peasants' Revolt
14 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1381 England was rocked by one of the most widespread popular uprisings of the medieval period; the Peasants' Revolt. Beginning in Essex in respons...
World War Two Showdown in the Mediterranean
13 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
By the summer of 1942 Malta had been under siege by Axis forces for over a year and the situation on the island was bleak with food and fuel almost ex...
Captain Cook 250 Years On
12 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
250 years ago today Captain James arrived back from one of the most remarkable voyages of exploration in the history of the world. The expedition took...
The Irish War of Independence
11 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
11 July 1921 the truce that bought the Irish War of Independence came into effect. The negotiations that brought about the end of hostilities, between...
A History of Tennis
10 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this archive episode, David Berry joined Dan on the pod to discuss the history of tennis. From the birth of modern tennis in Victorian Britain to t...
How Coffee and Tobacco Captivated Britain
09 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When tobacco arrived in Britain in the 1560s, it was hailed as a "holy herb", a miracle cure to improve health and a catalyst for wit and creativity. ...
England and Italy. The History.
08 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The history of Italy and England stretches back thousands of years well before Italy and England even existed as nations. As the two will meet in the ...
The Japanese Americans Who Fought in WWII
07 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, Japanese Americans were put in a terrible position in the USA. Many tens of thousands of ...
Assyria and the Birth of Writing
06 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It is often the case that it is assumed that it was in ancient Greece and the eastern Mediterranean that was host to the foundation of European politi...
Ethel Rosenberg: Super Spy or Innocent Victim?
05 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In June 1953 Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, an American married couple with two young sons, were executed having been found guilty of conspiracy to commi...
D. H. Lawrence and the Lady Chatterley Trial
04 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
D.H. Lawrence is best known for his work Lady Chatterley's Lover and the obscenity trial relating to the book's publication in the early 1960s. But La...
The Truth About King Arthur
03 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The legend of King Arthur has been reworked many times, but is there any historical truth behind the tales? Dr Miles Russell believes there is and in ...
The Battle of the Somme
02 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
105 years ago the battle of the Somme raged on into its second day. 60,000 British casualties we recorded on its first day and by its close in Novembe...
100 years of the Chinese Communist Party
01 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
100 years ago the Chinese Communist Party was founded and across the span of that century has become one of the most powerful organisations on the pla...
Marginalised in the Middle Ages with Eleanor Janega
29 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Much of Medieval history focuses on the kings, queens, bishops, and the nobility of the period, but what do we know about those people on the margins ...
Sarajevo 1914: Assassination of the Archduke
28 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Europe in 1914 was a tinderbox of imperial tensions and the spark that would light the conflagration would be the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferd...
Berlin and the Dawn of the Cold War
27 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the aftermath of World War II, amongst the shattered ruins of Berlin a new conflict was born, the Cold War. With the common purpose of defeating Na...
From Airman to Attorney General: RAF Navigator Johnny Smythe
26 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Beginning with his birth in 1915 in Sierra Leone, the life of John Henry Smythe OBE MBE is almost unbelievable. From becoming a navigator in the RAF d...
Hunting the Viking Great Heathen Army
25 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 865 AD Britain was invaded by the Great Heathen Army an alliance of Scandanavian warriors determined to conquer the kingdoms of East Anglia, Northu...