Dan Snow's History Hit

How Catherine of Aragon Learnt to be Queen

12 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Spanish infanta Catalina of Aragon was raised to be a Queen, betrothed at the age of three to the heir apparent of the English throne, Arthur Prin...

WW1 and its Aftermath with Sebastian Faulks

11 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Sebastian Faulks is a novelist who really needs no introduction, perhaps most famous for his novel Birdsong, he has written powerfully and poignantly ...

Did Immigration Really Cause the Fall of Rome?

10 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Boris Johnson recently stated that the fall of Rome was caused by 'uncontrolled migration' and the image of a mighty empire bought to its knees by hor...

The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall

09 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Berlin Wall was an icon of the Cold War and a physical embodiment of the divide between East and West. Its rise and fall was a microcosm of the co...

Colonel Gaddafi and Libya

08 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Even after his overthrow and bloody death in 2011, Colonel Gaddafi still looms large over Libya but there is much more to the history of this importan...

Bar Kokhba: Hadrian's Worst Nightmare

07 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In AD132 began the bloody struggle over who would rule a nation. The clash of two ancient cultures was fought between two strong-willed leaders, Hadri...

The Gunpowder Plot

05 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

On 5 November 1605, an audacious plan to decapitate the British state was foiled when Guy Fawkes and nearly a ton of gunpowder were discovered in an u...

The Vikings Who Beat Columbus to America

04 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Five centuries before Christopher Columbus set foot in America, the Vikings had already crossed the Atlantic. Using new dating techniques, scientists ...

WWII's Battle for London

03 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

At the start of the Second World War London was one of the largest and most important cities in the world, a centre of industry, finance and the heart...

The History of Money

02 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It is said that money makes the world goes round and has done for millennia, but what exactly is money and where does it come from? To find out Dan is...

Why We're Wrong About George III

01 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

George III ruled through an extraordinary period of revolutionary change, political upheaval, gigantic war and scientific, industrial and technologica...

Ghost Stories: The History

30 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ghosts have inspired, fascinated and frightened us for centuries. The belief in the existence of an afterlife, as well as manifestations of the spirit...

The Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great

28 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In his lifetime King Alexander III of Macedon, better known as Alexander the Great, forged one of the largest empires in ancient history. But it was w...

The Truth About Hollywood Cowboys

27 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

At the end of the American Civil War, thousands of African Americans ventured west to the frontier in a bid to achieve freedom and escape the prejudic...

Tank Standoff at Checkpoint Charlie

26 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For 16 hours between the 27 to 28 October 1961, the world held its breath as Soviet and US tanks faced each other down at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin...

Richard III vs Henry VII

25 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We all think we know the story of Richard III and Henry VII, or do we? Richard III is often portrayed as a child-murdering usurper whose reign was bro...

Sharpe is Back! Bernard Cornwell

24 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Watch out loyal servants of Napoleon, Sharpe is back! In this episode, Dan sits down with legendary author Bernard Cornwell to discuss the return of h...

Tuskegee Airmen: A WW2 Pilot's Story

23 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American military aviators in American military history. They faced discrimination and segregation at home ...

Britain's Overlooked Hero: From the Trenches to the Blitz

21 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Serving on the front lines of the First World War, the homefront of the Second World War and as a community leader throughout his life, George Arthur ...

The Battle of Trafalgar

20 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

On 21 October 1805, A British fleet commanded by Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson met the combined might of the French and Spanish fleets off the coast of ...

How Brutish Were Our Ancestors?

19 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Was life for our ancient ancestors brutish and short or did they exist as noble savages free and living in harmony with nature and each other? Many of...

How Alcohol Built the British Empire

18 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as the British Empire expanded across the globe an almost ubiquitous but often underappreciated commodi...

Dresden Survivor: Remembering Victor Gregg

17 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

On 12 October 2021 World War Two veteran Victor Gregg passed away peacefully in his sleep just before his 102 birthday. He was part of a unique genera...

Operation Barbarossa: The Lost Diaries

16 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Operation Barbarossa saw a clash of arms between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union of unprecedented scale and savagery, but what was it really like to...

The Haitian Revolution

14 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In 1791 the slaves of the French colony of Sant-Domingue rose up against their colonial masters and after a long and bloody struggle, defeated them to...

The Battle of Hastings

13 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

On 14 October 1066, the armies of William, the Duke of Normandy, and the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson clashed near Hastings in one of the most fa...

Lady Jane Grey

12 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

On a cold February morning in 1554, Lady Jane Grey was beheaded for high treason. Named as King Edward VI as his successor, Queen Jane had reigned for...

Maurice Hilleman: Vaccine Creator

11 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Maurice Hilleman was a leading American microbiologist who specialised in vaccinology and immunology. He discovered nine vaccines that are routinel...

Jack the Ripper Retold

10 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In 1888 a series of brutal killings took place in Whitechapel, London which might be the most famous unsolved murders of all time. The case and the ki...

Operation Jubilee: Disaster at Dieppe

09 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In August 1942 the Allies launched a daring raid across the Channel to capture the port town of Dieppe and hold it for 24 hours. It ended in disaster ...

Gangsters, Pimps & Prostitutes: London's West End

07 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

London's West End attracts people from across the world to its many theatres, restaurants and famous nightlife but how did this centre of pleasure com...

Al Qaeda

06 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Their attacks of 11 September 2001 sparked a War on Terror which echoes loudly to this day, but where did Al Qaeda come from, how did their ideologies...

Britain and the Slave Trade

05 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, Britain was a key player in the transportation of millions of enslaved Africans to the colonies. Their...

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 ...