Dan Snow's History Hit

How WWII Started

01 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On September 1st, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Two days later, France and the United Kingdom declared war on the Third Reich. This was the begin...

Boudica, Britain's Warrior Queen

29 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 61 CE, Boudica of the Iceni led a bloody revolt to end Roman rule in Britain. Roman historians tell us with great drama and flair that the grand fi...

2. The Battle of Britain Explained: The Climax

26 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

2/2. The Battle of Britain was Hitler's first and potentially most important defeat. It defined the course of the war, forcing him to make a series of...

1. The Battle of Britain Explained: Preparation, Pilots and Propaganda

25 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

1/2. The Battle of Britain was Hitler's first and possibly most important defeat. It defined the course of the Second World War, forcing him to make a...

The Terracotta Warriors

22 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The world was astonished when 8000 terracotta soldiers were unearthed in 1974 by Chinese farmers digging a well; the warriors opened a window to the f...

The First Emperor of China

20 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dan heads to China to discover the incredible story of Qin Shi Haungdi, the man who built the mysterious Terracotta Warriors, the Great Wall and found...

The Cocaine Craze in Victorian Britain

18 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Many things may come to mind when you hear the word 'cocaine' - and we'd wager that the last thing on that list would be the Victorians. But as it tur...

The Real Society of the Snow: I Survived the Andes Flight Crash

15 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Warning: this episode includes descriptions of human suffering and cannibalism. High in the remote Andes mountains, a Uruguayan rugby team resorts to ...

The Fall of Roman Britain

13 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

By 410 AD, over 450 years after Julius Caesar first landed on its shores, the Romans had formally withdrawn from Britain. Burdened by military threats...

The Rise of Roman Britain

11 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On August 26th, 55 BC, Julius Caesar and his legionaries waded ashore just north of the White Cliffs of Dover. Right there in the surf, they were met ...

The Bronze Age Collapse

08 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Around 3,200 years ago, a vast, interconnected civilisation suddenly collapsed. A 'perfect storm' of climate catastrophe, famine, drought and invasion...

Lawrence of Arabia

08 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The famed British officer who fought alongside Arab guerrilla forces in WW1. Best known for his legendary exploits as an intelligence officer in the M...

The Scottish Island, The Shipwreck and The Whisky

08 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1941, the SS Politician ran aground off Eriskay in the Scottish Hebrides Islands, carrying 260,000 bottles of whisky. As war rationing gripped Brit...

The Falaise Pocket: WWII's 'Corridor of Death'

06 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The D-Day landings were just the first step in the liberation of France. They were followed by two months of vicious fighting for control of the Norma...

Hellfire Club: Scandal & Satanism in Georgian England

05 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sex, Satanism and Scandal surrounded the Hellfire Club that operated out of a network of caves in the country estate of 18th century aristocrat Franci...

The Battle of Hastings

04 Aug 2024

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...

The Warsaw Uprising

31 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

80 years ago, the Polish resistance rose up against their German occupiers and tried to seize back control of their capital city. For two months a ter...

The Boy Who Hid in the Woods: How I Survived the Holocaust

30 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Warning: this episode contains descriptions of violence.Maxwell Smart was just a boy when the Nazis came for him and his family. Within a few weeks...

A History of Cheating at the Olympics

29 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dan is joined by the QI Elves James Harkin and Anna Ptaszynski to talk about cheating in sports as the 2024 Olympics get underway. Why do we do it and...

Harris vs Trump: How We Got Here

28 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With the news that Kamala Harris is the assumed Democratic nominee for the November election, the presidential race looks very different than it did j...

The Voyage That Changed the Way We Eat

23 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

3/4 In February 1882 the SS Dunedin departed New Zealand on a voyage that would revolutionise the way we eat and kickstart the world's food supply cha...

Bidens Out: A History of What Could Happen Next

22 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How unprecedented is Joe Biden's sudden withdrawal from the presidential race? He's given his endorsement to Kamala Harris to take his place, but not ...

Operation Valkyrie: The Attempted Assassination of Hitler

21 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On the 80th anniversary of the 20th of July Plot, Dan explores the dramatic events when members of Germany's military and political elite attempted to...

The Royal Marines

17 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Members of this elite unit - formed in 1664 under Charles II - were present at the American Revolution, the Battle of Trafalgar, the Crimean War, both...

US Presidents Who Were Almost Assassinated

16 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Lincoln, FDR, Reagan, Clinton, Bush and now Trump. All have been targets of assassination attempts while in or running for office. Dan is joined by Pr...

The Greatest Tea Race of the Victorian Age

14 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

2/4. With towering masts and billowing sails, the Cutty Sark and the Thermopylae raced neck and neck through relentless waves to be the first to arriv...

The Cutty Sark

13 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

1/4. Join Dan for the first episode in a mini-series telling four stories of ships that have shaped Britain and its maritime history, from the trade t...

Britain's Secret Atomic Tests in Australia

10 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

During the 1950s, in the remote expanses of Australia's outback, the British government conducted a series of clandestine nuclear tests. These were th...

Was Scott's Antarctic Expedition Sabotaged?

09 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the winter of 1911, Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his party set out into the frozen heart of Antarctica. Battling blizzards and treacherous terra...

Communism in America

08 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The history of the United States' relationship with communism is one littered with fear and persecution. So where did the American Communist Party com...

Emperor Heraclius: Rome vs Persia

07 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Emperor Heraclius took the Byzantine Empire from its lowest ebb to its greatest heights. After years of turmoil at the hands of invading Persian armie...

A Short History of Pirates

03 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Swashbuckling, murder and robbery on the high seas! We're bringing back the fan-favourite episode on Dr Rebecca Simon's 'Pirate Queens: The Lives of A...

The Inside Story of the Brexit Referendum

02 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On the eve of the 2024 General Election, we're joined by Tim Shipman, chief political commentator at The Sunday Times, to hear about how things rea...

How did Brexit Happen? A History

01 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On the eve of the 2024 General Election, we're tackling one of the UK's most divisive topics; Brexit.The 2016 referendum on EU membership split voters...

How WWI Started

30 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

110 years ago today, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire was struck down by an assassin's bullet. His death triggered one of the most destructive ...

Origins of the Silk Road

26 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Silk Road was a pivotal ancient exchange network that connected the grassy steppes of Asia and the Middle East with the Western world. The passage...

The Real Moriarty with Ben Macintyre

24 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Adam Worth was the quintessential criminal mastermind. He faked his own death, robbed banks in the US, stole diamonds in South Africa and amassed a fo...

The Rosetta Stone

24 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1798, the young French General Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt. After successfully taking Alexandria, he ordered the reconstruction of a fort at t...

John the Baptist

23 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Not long after the turn of the first millennium, a Jewish prophet emerged from a period of desert solitude in the Jordan River valley. He wore simple ...

The Other D-Day: The Eastern Front

18 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Historian, broadcaster and author Jonathan Dimbleby joins Dan to explain how Hitler's plans in the East went disastrously wrong.2 weeks after the D-Da...

Dan's History Heroes: Britain's Greatest Soldier, Part 2

18 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Please note that this episode contains some explicit language.This is the story of Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, Britain's most extraordinary soldier. T...

Dan's History Heroes: Britain's Greatest Soldier, Part 1

17 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is the story of Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, Britain's most extraordinary soldier. The one-handed, one-eyed, walking stick-wielding war hero fough...

The Rise and Fall of the Ku Klux Klan

15 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With a sinister hierarchy of "grand wizards" and "dragons," hooded Klansmen concealed their identities as they unleashed a reign of terror on Black Am...

Civil War Rivals: Robert E. Lee vs Ulysses Grant

12 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

100 years ago, in the spring of 1864, the Overland Campaign ignited a ferocious clash between two titans of US military history: Ulysses S. Grant, the...

The Early Years of the British Empire

11 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The British weren't always imperial global players with an empire of viceroys, redcoats and industrialised trade systems. The early years of the Briti...

The Challenger Disaster

10 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On January 28, 1986, the nation watched in horror as the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew membe...

Lost on Mount Everest: The Mystery of Mallory and Irvine

09 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dan unravels the mystery surrounding George Mallory and Andrew Irvine's daring attempt to conquer Mount Everest in 1924 - a feat that could have made ...

Inside North Korea

06 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With closed borders, a totalitarian regime, electricity blackouts and widespread poverty, North Korea is a brutal place to survive; even looking ...

Pegasus Bridge: The First Assault of D-Day

06 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Just after midnight on the 6th of June, 1944, 181 British glider-borne infantry crashed to earth in the Normandy countryside. They clambered out of th...

D-Day: The Deception that Made it Possible

06 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Please note that this episode contains explicit language.On the 29th of May, 1944, less than a week before D-Day, General George S. Patton gave a rip-...

D-Day: The Land Invasion

06 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dan and military historian Stephen Fischer record a moment by moment play of the dramatic and bloody first crucial hour and a half of D-day, as it hap...

D-Day: The Air Invasion

06 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the second episode of our D-Day series, we look to the skies. In the build-up to Operation Overlord, thousands of Allied pilots in heavy bombers an...

D-Day: The Sea Invasion

06 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is the often forgotten chapter of the D-Day story.To begin our series for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, we turn to the massive nava...

Las Vegas & Atomic Tourism

04 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1950s, the US government conducted a series of nuclear bomb tests in the Mojave desert, right next door to Las Vegas. Tourists flocked to the l...

Julius Caesar's Sex Life

03 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

"I came. I saw. I conquered".Perhaps the most famous Julius Caesar quote of all time. But after hearing all about his bedroom antics, it takes on a sl...

Mutiny on the Rising Sun: Smuggling in Colonial America

25 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is the story of a bloody mutiny aboard the Boston-based schooner, the Rising Sun. The ship had been on a routine smuggling voyage before it was v...

Coming Soon! D-day to Berlin

23 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

June 6th marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day and Dan Snow's History Hit is it by bringing you its biggest series yet. From now until May next yea...

Jane Seymour: Henry VIII’s Third Queen

21 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Seymour is a paradox. Of Henry VIII’s six wives, she is the one about whom we know perhaps the least. She was the most lowly of the queens, but...

The Opium Wars

20 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

2/2. The British Empire aggressively pursued the opium trade well into the 19th century, fueling an addiction epidemic within China. The Qing governme...

The British Empire, China and Opium

19 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

1/2. Victorian readers were captivated by descriptions of smoke-filled opium dens among backstreet brothels and pubs in London's East End in Oscar Wil...

Civil War in Feudal Japan: The Sengoku Period

18 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dating from 1467-1603, the Sengoku or ‘Warring States’ period is known as the bloodiest in Japan’s history; an era of continuous social upheaval...

The Royal Navy's Darkest Night & The Origins of Longitude

14 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A mix of treacherous seas, navigation errors, and historical intrigue led to one of the Royal Navy's darkest nights. Dan travels to the Scilly Isles t...

Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt: The Impossible Alliance that Won WWII

13 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the summer of 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. As the Germans drove towards Moscow, a catastrophic Soviet defeat seemed imminent - a defeat t...

Twelve Caesars with Mary Beard

12 May 2024

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...

Marshal Pétain: Hero or Traitor?

11 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Marshal Pétain emerged from the First World War as a French national hero. His defence of Verdun had set him on course to become one of France's most...

Merlin, The Occult and British Politics

07 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Who was the real Merlin? Dr Francis Young says the closest is John Dee, Elizabeth I's occultist advisor who gave her the idea for a British Empire. De...

The Dynasty That Made Medieval France

06 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From Hugh Capet to Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Capetian dynasty considered itself divinely chosen to fulfil a great destiny. From an insecure footh...

Why Are We Drawn to Dictators?

05 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Is liberal democracy facing an existential crisis? A 2023 poll conducted by the Open Society Barometer found that faith in democracy among young peopl...

The Atomic Bomb & Civil War Cigars: Greatest 'What Ifs' from History

04 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We think of history as a neat chain of predictable events; but what if the truth is far wilder than that? Today, we're talking about the pivotal force...

The Battle of Okinawa

30 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Please note, this episode contains discussion of suicide.On 1 April 1945, as the Second World War in Europe was reaching its end, one of the bloodiest...

The Original Kamikaze: The Mongol Invasions of Japan

29 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

At the height of the Mongol Empire, Kublai Khan set his sights on the island of Japan. He launched two enormous invasions of that nation in 1274 and 1...

The Kamikaze Hunters

28 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Please note, this episode contains discussion of suicide.In 1945, after lengthy delays, the Royal Navy sent a powerful fleet into the Pacific. After t...

The Kamikaze Pilots

27 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Please note, this episode contains discussion of suicide. By October 1944, the Japanese were in real trouble. The Allies had made great strides i...

Rwandan Genocide Explained

23 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Warning: This episode contains some upsetting descriptions of human suffering.The Rwandan Genocide is a dark and pivotal moment in modern history; the...

Pontius Pilate

22 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Pontius Pilate was the Roman Prefect of Judea during the reign of Emperor Tiberius and is most famous for condemning Jesus of Nazareth to death by cru...

The Battle of Crécy

21 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The English won a decisive battlefield victory over the French in the first decade of the Hundred Years' War. At the Battle of Crécy, an outnumbered ...

Iran & Israel: From Allies to Enemies

20 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On the 1st of April, 2024, a presumed Israeli airstrike destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing 13 people. Amongst them was a Brigadier G...

Mao's China, The Berlin Wall and WWII Egypt: Witnessing History with Peter Snow

16 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As a foreign correspondent for ITN in the 70s, Peter Snow remembers handing tins of film to strangers on airport runways, hoping they would take it ba...

The Battle of El-Alamein Explained

16 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Fought in the second half of 1942, the Battles of El Alamein were a series of climactic confrontations in Egypt between British Imperial and Commonwea...

The Trial of Charles I

14 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the mid-17th century, King Charles I of England was put on trial for treason against the sovereign state. Such a process involved a singular determ...

What is Zionism?

13 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dan delves into the complex history of Zionism, exploring its multifaceted origins and the various ideological strands that have shaped it over the ye...

Plagues

09 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From a plague in Athens during the Peloponnesian War in 430 BCE, to another in 540 that wiped out half the population of the Roman empire, down throug...

Hollywood Spy: The British WW1 Hero Who Helped Japan Attack Pearl Harbour

08 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Frederick Rutland was one of Britain's finest naval pilots and a celebrated hero of the First World War. And yet in the interwar period, he would beco...

HMS Wager: Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

07 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Join Dan as he narrates the harrowing story of the HMS Wager and its crew's descent into mutiny and survival against all odds. Set against the backdro...

Nazis, the CIA & Psychedelics

06 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is the untold story of how Nazi experiments with psychedelics influenced CIA research and the War on Drugs. From covert mind control programs to ...

The Mary Celeste: Ghost Ship

02 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1872 the ghost ship Mary Celeste is found sailing across the Atlantic without a single crew member left onboard. Theories over what happened on the...

Kensington Palace: Serving the Royal Court

01 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kensington Palace was the centre of court life in 18th-century Britain. It was the principal London residence for the Royals, as well as a lavish venu...

George Washington

31 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, George Washington was a central feature of the American Revolutionary War. He was also the first Presid...

The Amelia Earhart Mystery Solved?

31 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What happened to the pioneering pilot, Amelia Earhart? In 1937, while attempting to circumnavigate the globe by aircraft, Earhart and her navigator we...

2. The British Empire: The Raj and Indian Independence

27 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is the story of the British Empire in India. Over two episodes, we'll chart India's history from the birth of the Mughal Empire until the Partiti...

1. The British Empire: Mughals & the East India Company

26 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is the story of the British Empire in India. Over two episodes, we'll chart India's history from the birth of the Mughal Empire until the Partiti...

D.B. Cooper & the 70s Hijacking Craze

25 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On 23 June 1972, a man boarded American Airlines Flight 119 in St Louis. He sat most of the way to Tulsa before donning a wig and a pair of gloves in ...

The Real Shogun: The English Navigator Who Became a Samurai

24 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the year 1600, a bedraggled English sailor and his sick and dying crewmates anchored off the coast of Kyushu, Japan. His name was William Adams, an...

Atlantis

20 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The fictional island of Atlantis has intrigued and eluded us for millennia. First mentioned in the works of Plato, it's a story that captures our coll...

Persia: Rise of the Sasanians

19 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Sasanians are renowned as one of Rome's most feared enemies. Founded in third-century Persia by an Iranian noble called Ardashir, their dynasty ov...

The History of the RNLI

18 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the tempestuous waters of the 18th century, a revolutionary idea emerged from the depths of despair and necessity: the lifeboat. Born from the geni...

Warfare in Ancient Greece

17 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How did warfare work in Ancient Greece? The weapons and armour of the Greek hoplite are legendary, as are the warrior cultures of city-states like Spa...

Boudica: Queen of the Iceni

13 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

She's the warrior queen who took on the mighty Roman Empire, but who really was Boudica?Separating facts from the myths we've read can be tricky, but ...

Infiltrating the IRA: Murder & Espionage in Northern Ireland

12 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With Operation Kenova back in the headlines, we look to the story of Frank Hegarty, an IRA member turned British informant whose assassination led to ...

The Financial Crashes that Changed the World

11 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over the last turbulent century, the global economy has suffered the shockwaves of recessions and depressions, bubbles and unchecked investor euphoria...