Dan Snow's History Hit
Episodes
Gladiators: The Praetorian Guard
18 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The true nexus of power in the Roman Empire wasn't in the Emperor's box but in the shadowy ranks of the Praetorian Guard. First established in 27 BCE ...
Gladiators: The Real Spartacus
15 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Spartacus is probably the most famous gladiator in history but how much of his legend is actually true? Dan is joined by Dr Rhiannon Evans, from Melbo...
Gladiators: Myths vs Reality
13 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Join Dan at Rome's Colosseum as he separates fact from fiction in the world of the gladiators. He traces the origins of gladiatorial fighting from fun...
Gladiators: The Colosseum
11 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Join Dan on an adventure in Rome as he traces the true history of the gladiators. He begins his story in 64 AD with the great fire of Rome that left t...
Shackleton's Endurance Expedition
11 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this dramatic episode, Dan tells the incredible story of how Shackleton saved every single man on the fated Endurance expedition from perishing in ...
The Clinton Body Count to the QAnon Shaman: Conspiracy Theories in American Politics
06 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From the Clinton 'crime family' to businessman JP Morgan sinking the Titanic to kill off his rivals, conspiracy theories are rife on the internet. Dan...
The Unknown Warrior
04 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the western nave of Westminster Abbey, nestled between illustrious tombs and beneath a slab of black Belgian marble, lies the body of an unidentifi...
Will This Be America's Closest Election Ever?
01 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The 2024 US Presidential election is just around the corner, and it seems like the result is balanced on a knife's edge. As the polls continue to roll...
The Secret Origins of the SAS
30 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1974, a pioneer of the SAS and master of military deception, Dudley Clarke, passed away. His death went almost entirely unnoticed by the British pu...
2. Wars of the Roses: Rise of the Tudors
28 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the second episode of our Wars of the Roses series, Edward IV secures the English throne after his victory at the bloody Battle of Towton. But his ...
1. Wars of the Roses: England Divided
24 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This is the first episode in a two-part series on the brutal, three-decade-long civil war that tore England in two. Today, we explore the complex alle...
The Origins of Halloween
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Pumpkins, trick or treating and ghost stories are what we associate with Halloween, but what about turnips, fairies and a fortune-telling cake? Dan an...
The Great Napoleonic Escape
20 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Lieutenant Charles Hare was a young British naval officer who made an extraordinarily elaborate escape from a French prisoner-of-war camp during the N...
The Hunt for the Endurance Shipwreck
17 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2022 Dan was part of the international expedition that went in search of Shackleton's lost shipwreck Endurance in the Weddell Sea in Antarctica; wh...
Tom Crean: The Unsung Irish Hero of the Antarctic
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
He was one of the last men to see Antarctic Explorer Robert Scott alive and was Shackleton's right-hand man on the Endurance expedition. So why don't ...
Ernest Shackleton
13 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dan charts the life, successes and failures of the charismatic and chaotic Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton. In late 1914, Shackleton led 27 men o...
Scotland & England's Union
10 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The union between the nations of Great Britain goes back to 1707. On each side of the border, statesmen started to realise that a closer relationship ...
Scotland's Disastrous Attempt at Empire
08 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the late 17th century, Scotland tried to establish a colony in Panama - and it all went horribly wrong.In July 1698, a fleet of five ships departed...
Robert the Bruce, King of Scots
06 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Robert the Bruce is best remembered as a rebel king, and for good reason. He was an unrelenting thorn in the side of any English monarch with ambition...
Rise of the Medici
03 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The House of Medici ruthlessly wielded control of Florence for nearly 300 years. Through financial and political machinations, they transformed the ci...
The British Agent Who Tried to Kill Lenin
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Bruce Lockhart was one of the most extraordinary and unconventional agents of the 20th century. A British diplomat, spy, and propagandist, his ...
The Creation of Modern China
29 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On the 1st of October 1949, a huge crowd gathered in Tiananmen Square. In the shadow of Beijing's imperial Forbidden City, they listened as Mao Zedong...
The Iranian Embassy Siege with Ben Macintyre
26 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On the drizzly, grey morning of 30th April 1980, six heavily armed gunmen stormed the Iranian Embassy in London. They charged through the front door a...
Mansa Musa: History's Wealthiest Man?
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Mansa Musa's wealth is a thing of legend. It's impossible to know exactly how much he was worth, but he himself spread rumours that gold grew like a p...
On the Frontline at Stalingrad
22 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dan explains the bloody Battle of Stalingrad alongside exclusive, never before heard frontline accounts from the German soldiers who were there. They ...
The Battle of Arnhem with Al Murray
19 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Al Murray, host of WWII podcast We Have Ways of Making You Talk joins Dan to tell the story of the most catastrophic 24-hours the British military fac...
Operation Market Garden
17 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Operation Market Garden was an ambitious Allied airborne offensive to secure a quick victory in WWII. It failed disastrously.The plan was to capture k...
Jesse Owens
15 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jesse Owens' victories at the 1936 Berlin Olympics made him an international sports hero, and a symbol of the civil rights movement. His friendship wi...
How to Survive in Viking Britain
12 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever wondered what it would take to live in Viking Britain? When they arrived and settled in the British Isles, Viking settlers didn't just f...
Sir Walter Raleigh's Search for El Dorado
10 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sir Walter Raleigh's life was a turbulent one, to say the least. The Elizabethan statesman and explorer climbed to the top rung of Queen Elizabeth's c...
The Heist of the Century: The Missing Irish Crown Jewels
08 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the shadowy halls of Dublin Castle, 1907, a daring heist shook the British Empire. Four days before King Edward VII's royal visit, the priceless Ir...
Machu Picchu: The Lost City
05 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Part 1/4. Dan takes the podcast to the Peruvian Andes as he follows in the footsteps of intrepid American explorer Hiram Bingham who revealed Machu Pi...
Hitler's V1 & V2 Rockets
03 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As the world closed in on the Third Reich in the final chapter of World War Two, a desperate Adolf Hitler turned to his so-called 'Revenge Weapons' fo...
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...