Dan Snow's History Hit
Episodes
A Short History of Bank Collapses
21 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Looking back at the past few weeks, it seems like banks are collapsing left, right and centre; but what exactly does this mean for us? Are these incon...
Soviet "Bone Music"
20 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
While rifling through a stall at a flea market in Leningrad- now St Petersburg- composer and music producer Stephen Coates came across something unusu...
The Death of Amy Dudley
17 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On 6 September 1560, Amy Robsart Dudley died after falling down a staircase at Cumnor Place in Oxfordshire. But did she fall? Was she pushed? Or did s...
Satire & Scandal in Georgian England
16 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Can we trace the 'British sense of humour' back to the Georgian period? It was an age of royal madness, political intrigue, the birth of modern celebr...
What is a Fascist?
15 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This is everything you ever wanted to know about fascism. Are the British government's new proposals to stop refugee boats arriving fascistic? Were th...
The Glencoe Massacre
14 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Glencoe in the Scottish highlands is a beautiful landscape with a dark past. While folks from all over the world travel to this beautiful valley to hi...
Samuel Adams
10 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
One of the Founding Fathers of the United States, Samuel Adams was a political force of nature. Stacy Schiff tells Don how Adams, fuelled by disconten...
The Psychiatric Hospital that Fought the Nazis
09 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There are descriptions of suffering early in this episode that some listeners may find distressing. As hospitals and institutions across the European ...
The Women Who Organised the Battle of Britain
08 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In a suburb of North-West London, among housing estates and residential streets lies a secret bunker, you may never have heard of it but it's one of t...
Uniting Europe After WWII
07 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Count Coudenhove-Kalergi was one of the most influential 20th Century European thinkers that you've never heard of. He was a pioneer of European integ...
The Making of 'All Quiet on the Western Front'
06 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
All Quiet on the Western Front is the 2022 film adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's famous anti-war novel. Told from the German perspective, it prese...
The Last Nuremberg Prosecutor
03 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
102 year old Ben Ferencz is the last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials and a direct witness to the horrors of the Nazi death camps. Born ...
Lady Hamilton: Nelson's Mistress
02 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Kim Kardashian of Georgian England; she was a young housemaid who became one of the most famous socialites in the Western world and stole the hear...
The Mysterious Voynich Manuscript
01 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Matt Lewis continues his Mystery Month on Gone Medieval with another tantalising enigma of the Middle Ages - possibly the most mysterious manuscript t...
Sabotage, Nazis and the Atomic Bomb: Operation Gunnerside
28 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In late February 1943, Norwegian commandos were given the details of their mission, Operation Gunnerside. Their job would be to sabotage the Vemork he...
Enheduanna: The World's First Author
27 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's hard to imagine a time when we didn't write things down- on stone, papyrus or parchment. Who was the first to actually put 'pen to paper' and wri...
Russia & Ukraine: A Year of War
24 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On the 24th of February, 2022, the world looked on in disbelief as Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. One year on he shows no s...
History of Britain's Black Airmen
23 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When you think of some of the remarkable feats of airpower throughout history, you might think of the Dambusters, or the Battle of Britain. But what a...
Rosa Parks
21 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On the 1st of December, 1955, Rosa Parks boarded a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. After taking her seat in the section designated for people of colour, R...
How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Humanity
20 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We think of our natural environment as a subset of history, like studying the history of warfare or economics. But in truth, climate is the driving fo...
Aphrodite: Goddess of Love
17 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode contains graphic references.Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty in Greek mythology.Her origin story is one of the more colourful ...
Spies in the Sky
16 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Spy balloons are really blowing up right now. The US has shot down one confirmed Chinese balloon and has engaged several other unidentified flying obj...
The Tragedy of HMS Captain
15 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As a crew of over 500 boarded HMS Captain in the autumn of 1870, none of them knew their fate was sealed in the offices of the dockyard. The Captain w...
Nicholas Said: The Extraordinary Life of a Traveller, Soldier and Translator
14 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This is the remarkable story of Nicholas Said - born into a wealthy Muslim family in the ancient Bornu Empire, his childhood was interrupted when, age...
The Muppets Take Moscow!
13 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Car bombings, assassinations and a military takeover: these are just some of the things American TV producer Natasha Lance Rogoff and her team faced w...
Pre-historic Women
10 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For years we've understood that in the prehistoric hunter-gather world, the men did the hunting and the women did the gathering. Prehistoric man went ...
Dan, The Skeletons and The Battle of Waterloo
09 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dan Snow’s History Hit hits the road to Belgium and the Waterloo Battlefield to see the soldier’s bones found in an attic earlier this month. ...
Medieval Leaders and Queens: Aethelfled, Hildegard & Jadwiga.
08 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Aethelfled, a warrior queen who crushed the Vikings, Jadwiga, the first Queen Regent of Poland and Hildegard of Bingen, an 11th-century polymath abbes...
The Real Casanova
07 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Content Warning This episode contains adult themes and language that may not be suitable for children.On this special network crossover episode we're ...
The Murder of Charles I
06 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's 1660 and General Edward Whalley and his son-in-law board a ship bound for the New World. They're on the run, wanted for the murder of King Charle...
Sex
03 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
250 million years ago the armour-plated Placoderm fish invented the act of sex as we know it. Hubba Hubba. Dive into the historical sack as we go in s...
The End of Stalingrad
02 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Stalingrad is one of the most titanic and totemic battles of the Second World War. Millions were killed, the city itself was utterly shattered by figh...
Normans, Romans and Victorians: History of England's New Forest
01 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Where can you find an Iron Age fort, Roman kilns, trees built for Nelson's navy and the hunting lodge of William the Conqueror? In the place that...
The Truth About Area 51
31 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Fake moon landings, aliens and secret weapons; conspiracy theories about Area 51 abound but what exactly is it, and do we know anything about it with ...
Pacification in the Vietnam War
30 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam. It was one of the most costly conflicts that the U.S. has ever...
Anne Frank's Life After Her Arrest
27 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Anne Frank’s diary is one of the most famous accounts of the Jewish experience during the Second World War, giving us a deeply personal glimpse into...
Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu
26 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Three Musketeers paints a picture of King Louis XIII of France as a rather weak monarch controlled by his powerful chief minister Cardinal Ri...
The Great British Dig
25 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We think of archaeology as an exclusionary profession, one reserved for experts in the field. But why isn't the discipline more accessible to the publ...
Battle of Waterloo Skeletons Found in Attic!
24 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Waterloo was one of the bloodiest battles in European history, yet until now only two bodies have ever been found on the battlefield. The remains of 1...
The First Indigenous Americans in Europe
23 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
1492 marked the beginning of the Colombian Exchange - the transfer of people, goods, ideas and commodities across the Atlantic between Europe and the ...
WWI Lifesavers and Body Snatchers
20 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The brutal nature of the First World War presented frontline medical personnel with an array of horrific and debilitating wounds, inflicted on a previ...
Zheng He: The Ming Dynasty Explorer
19 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Ming Dynasty emerged in the second half of the 14th century, having achieved a hard-won victory over the declining Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. Admira...
North America's French Indian War
18 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As the British and French colonies in North America expanded in the middle of the 18th century, they inevitably clashed. Fighting between the two side...
Hitler and Mussolini
17 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Just over 100 years ago, in October 1922, Mussolini and 30,000 Blackshirts marched on Rome. It was a mass demonstration that would see his National Fa...
Churchill's Surprising Career in Scotland
16 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Winston Churchill is possibly the most famous politician in British history. Throughout his career, he would hold numerous positions in government, in...
The Mongol Empire
13 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Crusades are well-known but only part of the complex history of the medieval Near East. During the same era, the region was completely remade by t...
The Himalayas
12 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Himalayas is one of the most expansive and storied regions in the world. It's also a place that we're hugely dependent on, providing billions of p...
Modern Terrorism
11 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
At the end of the 19th century, the world came to fear terrorism. In an era that simmered with political rage and social inequalities, anarchists and ...
Royal Siblings: Heirs and Spares
10 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Prince Harry's explosive new memoir is out today and headlines, articles and tweets all weighing in on the rift between the royals are everywhere. In ...
General Franco
09 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From 1939 to 1975, Generalissimo Francisco Franco ruled Spain as a nationalist dictator. For many, he was Spain incarnate, a tenacious leader and warr...
Inside the JFK White House
06 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
November 22nd marks 59 years since the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy. One of the most famous assassinations in history, JFK's death se...
Warrior Queens & Revolutionaries
05 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The first author in history, the inventor of the dishwasher and the lawyer who refused to be kicked out of the room the Oxford law school; when it com...
Harry Houdini
04 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Harry Houdini is perhaps the most famous entertainer to have ever lived. He wowed his audiences with sensational feats of physical endurance and illus...
Birdwatching: How Four Prisoners of War Survived Captivity
03 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode tells the incredible story of four Second World War British POWs who overcame the trials and tribulations of internment through a shared ...
Budapest: Between East and West
02 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Almost at the centre of Europe, Budapest, is at the crossroads of geographical regions and of civilizations, at the intersection of ancient trade rout...
Dan Snow's History Hit Quiz!
30 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Fingers on buzzers for a very special History Hit end-of-year treat.Tricky expert questions, history in the headlines, historical fact or fiction? It ...
Hunting Stolen Nazi Art
29 Dec 2022
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...
Richard III vs Henry VII
28 Dec 2022
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...
Christmas Carols: A Musical History
27 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Traditionally sung at Christmas itself or during the surrounding Christmas holiday season, it is thought that carols existed to keep up people’s spi...
Christmas Feasts Through The Ages!
23 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Porpoises, beaver tails, boar's head and puffins: are just some of the exquisite dishes on medieval tables during the festive season. In this episode ...
The Real 'Good King' Wenceslas
22 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Click here to vote for Gone Medieval at the Signal Awards.At this time of year, many of us will find ourselves singing about a royal personage who bra...
The Battle of the Bulge
21 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Lasting six brutal weeks, from December 16, 1944, to January 25, 1945, the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes region of Belgium was Adolf Hitler’s ...
Toilets, Underpants & Pillows: Everyday Things with Greg Jenner
20 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why do grandmas wear bloomers? How did romans clean themselves after using the toilet? Pillows were originally made of stone?! These are all questions...
Who Was Jesus, The Man?
19 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Followed by billions and worshipped across the planet, Jesus is the most famous person who ever lived. Jesus Christ is revered as a prophet and the Me...
Germany's Extreme Monarchists
16 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Last week a celebrity chef, former police officers and serving army officers were arrested in Germany as part of an extremist coup to overthrow the go...
'My Grandfather, the Wehrmacht General in Russia'
15 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Angela Findlay was determined to find out if her grandfather, Karl von Graffen, was a Nazi and what he did on the Eastern front. An artist and speaker...
Tattoos
14 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There are many common misconceptions and misunderstandings about Tattoos. They can act as a window into the social economic and cultural issues of a p...
Modern Medicine
13 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The American Civil War saw a transformation in medical provision on the battlefield. A loose grouping of medical practitioners was reshaped into a bur...
Stalingrad
12 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Battle of Stalingrad was the deadliest battle of the Second World War, and one of the bloodiest in the history of warfare. Infamous for its atroci...
The Last Dambuster: Johnny Johnson
09 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Of all the air raids carried out during World War Two, none are as enduringly famous as the attack by Lancaster Bombers against the dams of Germany’...
Zeus: King of the Gods
08 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Zeus, the chief deity in Greek mythology, is the Olympian god of sky and thunder and is king of all other gods and men.His tale is one of overthrowing...
SAS Rogue Heroes: Paddy Mayne with Ben Macintyre
07 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Lieutenant-Colonel 'Paddy' Mayne is a legendary figure in the history of the British Special Forces. Valiant but volatile, confident yet conflicted, P...
The Rise of China
06 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How has China become the economic superpower that it is today? The decades since the death of Chairman Mao Zedong have seen an unprecedented economic ...
Sportswashing and the Nazi Olympics
05 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
With the 2022 FIFA World Cup well underway, the phenomenon of sportswashing is once again in everybody's minds. Autocracies and democracies alike have...
Life in Tudor England
02 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What was life really like in Tudor England? This was a society where monarchy was under strain, the church was in crisis and contending with war, rebe...
A Short History of The World
01 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How can you condense the history of the world into a book? Well-celebrated historian Simon Sebag Montefiore does just that in his new epic. He takes D...
Atlantis: Deciphering The Truth
30 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Atlantis is one of the most compelling legends - an advanced, mythical civilisation, wiped out by an unknown phenomenon. The allure of this civilisati...
Owain Glyndwr and The Welsh Revolt
29 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
England plays Wales in the World Cup today so it only makes sense that Dan looks back at what's often called Wales' last war of Independence against t...
The Legacy of Rome
28 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Rome has attracted aspiring conquerors and leaders for millennia, not just as a great metropolis, but as an idea. It has long been a symbol of militar...
Plagues
25 Nov 2022
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...
A Short History of Scotland and England's Union
24 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Yesterday the UK Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Scottish government is not allowed to hold a second independence referendum without Westmins...
Kings and Queens: Villains, Heroes and Rulers
23 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dan teams up with his parents and esteemed journalists Peter Snow and Ann MacMillan to explore the lives, loves, triumphs and disasters of a monarchy ...
Central Park: What Lies Beneath
22 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Central Park is an oasis of nature in New York City, amidst the countless skyscrapers and gridded streets of Manhattan. Over 800 acres of sweeping fie...
Rogue Heroes: Veteran of the SAS
21 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mike Sadler is the last surviving original member of the SAS and is featured in the new television series SAS Rogue Heroes as a dashing young man and ...
Medieval Pubs
18 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For centuries, the pub has played a central role in our lives and communities. Throughout Britain, there are many pubs saying that they are the oldest...
The Budget: Britain's Financial Crisis Explained
17 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Rising interest, cost of living crisis, energy prices at an all-time high- is Britain's precarious financial situation the fault of policymakers or gl...
Band of Brothers: A New Discovery
16 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In part 2 of this series on Easy Company and the American 101st Airborne Division, we are back in the village of Aldbourne, following in the steps of ...
Band of Brothers: Yanks in Britain
15 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the first of this 2-part series dedicated to the legacy of Easy Company and the American 101st Airborne Division, Dan visits the idyllic country vi...
Sunken Swedish Warship Discovered!
14 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In December 2021, marine archaeologists working alongside the Swedish Navy came across the wreck of a 17th-century warship in the Stockholm archipelag...
Lost Recordings from the Front Line
11 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Often faster than letters sent by ship, WWII soldiers stationed in South East Asia would send heartfelt and humorous video messages to their loved one...
The Crown: A Short History of British Monarchy
10 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For at least 1,500 years, since the mists swirling around the Dark Ages began to clear, the British Isles have had monarchical rulers. For hundreds of...
Fall of the Berlin Wall
09 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On November 9th, 1989, 33 years ago to the day, the Berlin Wall that had symbolised the ideological and physical division of Europe came crumbling dow...
Origins of Modern Iran
08 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As protests continued across Iran, a number of Iranian-made kamikaze drones were fired by Russian forces at targets thousands of miles away in Kyiv, U...
The Birth of the CIA
07 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
American intelligence services like the CIA are commonly thought of as global behemoths of international surveillance and covert operations, responsib...
4. Tutankhamun: Inside the Tomb
04 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
4/4. Dan descends the very same stone steps into Tutankhamun's tomb that Carter did, 100 years earlier. From within the chamber, Dan and Egyptologist ...
3. Tutankhamun: The Life of a Boy Pharaoh
03 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
3/4. How much do we know about Tutankhamun, his short life and even shorter reign? Dan unravels the complicated legacy of Tutankhamun's predecessor Ak...
2. Tutankhamun: The Discovery of a Lifetime
02 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
2/4. Dan dives into Carter’s obsession with Tutankhamun and the trials and idiosyncrasies that made him the right man for the discovery. Dan visits ...
Tutankhamun: The Valley of the Kings
01 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
1/4. On the West Bank of the Nile in Luxor lie the burial chambers of some of Ancient Egypt's greatest pharaohs - Ramses II, Seti I and Tutankhamun. F...
Smugglers of Jamaica Inn
31 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Stories of shipwrecks, smugglers and ghosts. Built in the mid-18th century, over the years many of the Jamaica Inn's patrons have been less respectabl...
A Short History of Seances
27 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From their origins in necromancy to their ritualisation in the religion of Spiritualism, seances have long been a staple in the occultist's toolbelt. ...