Dan Snow's History Hit
Episodes
Putin, Power and Personality
24 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Vladimir Putin has the power to reduce the United States and Europe to ashes in a nuclear firestorm. He invades his neighbours, most recently Ukraine,...
Waterloo Uncovered: Bones from the Battlefield
22 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In a special episode from our sister podcast Warfare, Dan is joined by host James Rogers fresh off the Waterloo battlefield in Belgium where last week...
The Apollo Programme with Kevin Fong
20 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Getting to the moon was no easy feat, no matter how confident President Kennedy may have sounded in his famous 1961 speech. NASA built a team from the...
Hatshepsut: The Temple of Egypt's Female Pharaoh
19 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On the West Bank of the Nile in Luxor, Egypt sits a temple considered to be one of the great architectural wonders of ancient Egypt. The memorial temp...
Formidable Heroines of History
18 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From the notorious thief Mary Frith in the seventeenth century to industrialist and LGBT trailblazer Anne Lister in the nineteenth, these heroines red...
My Life as a Child Prisoner of War
17 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Imperial Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began on December 25, 1941, after the then Governor, Sir Mark Young, surrendered the British Crown colon...
Beer
14 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Pint, bottle, schooner, tinny … no matter how you drink it, beer is undeniably a part of social life here in Britain and around the world.But how di...
Wars in the Atlantic World
13 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How has warfare shaped the way humans live in the Atlantic World? Well, a lot. Military campaigns from the late Middle Ages to the Age of Revolution d...
The 'Dark Ages' with Michael Wood
12 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Lasting 900 years, the ‘Dark Ages’ were between the 5th and 14th centuries, falling between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance. Toda...
The Black Medal of Honour
11 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1945, when Congress began reviewing the record of the most conspicuous acts of courage by American soldiers during WWII, they recommended awarding ...
The Shortest History of Democracy
10 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In a time of grave uncertainty about the future of our planet, the radical potential of democracy is more important than ever.From its beginnings in S...
Coffee
07 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A cup of coffee was once a luxury. Now it is quick, cheap and widely available — a daily essential for many.How did this happen? Today on Patented, ...
Boris Johnson: Removing a Prime Minister
06 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It's been an extraordinary day in British politics with dozens of Conservative MPs handing in their resignations and expressing a lack of confidence i...
The Forgotten Massacre at Dartmoor Prison
05 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
During the War of 1812, the last time Britain and the United States went to war with each other, more than six thousand American sailors ended up in D...
The Life of Malcolm X
04 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Born Malcolm Little in 1925, Malcolm X would become human rights activist— a prominent African American minister and figure during the civil rights ...
The Real Alexander Hamilton
03 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence impoverished in sq...
Viking Voyages and Legends
30 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the dying days of the eighth century, the Vikings erupted onto the international stage with brutal raids and slaughter. The medieval Norsemen may b...
The Death of Alexander the Great Explained
29 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Alexander the Great’s untimely death at Babylon in 323 BC triggered an unprecedented crisis across his continent-spanning empire.Within a couple of ...
The Man Who Escaped Auschwitz
28 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In April 1944 nineteen-year-old Rudolf Vrba and fellow inmate, Fred Wetzler broke out of Auschwitz. Under electrified fences and past armed watchtower...
The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand
27 Jun 2022
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...
Cleopatra
26 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Cleopatra VII was part of a dynasty of Macedonian rulers founded by Ptolemy, who served as general under Alexander the Great during his conquest of Eg...
A Short History of Nomads
23 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The roots of the word ‘Nomad’ dates back to an extremely early Indo-European word, ‘nomos’. After towns and cities are built and more people s...
Al Capone
22 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Born in Brooklyn, New York in January 1899, Alphonse Gabriel Capone would go on to become perhaps the most infamous gangster in American history. Duri...
Inside the Royal Marines
21 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Royal Marines are the UK's Commando Force and the Royal Navy's own amphibious troops. The Commandos have become a byword for elite raiding skills ...
Nuclear Disasters
20 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 2011, a 43-foot-high tsunami crashed into a nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan. In the following days, explosions would rip buildings apart, t...
HS2: Digging up the 'Dark Ages'
19 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
An extraordinary discovery has been unearthed by archaeologists working alongside the HS2 rail project. The find, made at an undisclosed location near...
The Sinking of the Lancastria
16 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On June 17, 1940, the British ocean liner, RMS Lancastria, was sunk during Operation Aerial.RMS Lancastria had sailed to the French port of St. Nazair...
The Siege of Loyalty House
15 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Civil War was the most traumatic conflict in British history, pitting friends and family members against each other, tearing down the old order.Aw...
Treasures of The Royal Mint
14 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A history of British monarchs in coins. With a history stretching over 1,100 years, The Royal Mint has forged a fascinating story through the world of...
Falklands40: Identifying the Unmarked Graves
13 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Argentina surrendered to British forces in Port Stanley on the 14th of June 1982. The Falklands conflict was over. In the months after the fighting en...
Falklands40: Return to Mount Tumbledown
12 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Battle of Mount Tumbledown was an attack by the British Army and the Royal Marines on the heights overlooking Stanley, the Falkland Islands' capit...
Discovered! A Royal Navy Shipwreck
09 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The wreck of one of the most famous ships of the 17th century - which sank 340 years ago while carrying the future King of England James Stuart - has ...
Falklands40: Memories of an Argentine Veteran
08 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Please note that this episode contains descriptions of conflict and torture that some may find distressing.When the British arrived on the Falklands I...
The Battle of Midway
07 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On the 4th of June 1942, the US Navy took on the might of Japan's Imperial Navy in the battle of Midway. It was America's Trafalgar! At the end of the...
D-Day Heroes: The Green Howards
06 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There was only one Victoria Cross awarded on the 6th June 1944, D-Day. It went to Company Sergeant Major Stanley Hollis of the 6th Battalion of the Gr...
The Veteran Searching for his D-Day Shipwreck
05 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On June 6, 1944, D-Day, Patrick Thomas, a young Royal Navy telegraphist, boarded the craft in Portsmouth. The boat was part of the first wave on Sword...
Elvis Presley: A Turbulent Life
02 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A hotly anticipated biopic about the king of Rock'n'Roll will be released in June directed by Baz Luhmann. We've delved back into our archives to brin...
Vasectomy
01 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What do you think of when you think of birth control? Is it condoms, IUDs, the pill? What about vasectomies?From monkey testicles to possible cancer t...
Platinum Jubilee: Britain’s Greatest Queens
31 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Queen Elizabeth II is the longest-reigning monarch in British history and one of the longest-reigning in the world. To mark the Queen's Platinum Jubil...
Tulsa: The Attack on Black Wall Street
30 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From May 31 to June 1, 1921, a white mob attacked residents, homes and businesses in the predominantly Black ‘Greenwood District’ of Tulsa, Oklaho...
Falklands40: Battle of Goose Green
29 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Please note that this episode contains descriptions of combat and some explicit language.At the Battle of Goose Green the Second Battalion the Parachu...
SAS Founder: Warrior or Phoney?
26 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
David Stirling was an aristocrat, innovator and special forces legend that earned him the nickname 'The Phantom Major'. His formation of the Special A...
The Treadmill
25 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Before they found their way into gyms, treadmills had a much darker history. In the 19th Century, they could most commonly be found in prisons.In cont...
Our Obsession with Nostalgia
24 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Longing to go back to the 'good old days' is nothing new. For hundreds of years, the British have mourned the loss of older national identities and ca...
How Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt Divided Berlin
23 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Berlin’s fate was sealed at the 1945 Yalta Conference: the city, along with the rest of Germany, was to be carved up between the victorious powers -...
Putin's Rise to Power
22 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Catherine Belton joins Dan on the podcast to discuss the remarkable story of Vladimir Putin's rise to power. After working from 2007-2013 as the Mosco...
Medieval Myths and Legends
19 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Various legends, characters and myths are associated with the medieval period. The British Isles is filled with prehistoric monuments - from Stoneheng...
Falklands40: The Loss of HMS Ardent
18 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Please note that this episode contains frank discussions of conflict, mental health and suicide.Admiral Lord West is the former First Sea Lord and Chi...
Food in the Ancient World
17 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When we think of the modern Mediterranean, delicious and vibrant food is one of the first things that come to mind. But how much has the regional food...
HMS Black Joke
16 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Please note that this episode contains mentions of racial trauma, slavery and violence.The most feared ship in Britain’s West Africa Squadron, His M...
The Secret Plot to Kill the Government
15 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On the night of February 23 1820, twenty-five impoverished craftsmen assembled in an obscure stable in Cato Street, London, with a plan to massacre th...
How to Survive in Medieval England
12 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
If you travelled back in time to the Medieval period this very second, do you think you would survive? The short answer is probably not. If you weren'...
Codebreaking at Bletchley Park
11 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Bletchley Park, Britain's key decryption centre during WWI, is known for the success of breaking the Nazi Enigma codes - experts have suggested that t...
Mental Health in Victorian Britain
10 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week is Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK so we’ve got a special episode exploring the surprising way Victorians approached mental health ...
The 1650s: Britain's Decade Without a Crown
09 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1649 Britain was engulfed by revolution. Charles I was executed for treason and within weeks the English monarchy had been abolished and the House ...
VE Day
08 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For most of us, VE Day conjures up black and white images of carefree servicemen and women dancing and beaming in Trafalgar Square, of Churchill greet...
Diving for Lost Slave Shipwrecks
05 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From the 16th to the 19th centuries, European slave traders forcibly uprooted millions of African people and shipped them across the Atlantic in condi...
Agincourt: Myths Explained
04 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Agincourt is a name which conjures an image of plucky English archers taking on and defeating the arrogant and aristocratic knights of the French cour...
Death, Desire, Power & Scandal: The House of Dudley
03 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Dudleys were the most brilliant, bold and manipulative of power-hungry Tudor families. Every Tudor monarch made their name either with a Dudley at...
John Donne: Poet of Love, Sex and Death
02 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
John Donne (1572-1631) lived myriad lives. Sometime religious outsider and social disaster, sometime celebrity preacher and establishment darling, Joh...
Falklands40: The Sinking of the Belgrano
01 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this day 40 years ago the HMS Conqueror, a British nuclear submarine, propelled silently through the South Atlantic stalking the Argentinian light ...
Falklands40: The Black Buck Raids
30 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Falkland Islands lie 8000 miles from Britain making the Falklands War a particularly tricky one to fight; it required some seriously innovative th...
Theodore Roosevelt
28 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 - January 6, 1919), was an American politician, conservationist and writer. After the assassination of Willia...
War in Space
27 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On November 15 2021 Russia tested an anti-satellite weapon, shattering one of their own satellites into over a thousand pieces. This space debris will...
Gossip, Scandal and High Society
26 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, Henry ‘Chips’ Channon documented British high society in eye-watering detail. His diaries are ...
Great Scientists We've Forgotten to Remember
25 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We are told that modern science was invented in Europe, the product of great minds like Nicolaus Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert E...
The Death of King George V: A Royal Murder Mystery
24 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Just before midnight on January 20, 1936, King George V died at Sandringham, in Norfolk, England. The scandal of King George V’s reign would not be ...
Victoria: A Greedy Queen
21 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Warning: There are adult themes, explicit language and references of disordered eating and diets in this episode.Did you know that before Queen Victor...
The History of the RNLI
20 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Since its foundation in 1824, the volunteers of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution have been braving the most savage of elements at sea to rescue...
Operation Mincemeat: The Deception that Changed WWII
19 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s 1943. The Allies are determined to break Hitler’s grip on occupied Europe and plan an all-out assault on Sicily, but they face an impossible ...
Josephine Baker: Entertainer and Spy
18 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On November 30th, 2021, Josephine Baker, the French-American performer, second world war resistance hero, and activist became the first Black woman to...
A Short History of Pirates
17 Apr 2022
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...
TITANIC: Survivors and Lost Souls
14 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Part 3/3. News of Titanic's fate sent shockwaves around the world; stories and illustrations of that fateful night splashed across newspaper stands on...
TITANIC: A Night to Remember
13 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Depicted countless times in art, television and film, the night of the 14th of April 1912 has haunted and fascinated us for over a century. This is a ...
TITANIC: The Unsinkable Ship
12 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On April 10th, 1912, RMS Titanic cast off from Southampton, England, on her maiden voyage. The largest of its kind, full of grandeur and the most soph...
How to Party like an Ancient Greek
11 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Ancient Greece, the symposium was no ordinary after-dinner drinking party, but one in which the Hellenic men of society got together to wine, recli...
The Objects That Made Britain
10 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What can art tell us about a country's history? Well, a lot! In today's episode, Dan is joined by Art Historian Temi Odumosu and popular historian Jam...
Resisting the Third Reich
07 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Across the whole of Nazi-ruled Europe, the experience of occupation was sharply varied. As a result, resistance movements during World War II occurred...
Recreating the Viking World in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
06 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Assassin's Creed: Valhalla has brought the Viking Age to life in stunning detail, and now the game is even being used as an educational tool!Maxime Du...
Cold War Submarine Warrior
05 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Eric Thompson has had his finger literally on the nuclear button. He joined the Royal Navy submarine service in the early days of the Cold War. He ser...
The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures
04 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1888 Louis Le Prince shot the world’s first motion picture in Leeds, England. In 1890, weeks before the public unveiling of his camera and projec...
The Foundations of Modern India
03 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The greatest anti-imperial rebellion of the nineteenth century, The Indian Rebellion of 1857, witnessed mass violence against the British. Ninety year...
Falklands40: What Started the Falklands War?
02 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On April 2nd 1982 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared war against Argentina over the Falkland Islands in the Southern Atlantic. To make ...
The Enclosures
31 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The enclosure of the commons was a centuries-long process. Gradually, through a combination of legal degrees and private acts, the land across Britain...
The Real Cyrano de Bergerac
30 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
One of the world's much loved stage and screen characters has just returned to the cinema in a new film version starring Peter Dinklage. But what...
Benjamin Franklin with Ken Burns
29 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was a scientist, inventor, writer and diplomat. As one of the leading figures of early American history, Franklin helped...
The Demerara Uprising and Britain’s Legacy of Slavery
28 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Demerara Rebellion of 1823 was an uprising of over ten thousand enslaved people in the Crown colony of Demerara-Essequibo (now part of Guyana) on ...
Destroying a Nazi Stronghold: The St Nazaire Raid
27 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On 28 March 1942, in the darkest months of World War Two, Churchill approved what seemed to many like a suicide mission. Under orders to attack the St...
The Wonder of Stonehenge
27 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Towering above the Wiltshire countryside, Stonehenge is perhaps the world's most awe-inspiring ancient stone circle. Shrouded in layers of speculation...
200 Years of British-Russian Relations
25 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Russia and the UK have very different political structures and ambitions, from their alliance at the Battle of Navarino in 1827 to the historic low of...
The Forgotten Hero of Everest
24 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ed Caesar joins Dan on the podcast to tell the extraordinary but largely forgotten story of World War I veteran Maurice Wilson, Britain's most mysteri...
The Fall of France 1940: How it Influenced the US
23 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Shocked by the fall of France in 1940, panicked U.S. leaders rushed to back the Vichy government despite their Nazi sympathies. This policy caused ins...
Mary Queen of Scots with Kate Williams
22 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dan is joined by Professor Kate Williams to discuss the rise and fall of Mary Queen of Scots, one of the most dramatic and tragic figures of the Sixte...
The Confederate States of America
21 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Confederacy was more than an army. It was a national project. A whole state, albeit an internationally unrecognised one, formed between 1861-1865 ...
Prison Camps in WW2 Britain
20 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From the summer of 1940, approximately 30,000 so-called ‘enemy aliens’ were indefinitely sent to internment camps across Britain.Gripped by spy fe...
ENDURANCE22: Questions & Reflections
18 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
To mark the end of a truly epic journey, Dan wanted to hear from you -the listeners- those that have dedicatedly followed the story of Endurance22. Fi...
What Is an Oligarch?
17 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The use of the word ‘Oligarch’ has been increasingly rampant across international news outlets since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine just weeks ago...
The Steam Engine and Simultaneous Invention
16 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The revolution in speed ground to a halt in the 1960s. The previous half-century saw great leaps in how quickly people could get from place to place: ...
The Assassination of Julius Caesar: Explained
15 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
March 15th 44BC is perhaps the most notorious date in all of ancient history. On that fateful day, the Ides of March, 55-year-old Roman dictator Gaius...
The KGB in Ukraine
14 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The KGB was the main security agency for the Soviet Union. Tasked with surveillance and rooting out dissidents, religious practitioners and anti-gover...