Dan Snow's History Hit
Episodes
The Execution of Charles I
31 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On the 30th January, 372 years ago, Charles I, king of Great Britain and Ireland, stepped out of the Banqueting House in Whitehall, to be beheaded in ...
After Nuremberg
30 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The 1950s in West Germany saw a sharp decline in Nazi war crimes investigations and trials. Instead, there were campaigns for amnesties and reductions...
Nuremberg: The Trial of Major War Criminals
28 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Carried out in Nuremberg, Germany, between 1945 and 1949, the Nuremberg trials were held for the purpose of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice. Th...
The Boy Who Survived Auschwitz
27 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Thomas Geve was just 15 years old when he was liberated from Buchenwald concentration camp on 11 April 1945. It was the third concentration camp he ha...
Munich - The Edge of War: Reappraising Chamberlain
26 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Join James from the Warfare Podcast, as he chats to the writer and cast of the new film 'Munich - the Edge of War'. Set in 1938, the movie follows Cha...
The Gilded Age
25 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Gilded Age was a time in American history when the economy grew at its fastest rate in history. This had wide-reaching cultural and social effects...
Champagne Riots
24 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Rebecca Gibb is a Master of Wine. A ninja who can sniff out a Merlot from a Margaux at 50 paces. In this archive episode, she talks to Dan about the r...
1942: Churchill's Real Darkest Hour
23 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Most people think that Britain's worst moment of the war was in 1940 when the nation stood up against the threat of German invasion. Yet, eighty years...
Roe v. Wade: America's Landmark Ruling
21 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas law banning abortion, effectively legalising the procedure nationwide. The court held ...
Who Was Joan of Arc?
20 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Joan of Arc is a name that’s instantly recognisable to most. A controversial figure in her own day, she has remained so ever since, often being adop...
The Child Soldiers of WWI
19 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After the outbreak of the First World War, boys as young as twelve were caught up in a national wave of patriotism and, in huge numbers, volunteered t...
28 Years on Death Row
18 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Anthony Ray Hinton is an Alabama was held on death row after being wrongly convicted of the murders of two restaurant managers, John Davidson and Thom...
Korean War: The Veterans Of Imjin River
17 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Fought between the 22nd-25th of April 1951, the battle of Imjin River was part of a Chinese counter-offensive after United Nations forces had recaptur...
Eugenics with Adam Rutherford
16 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Eugenics has been used in attempts throughout history, and across continents, to gain power and assert control.In this episode, we trace Eugenics from...
Tudor True Crime
14 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The true-crime genre - stories of actual murders and other crimes that are then fictionalised - is not a new phenomenon. More than four centuries...
George Washington: The First President
13 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
George. Where did it all go wrong? George Washington could have had a comfortable career as a loyal member of His Majesty's Virginia militia and colon...
The Rule of Laws
12 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The laws now enforced throughout the world are almost all modelled on systems developed in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. During t...
Digging for Britain with Professor Alice Roberts
11 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
2021 was a bumper year for archaeological discoveries across Britain. In this episode, we go on a whistlestop tour of some of the most notable finds —...
Was the League of Nations Doomed to Fail?
10 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
102 years ago on the 10th of January 1920, the League of Nations was formed out of the Treaty of Versailles. Its aim was to maintain peace after the F...
Obama and Merkel: The Extraordinary Partnership
09 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are two of the world’s most influential leaders, together at the centre of some of t...
1921 Census: Revealed
07 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For the first time, the 1921 Census of England & Wales is now publicly available, only online at the family history website, Findmypast. More detailed...
Democratic Decline
06 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The 6th of January marks one year since the United States Capitol attack of 2021, whereby a mob of supporters of Republican President Donald J. Trump ...
Sitting Bull: the Life and Death of a Native American Chief
05 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sitting Bull, best known for his initiative and victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn, is a greatly revered Native American Chief. But he was more t...
Treasures of Ancient Egypt
04 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ramesses the Great, ego in the ancient world and Tutankhamun's sacred underwear. These are all covered in today's episode with Dr Campbell Price about...
Tutankhamun: Life, Legacy and Discovery
03 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered by Howard Carter almost 100 years ago, and two years later they opened up the stone sarcophagus that held the golden...
Climate Catastrophe in the 17th century
02 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Revolutions, droughts, famines, invasions, wars, regicides - the calamities of the mid-seventeenth century were both unprecedented and widespread. A g...
Sex in the Middle Ages
31 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Please note that this episode contains conversation about sex that you might not want to listen to in the presence of children.What did medieval peopl...
Inside The Great Cathedrals of Europe
30 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A trip to Paris wouldn't be the same without taking a moment to gaze up at the great looming towers of the Gothic Notre Dame Cathedral with its watchf...
The Origins Of Scotland
29 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Medieval period saw the advancement of many countries, evolving to the provinces in Europe that we know today; Scotland is no different. In this e...
The 1914 Christmas Truce (Part 2)
28 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Part Two of our episodes on the famous Christmas Truce. On Christmas Eve 1914 many sectors of the Western Front in France and Belgium fell silent. Tro...
The 1914 Christmas Truce (Part 1)
27 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On Christmas Eve 1914 many sectors of the Western Front in France and Belgium fell silent. Troops from all sides put down their weapons and sang carol...
Storytime with the Snows: Boudica
25 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In a special episode of the podcast, Dan's children join him for a lively retelling of Boudica and the violent uprising that tore Roman Britain apart-...
Christmas Carols: A Musical History
24 Dec 2021
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...
King Herod
22 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Thanks largely to his feature in the Gospel of Matthew, King Herod ‘the Great’ of Judaea is one of the infamous figures from the whole of history....
The Parthenon Marbles
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The permanent home of the Parthenon Marbles, also known as the Elgin Marbles, has been the subject of a heated, decades-long debate. Currently housed ...
God's Changing Body Through History
20 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
While many traditions regard God to be incorporeal, some three thousand years ago in the Southwest Asian lands, a group of people worshipped a complex...
The Battle of Agincourt Explained
19 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Battle of Agincourt looms large in the English historical and cultural imagination, this explainer wades through the mythology to help listeners r...
The Unlikely Fate of the Wright Brothers
17 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two unknown brothers from Ohio changed history. The Wright Brothers took the world...
Black Tudors: England's Other Countrymen
16 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Our image of the Tudor era remains overwhelmingly white. But the black presence in England was much greater than has previously been recognised, and T...
Uncovered: South America's Biggest Slave Uprising
15 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On February 27 1763, thousands of enslaved people in the Dutch colony of Berbice—in present-day Guyana—launched a huge uprising against their oppr...
Inside Downing Street with Gavin Barwell
14 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
British politician Gavin Barwell served as Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Theresa May from June 2017 to July 2019, one of the most turbulent periods...
Hitler's American Gamble
13 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 1941 remains etched in public memory as the turning point of WW2. But in fact, it was Hitler’s dec...
The Secrets of WW2's Women Soldiers
12 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) was the women's branch of the British Army during the Second World War. Formed in 1938 it saw many thousands o...
Battle of Austerlitz: Napoleon's Greatest Victory
10 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
2 December is a special date for those fascinated by Napoleon Bonaparte. Not only is this the date he crowned himself Emperor of France in 1804, but a...
Moscow 1941: Hitler's Nemesis with Jonathan Dimbleby
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
While the allies reeled from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and Hitler's declaration of war on the United States, a ferocious battle was also ra...
Inside North Korea
08 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
With closed borders, a totalitarian regime, electricity blackouts and widespread poverty, North Korea is a brutal place to survive; even looking ...
Pearl Harbor: 80th Anniversary
07 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service launched a surprise military strike upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl...
Barbados: The World's Newest Republic
06 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
November 30 2021, Bridgetown, fifty-five years since Barbados’ 1966 Independence, the Royal Standard flag representing the Queen was lowered and Dam...
Band of Brothers
05 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
HBO's Band of Brothers remains one of the greatest mini-series ever made. 20 years after the award-winning series debuted, Dan speaks to Rob...
The Hundred Years' War
03 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Over 100 years of conflict, two warring nations, five monarchs on either side and countless casualties in a dispute over claims to the throne: in this...
Discovered! Rare Celtic Coins in the New Forest
02 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In a special episode of the podcast, Dan and his team hit the road after receiving a call about the discovery of a hoard of rare Iron Age coins, at a ...
Ridley Scott on Gucci, Gladiator and the Blitz
01 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Please note that this episode contains the use of explicit language right from the very beginning. Ridley Scott, a prolific director and pr...
Arnold Schwarzenegger on Churchill's Birthday
30 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Actor and former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger joins Dan in conversation on today's podcast about Winston Churchill, who was born on th...
Winston Churchill
29 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Winston Churchill was many things a writer, politician, journalist, painter but the defining aspect of his career was as a war leader. Warfare infused...
The Complicated Legacy of F W de Klerk
28 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The result of his complicated legacy, the death of South Africa's last apartheid president, F W de Klerk, on November 11 2021 generated a flood of dif...
The Rise of the Praetorian Guard
26 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From Gladiator to Rome Total War to Star Wars, today the Praetorians are one of the most distinctive military units of Imperial Rome. It was their job...
The British Spy who Saved Jews from Hitler
25 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Thomas Kendrick was at the very centre of British Intelligence operations throughout the first half of the twentieth century. He combined a public fac...
From the Punjab to the Western Front
24 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Over a million Indian soldiers served during the First World War, but many of the records of the soldiers who fought valiantly for the Allied cause ha...
The British Monarchy
23 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The British Monarchy is a thread that has run throughout the history of Britain but over the centuries it has been a constantly evolving institution. ...
The Assassination of JFK: Explained
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Everyone who was alive at the time remembers the day President John F. Kennedy was shot dead in Dallas, Texas on the 22 November 1963. On this anniver...
Greg Jenner: Ask a Historian
21 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When and why did we start keeping hamsters as pets? When was sign language first used in the UK? If you were planning a bank heist, which historical f...
Searching for the Lost of World War One
19 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
At the end of the World War One, around one million citizens of the British Empire had been lost, and the whereabouts of about half of these was unkno...
The Magic Circle & Hoaxes in History
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Hoaxes and magic were widespread in 18th century Britain. From a woman who claimed to birth rabbits, to a man who said he’d climb into a bottle in f...
When the World's Armies Came to Salisbury Plain
17 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
During World War One, Britain and its empire mobilised soldiers on a hitherto unprecedented scale. That required a huge logistical effort to feed, equ...
We Didn't Start the Fire: Dien Bien Phu
16 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This episode of the podcast comes from a show called ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ which is a modern history podcast inspired by the lyrics of the ...
Our Love Affair with History
15 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From the great battles such as Dunkirk, historical titans such Alexander the Great and historical oddities such as Henry VIII's enemas Dan speaks to a...
Stories of War with Max Hastings
14 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As the country remembers the sacrifice made by those men and women who have given their lives and health in serving the nation Dan is joined by Sir Ma...
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...