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Dan Snow's History Hit

History Podcasts

History! The most exciting and important things that have ever happened on the planet! Featuring reports from the weird and wonderful places around the world where history has been made and interviews with some of the best historians writing today. Dan also covers some of the major anniversaries as they pass by and explores the deep history behind today's headlines - giving you the context to understand what is going on today. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

History! The most exciting and important things that have ever happened on the planet! Featuring reports from the weird and wonderful places around the world where history has been made and interviews with some of the best historians writing today. Dan also covers some of the major anniversaries as they pass by and explores the deep history behind today's headlines - giving you the context to understand what is going on today. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Location:

London, United Kingdom

Description:

History! The most exciting and important things that have ever happened on the planet! Featuring reports from the weird and wonderful places around the world where history has been made and interviews with some of the best historians writing today. Dan also covers some of the major anniversaries as they pass by and explores the deep history behind today's headlines - giving you the context to understand what is going on today. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Language:

English

Episodes

The Man Who Escaped Auschwitz

6/29/2022
In April 1944 nineteen-year-old Rudolf Vrba and fellow inmate, Fred Wetzler became the first Jews ever to break out of Auschwitz. Under electrified fences and past armed watchtowers, evading thousands of SS men and slavering dogs, they trekked across marshlands, mountains and rivers to freedom. Vrba's mission: to reveal to the world the truth of the Holocaust. Celebrated journalist and broadcaster Jonathan Freedland joins Dan on the podcast to tell this astonishing story which can be found...

Duration:00:33:45

The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand

6/28/2022
Europe in 1914 was a tinderbox of imperial tensions and the spark that would light the conflagration would be the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. But there is much more to this story than simply the murder of two royals on the street of Sarajevo. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was an often misunderstood figure seemingly hard and old-fashioned. But in private he was a dedicated family man and husband who had married for love against the wishes of the Emporer and he and Sophie had endured...

Duration:00:33:48

Cleopatra

6/27/2022
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 Egypt in 332 B.C. Cleopatra served as the dominant ruler in all three of her co-regencies and was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator. Though her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world. Stacy Schiff is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra: A Life. Stacy joins Dan on the podcast to...

Duration:00:26:53

A Short History of Nomads

6/24/2022
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 settle, ‘Nomad’ comes to describe people who live without walls and beyond boundaries. Now, the word is used by settled people - for some with a sense of romantic nostalgia, and for others, it carries an implicit judgement that such people are wanderers of no fixed abode. Yet, often overlooked, Nomads have fostered and refreshed civilisation throughout...

Duration:00:20:19

Al Capone

6/23/2022
Born in Brooklyn, New York in January 1899, Alphonse Gabriel Capone would go on to become perhaps the most infamous gangster in American history. During the Roaring Twenties, Al Capone ruled an empire of crime in the Windy City of Chicago: gambling, prostitution, bootlegging, bribery, narcotics, robbery, and many brutal acts of violence. Jonathan Eig is a journalist, author and biographer dubbed by Ken Burns as a “master storyteller.” Jonathan joins Dan on the podcast to discuss Capone’s...

Duration:00:22:05

Inside the Royal Marines

6/22/2022
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 and cutting-edge military operations. They are globally renowned, yet shrouded in mystery. Former Royal Marine Monty Halls joins Dan to shed light on the modern vanguard of a legendary unit, the descendants of the misfits and eccentrics who were so effective and feared in WW2 that Hitler famously ordered them to be shot on sight. They reveal...

Duration:00:22:26

Nuclear Disasters

6/21/2022
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, three reactors would go into nuclear meltdown, and the surrounding area would be swamped in radioactive water. It is now considered one of the costliest nuclear disasters ever. But Fukushima was not the first, and it was not the worst. Acclaimed historian Serhii Plokhy returns to the podcast. Serhii joins Dan to tell the tale of some of the...

Duration:00:25:54

HS2: Digging up the 'Dark Ages'

6/20/2022
An extraordinary discovery has been unearthed by archaeologists working alongside the HS2 rail project. The find, made at an undisclosed location near Wendover in the Chilterns, consists of a 5th-6th century burial site that has been described as one of the most important post-Roman, early medieval discoveries of our lifetime. It offers the chance to see more clearly a part of British history that has been hidden from us until now. If there was a real, historical King Arthur, this is the...

Duration:01:09:10

The Sinking of the Lancastria

6/17/2022
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. Nazaire to aid in the evacuation of British and French soldiers, civil servants and British civilians after the fall of Dunkirk. The ship was loaded well in excess of its capacity— the consequences of which were felt when a German fighter plane flew overhead and catastrophically attacked the Lancastria. Janet Dempsey is a former maritime record...

Duration:00:31:16

The Siege of Loyalty House

6/16/2022
The Civil War was the most traumatic conflict in British history, pitting friends and family members against each other, tearing down the old order. Award-winning historian Jessie Childs plunges the reader into the shock of the struggle through one of its most dramatic episodes: the siege of Basing House. To the parliamentarian Roundheads, the Hampshire mansion was a bastion of royalism, popery and excess. Its owner was both a Catholic and a staunch supporter of Charles I. His motto Love...

Duration:01:05:34

Treasures of The Royal Mint

6/15/2022
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 historic coins. As the second oldest mint in the world, and the oldest company in the UK, its history is entwined with the 61 monarchs who have ruled England and Britain over the last 1,200 years. Chris Barker, historian at the Royal Mint Museum takes Dan through some of the rarest coins in the collection from within the vaults, unravelling...

Duration:00:35:28

Falklands40: Identifying the Unmarked Graves

6/14/2022
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 ended troops and their equipment shipped out, graves were dug and memorials were put up across the islands for those killed in battle. British military personnel were identified, most buried at sea or repatriated to the UK. But for 237 deceased Argentine soldiers, their hastily buried bodies remained unidentified for decades and their families...

Duration:00:32:27

Falklands40: Return to Mount Tumbledown

6/13/2022
The Battle of Mount Tumbledown was an attack by the British Army and the Royal Marines on the heights overlooking Stanley, the Falkland Islands' capital. One of a number of night battles that took place during the British advance towards Stanley, the battle led to British troops capturing all the heights above the town. Professor Tony Pollard is a Professor of Conflict History and Archaeology. Tony joins Dan to detail the battlefield of Mount Tumbledown, the events that led to the capture...

Duration:00:27:25

Discovered! A Royal Navy Shipwreck

6/10/2022
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 been discovered off the coast of Norfolk in the UK, it can be revealed today. Since running aground on a sandbank on May 6, 1682, the wreck of the warship The Gloucester has lain half-buried on the seabed, its exact whereabouts unknown until brothers Julian and Lincoln Barnwell, with their friend James Little, found it after a four-year...

Duration:00:24:01

Falklands40: Memories of an Argentine Veteran

6/9/2022
Please note that this episode contains descriptions of conflict and torture that some may find distressing. When the British arrived on the Falklands Islands in 1982, they battled the Argentines. But on the other side, it was a very different story. For the young Argentine combatants, their greatest enemy was not the British, nor the unrelenting terrain—for many soldiers, it was their own commanders... At the beginning of The Falklands War -La Guerra de las Malvinas- as it is known in...

Duration:00:18:54

The Battle of Midway

6/8/2022
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 fighting devastating losses had been inflicted on the Japanese and the entire strategic position in the Pacific was upended in favour of the Allies. Never again would Japan be able to project power across the ocean as it had done at Pearl Harbour. In this explainer episode, Dan takes you through this key turning point in the Pacific War. He...

Duration:00:47:37

D-Day Heroes: The Green Howards

6/7/2022
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 Green Howards. Alongside the 7th Battalion of the same regiment, the 6th were to advance 7 miles inland on the first day of Operation Overlord, the furthest of any other forces from Britain and the United States. To explore the actions of the individuals from the Green Howards who made this advance, including the 180 who lost their lives in...

Duration:00:24:17

The Veteran Searching for his D-Day Shipwreck

6/6/2022
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 Beach, covering communications for land battles while providing defence from enemy ships and torpedoes. On June 25, it was hit by an acoustic mine and almost all of the men on board were trapped inside. Knocked unconscious, Patrick awoke in the water in time to see his friends and the craft sink. Unsure exactly where the vessel went down, the...

Duration:00:27:38

Elvis Presley: A Turbulent Life

6/3/2022
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 bring you this episode with author Sally Hoedel who interviewed people who personally knew Elvis—to support her claim that Elvis Presley was never going to live a long life. She tells Dan that prescription medication was only one aspect of his compromised health, not the ultimate cause of his death. She examines Elvis Presley—a son, husband,...

Duration:00:25:30

Vasectomy

6/2/2022
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 treatments to ties of honour, over the past 150 years ‘the snip’ has had a few variations and uses … not all of them are scientifically sound. But what is it? And how did it come about? Kate Lister is joined on Betwixt the Sheets by Georgia Grainger to discuss the vasectomy’s place as a contraceptive, as well as its relationship with eugenics...

Duration:00:51:23

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