Dan Snow's History Hit

By History Hit Network

History

What's Dan Snow's History Hit about?

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. Join the conversation on twitter: @HistoryHit Producer: Natt Tapley "717090"

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Greatest Heist in History: ...

05.09.2021

On the 9th May 1671, Thomas Blood led his co-conspirators in a daring bid to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. Through a combination of trickery, guile and violence he was able to make off with Charles ...

Dan Snow's History Hit episodes:

05.09.2021 Greatest Heist in History: The Crown Jewels and Thomas Blood On the 9th May 1671, Thomas Blood led his co-conspirators in a daring bid to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. Through a combination of trickery, guile and violence he was able to make off with Charles ...
05.08.2021 Life at Bletchley Park with Betty Webb Betty Webb was heavily involved with the work going on at Bletchley Park. While she was not part of the code-breaking team, her work was invaluable to the success of Bletchley, and Dan talks to her about her life and ...
05.07.2021 The Sinking of the Lusitania On 7th May 1915, the ocean liner RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland with more than half the passengers and crew being killed. Some of those lost were Americans and the sinking hardened ...
05.06.2021 Roman Prisoners of War We know all about the battles of the Roman Empire: the opposing sides, their weapons and incentives. But if history is written by the winners, what happened if you lost? In this episode, Dr Jo Ball, battlefield archaeologist at the ...
05.05.2021 A Scandalous Duchess Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston was a duchess who attracted scandal, a duchess who divided opinion, a duchess who refused to give up agency or accept her place in 18th-century society and she was loathed and loved in equal measure. ...
05.04.2021 Pre-historic Britain in Seven Burials with Alice Roberts How much can a burial really tell us about our ancient past? Professor Alice Roberts is today's guest and, as her new book Ancestors demonstrates, old bones can speak to us across the centuries. Using new ancient DNA analysis techniques ...
05.03.2021 The Apollo Program with Kevin Fong Getting to the moon was no easy feat, no matter how confident Kennedy may have sounded in his famous 1961 speech. NASA built a team from the ground up, and there were plenty of moments where it seemed as if ...
05.02.2021 Amend: The Fight for America Take a deep dive into the remaking of the American Constitution and the 14th amendment created in the wake of the American Civil War. The 14th amendment formed a key part of addressing citizenship rights and equal protection under the ...
05.01.2021 The Death of Hitler Did Hitler shoot himself in the Führerbunker, or did he slip past the Soviets and escape to South America? There have been innumerable documentaries, newspaper articles and Twitter threads written by conspiracy theorists to back up the case for escape. ...
04.30.2021 Captain Cook: The Aboriginal Perspective Captain Cook has been celebrated, wrongly, as the first European to discover Australia but many now believe it is time to reappraise his legacy particularly in light of the devastating effect it had on the native Aboriginal people of Australia. ...
04.29.2021 Not Just the Tudors When thinking about the 16th century the Tudor dynasty often comes to the fore, but the was so much more to this extraordinary period to be explored. In celebration of the launch of her new History Hit podcast, Professor Suzannah ...
04.28.2021 The Battle of Okinawa The last major confrontation of the Second World War and the largest amphibious assault of the Pacific theatre, the Battle of Okinawa ended in Allied victory but with massive casualties on both sides. To take us through the battle James ...
04.27.2021 Blood and Iron: The German Empire German unification in 1871 immediately altered the balance of power in Europe and across the world, but what did its existence and expansion in the 19th and early 20th-century really mean? Katja Hoyer joins Dan in this follow-up episode to ...
04.26.2021 Chernobyl: Memories of a Survivor On April 26th 1986 reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded sending a vast plume of radioactive material into the atmosphere, but what was it like for ordinary people nearby? It was the worst nuclear accident to that ...
04.25.2021 The Last Nuremberg Prosecutor Ben Ferencz at 102 years old is the last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials and a direct witness to the horrors of the Nazi death camps. Ben was born in Transylvania before emigrating to the United States with his ...
04.24.2021 Cellini: Bad Boy of the Renaissance Benvenuto Cellini was the bad boy of the Renaissance! His life was a story of murders, violence, war, the sack of cities, sodomy, imprisonment, religious conversion, prodigious artistic talent and writing one of the greatest artistic autobiographies of all time. ...
04.23.2021 Football, Money and the European Super League The attempt to create a new European Super League might have been short-lived with the attempt to form a breakaway competition collapsing in the face of widespread protests and denunciations from fans, but what led to this point? In this ...
04.22.2021 Shakespeare's Shoreditch Theatre with Heather Knight In this archive episode, Dan visits the site of The Theatre, the 16th-century playhouse where some of Shakespeare's works were first performed, to investigate the archaeology with Heather Knight, Senior Archaeologist from the Museum of London Archaeology. See acast.com/privacy for ...
04.21.2021 Lessons from the Antonine Plague A plague which affects people from across society, the mass exodus from city centres and numerous opinions on how best to stay well ... all familiar to people today, but also to the people of the 2nd century AD. In ...
04.20.2021 Lady Mary and the First Inoculation In the 18th century, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was an aristocrat, courtier, brilliant beauty, intellectual, wife to the ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and a sufferer from smallpox. It was during her time in Constantinople that she witnessed a procedure ...
04.19.2021 Prisoners of Geography Five years ago Tim Marshall wrote the international best selling book Prisoners of Geography which examined how our politics, demographics, our economies and societies are determined by geography. Tim was diplomatic editor at Sky News and has also worked for ...
04.18.2021 300 years of British Prime Ministers: Part 3 In the third episode of our series chronicling the history of British Prime Ministers we travel from one of the Most famous occupants of the office, Winston Churchill, right through to the current incumbent Boris Johnson and everyone in-between. For ...
04.16.2021 Irish Independence On 18th April 1949, the Republic of Ireland Act came into effect which saw Ireland become a republic and leave the Commonwealth. 2021 also marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the Irish War of independence. To help mark ...
04.16.2021 JFK's Darkest Hour: The Cuban Missile Crisis In October 1962 the world came very close to annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis. During the autumn of 1962, a U2 reconnaissance aircraft produced clear evidence that the Soviet Union and the Cuban authorities were building medium-range ballistic missile ...
04.15.2021 Life and Death in Medieval England We often hear about the kings and queens of medieval England, but what was life like for the ordinary person? From knights to peasants to barbers, Dan Snow joins Dr Eleanor Janega to explore the many lives - and deaths ...
04.14.2021 British Seapower in the 1900s During the changes and troubles of the 20th century, officials in Britain faced a huge question: how could they maintain imperial power? Dr Louis Halewood has been researching the troubles faced by British policymakers, and the efforts to maintain dominance ...
04.13.2021 The End of Sex Disqualification? The First World War saw unprecedented numbers of women enter the workplace and help pave the way for women to be given greater rights and responsibilities in their careers, or did it? The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act of 1919 was, ...
04.12.2021 Yuri Gagarin: The First Human to Leave Our Planet On April 12th 1961 the Soviet Union shocked the world by launching the first man into space; Yuri Gagarin. Strapped to the top of a gigantic ICBM Gagarin was blasted into space as the result of a highly secretive programme. ...
04.11.2021 300 years of British Prime Ministers: Part 2 Continuing our series looking at British Prime Ministers this episode tackles the period following the Battle of Waterloo all the way up to Winston Churchill. The brilliant Robert Saunders joins us to guide us through the nineteenth century and to ...
04.09.2021 Prince Philip Abandoned by his parents, exiled from his home, a veteran of Second World War battles, an author, the founder of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), this is the story of Prince Philip as you have never heard it ...
04.09.2021 The Xiongnu: History's First Nomadic Empire? Between the 3rd century BC and the 1st century AD, the Xiongnu inhabited the area surrounding Mongolia. They influenced the later Hun Empire, and had connections with Ancient China and Persia, but what do we know about them? Bryan Miller ...
04.08.2021 What Britain Did to Nigeria When we think of the British Empire we often think of India, Pakistan, Singapore, Burma or perhaps South Africa but an often underrepresented part of the colonial picture is that of west Africa and specifically Nigeria. Now the most populous ...
04.07.2021 Catherine the Great Catherine the Great came from minor German nobility to become Empress of Russia and one of the most extraordinary women of the eighteenth century. Dan is joined today on the podcast by Hilde Hoogenboom, translator of Catherine the Great’s Memoirs ...
04.06.2021 30 Years since the Kurdish Uprising In the aftermath of the First Gulf War, groups rose up against Saddam Hussein's regime in a bid to win independence from Baghdad with devastating results for those involved and in particular for the Kurds of Northern Iraq. The Iraqi ...
04.05.2021 Will This Be the New Roaring 20s? Our impressions of the Roaring 20s are a time of economic growth, social change and in some cases wild debauchery, but were the Roaring 20s really a thing and what were they really like? As lockdown restriction ease are we ...
04.04.2021 300 years of British Prime Ministers: Part 1 We're heading back to the Eighteenth century as 300 years ago Sir Robert Walpole became the first prime minister. In this first episode of our Prime Minister's season, Dan is Joined by Dr Hannah Grieg for a whirlwind tour of ...
04.03.2021 Violence Against Women in Victorian London In the 1880s and 1890s Whitechapel, in London, become notorious for its violence especially towards women but what lessons can be drawn from this period for today? In this thought-provoking episode, Dan is joined by Dr Julia Laite for a ...
04.02.2021 The Truth About Easter In one of the most popular episodes from our archive, Dan is joined by Francesca Stavrakopoulou to discuss the history and myths that surround Easter. Francesca Stavrakopoulou is Professor of Hebrew Bible & Ancient Religion at Exeter University. Her research ...
04.01.2021 Hitler's Atlantic Wall The Atlantic Wall is one of the biggest construction projects in history a line of formidable defences stretching from the Pyrenees to the Norwegian Arctic but how effective was it? Dan speaks to James Rogers, host of our sibling podcast ...
03.31.2021 Music and Humans Today we take music for granted but humans have a unique relationship with the musical form which reaches back far into our ancient past. In this episode Dan is joined by Michael Spitzer, Professor of Music at the University of ...
03.30.2021 Operation Jubilee: A Pinch Raid at Dieppe? On 19 August 1942, a six thousand strong combined Allied landing force took part in a raid on Dieppe, Northern France. Sixty-seven percent of these became casualties. The raid has gone down in history as a catastrophe conceived by Lord ...
03.29.2021 The Man Who Dropped the First Bomb on Iraq 30 years ago Maj. Gen. Greg "the beast" Feest dropped a bomb from his F-117 stealth bomber destroying an Iraqi command bunker which began the air war that would lead to the allied victory in the First Gulf War. He ...
03.28.2021 Boudica: Britain's Warrior Queen This episode from our sibling podcast The Ancients is all about that hero of British folklore; Boudica. Her leadership of the Iceni in an uprising against the forces of the Roman Empire in around 60 AD is echoed around school ...
03.27.2021 Icelandic Volcanoes and Us This explosive episode is all about the effects of Icelandic volcanoes on us all. In 1783 a massive eruption of Lakagígar volcano nearly forced the abandonment of Iceland as 15 cubic kilometres of lava was blown into the air. The ...
03.26.2021 The Suez Canal The creation of the Suez Canal was the culmination of a dream stretching back to the pharaohs of connecting the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, but why is it so important? Right now with the canal is blocked and more ...
03.25.2021 Greek War of Independence 200 years ago the banner was raised which marked the beginning of the Greek War of Independence that would lead to their freedom from the Ottoman Empire. It was also a globally significant war as it is one of the ...
03.24.2021 Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities with Bettany Hughes In this episode from the back catalogue, Dr Bettany Hughes joins Dan to talk about her history of Istanbul which sits at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. Dr. Bettany Hughes is an award-winning historian, author, and broadcaster, who has ...
03.23.2021 One Normal Family, 300 Years of History Every family has a history and delving into the history of one ordinary French family over three centuries provides a remarkable picture of deep social and economic changes. Accounts of the lives of the rich and powerful families of history ...
03.22.2021 French Resistance Super Spy Today's podcast is about French Resistance spies! Dan is joined by the author Roland Phillips who has uncovered the story of Mathilde Carré who was codenamed agent Victoire and nicknamed La Chatte & who spied for both the French Resistance ...
03.21.2021 Napoleon: Captive on Saint Helena Saint Helena is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. Nearly a thousand mile from the nearest piece of land, this recently created volcanic effusion is a wonder of geography and biodiversity. But it's also got a ...

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