Dan Snow's History Hit

John Donne (1572-1631) lived myriad lives. Sometime religious outsider and social disaster, sometime celebrity preacher and establishment darling, John Donne was incapable of being just one thing. He was a scholar of law, a sea adventurer, an MP, a priest, the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral – and perhaps the greatest love poet in the history of the English language.

Katherine Rundell, author and academic, joins Dan on the podcast. They discuss Donne’s conversion from Catholicism to Protestantism, his imprisonment for marrying a high-born girl without her father’s consent, and his often ill health and familial struggles.

Produced by Hannah Ward

Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

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On this day 40 years ago the HMS Conqueror, a British nuclear submarine, propelled silently through the South Atlantic stalking the Argentinian light cruiser the ARA General Belgrano in the vicinity of the Falkland Islands. At 2.57 pm Conqueror was given the order to torpedo the enemy warship. With two direct hits to the ship, more than 300 Argentine sailors were killed in what remains one of the most controversial actions of the Falklands War.

To mark the 40th anniversary Dan speaks to Vice Admiral Sir Tim McClement who was second in command on the HMS Conquerer about those tense moments as the torpedoes were launched, as well as Will Butler from the National Archives and Naval Historian Iain Ballantyne about the controversy and the information leak that rocked the heart of government.

Iain Ballantyne is Editor of the monthly naval news magazine WARSHIPS International Fleet Review and author of the books 'Hunter Killers' and 'The Deadly Trade' which both feature accounts of how the British submarine HMS Conqueror sank the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano.

Need to catch up on our Falklands War Anniversary coverage? Try Falklands40: What Started the Falklands War?

Produced by Mariana Des Forges

Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Falkland Islands lie 8000 miles from Britain making the Falklands War a particularly tricky one to fight; it required some seriously innovative thinking. No story from the Falklands better tells the story of that innovation than Operation Blackbuck which ran from the 30th of April 1982 to the end of the war. British bombers flew 4000 miles from the Southern Atlantic base at Ascension Island to the Falklands to destroy the Argentine runaway at Port Stanley. But there was a huge hurdle; Vulcan bombers couldn't manage that distance on one tank of fuel. Thousands of feet above the Atlantic in complete radio silence, the RAF crews had to engage in mid-flight refuelling, a particularly delicate dangerous process in which one aircraft feeds fuel to another while maintaining the exact same high speed, altitude and bearings without crashing into one another.

Join Dan on a trip to the Midlands Royal Airforce Museum at Cosford where he meets Dr Peter Johnston to tell the story of the Black Buck Raids- the longest bombing mission in history as well as stories of the RAF in the Falklands War from inside the famous Bravo November Chinook helicopter.

You can visit RAF Cosford. Find more information here.

Produced by Mariana Des Forges

Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

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Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 - January 6, 1919), was an American politician, conservationist and writer. After the assassination of William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt unexpectedly became the 26th president of the United States in September 1901 - he won a second term in 1904 and served until 1909.

Michael Patrick Cullinane, Professor of U.S. History and winner of the 2018 Theodore Roosevelt Book prize, joins Dan on the podcast. They discuss Theodore Roosevelt’s unexpected path to the White House, his time in office, and the complexity of his legacy.

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

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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 orbit the Earth for a very long time, posing a threat to space travel and other satellites.

With space increasingly becoming a site of military activity, is war in space a real possibility? In this episode James is joined by Major General Robert H. Latiff, who retired from the US Air Force in 2006, to find out whether human conflict could really cross into the final frontier.

Robert's new book Future Peace: Technology, Aggression, and the Rush to War is available here.

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

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Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, Henry ‘Chips’ Channon documented British high society in eye-watering detail. His diaries are gossipy, sometimes vile and rude but always honest. Even after his death, his diaries struck fear into the British upper classes and it is only recently that they have been able to be published in all their glory. Chips' friendships with figures such as Neville Chamberlain and Edward VIII mean that his diaries provide an unparalleled window into the lives of the powerful. Journalist and author Simon Heffer took on the mammoth task of bringing the diaries to life and sorting through the 1.8 million words that make up the diaries. Simon joins Dan to discuss the life of Chips Channon, how his diaries puncture some of our national myths and why it was 60 years before the diaries could be published. 

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

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We are told that modern science was invented in Europe, the product of great minds like Nicolaus Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein. But science has never been a uniquely European endeavour. Copernicus relied on mathematical techniques borrowed from Arabic and Persian texts. When Newton set out the laws of motion, he relied on astronomical observations made in Asia and Africa. When Darwin was writing On the Origin of Species, he consulted a sixteenth-century Chinese encyclopaedia. And when Einstein was studying quantum mechanics, he was inspired by the Bengali physicist, Satyendra Nath Bose.

James Poskett is an Associate Professor in the History of Science and Technology at the University of Warwick. James joins Dan on the podcast to uncover the ways in which scientists from Africa, America, Asia and the Pacific fit into the history of science.

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

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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 revealed publicly until 1986, in the diary of his physician, Lord Bertrand Dawson. Dawson had written about the night of January 20, detailing that he had injected the king with a lethal concoction of morphine and cocaine, intending to both grant the king a painless death and to guarantee that his passing would be announced in the morning papers rather than the evening journals.

Jane Ridley is a historian, author and broadcaster who teaches Modern History at the University of Buckingham. Jane joins Dan on this episode of the podcast to discuss who King George V was, the major events of his reign, and the injection that resulted in the king’s death - an act alternately referred to as “euthanasia,” medically assisted suicide or murder.

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

We need your help! If you would like to tell us what you want to hear as part of Dan Snow's History Hit then complete our podcast survey by clicking here. Once completed you will be entered into a prize draw to win a £100 voucher to spend in the History Hit shop.

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Warning: There are adult themes, explicit language and references of disordered eating and diets in this episode.

Did you know that before Queen Victoria married Albert she was a well-known party animal, who could easily stay up until 5am, drunk on a concoction of red wine and whiskey?

Or that she was notorious for being able to eat seven or eight courses in half an hour, and had a penchant for mutton curries and the freshest fruit?

Kate is joined Betwixt the Sheets by food historian Dr Annie Gray to discuss Victoria’s very indulgent habits which spilled out into all areas of her life…including the bedroom.

You can find Annie’s incredible book, The Greedy Queen: Eating with Victoria, here.

Produced by Charlotte Long and Sophie Gee. Mixed by Annie Coloe.

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

We need your help! If you would like to tell us what you want to hear as part of Dan Snow's History Hit then complete our podcast survey by clicking here. Once completed you will be entered into a prize draw to win a £100 voucher to spend in the History Hit shop.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 sailors in distress. Their work has saved the lives of an estimated 143,000 people and helped many, many thousands more. Funded entirely by charitable donations and staffed primarily by volunteers it is a much loved national institution in the UK and Ireland.

Today, Dan is joined by Mark Wordsworth who spent over a decade as a volunteer crewmember and now serves on the board of the RNLI council. Mark and Dan explore how the RNLI came to be founded, its history and some of its most notable rescues. They also discuss the organisations' ethos, which was set out by its founder Sir William Hillary, and how that continues to shape its work today.

If you would like to make a donation to the RNLI you can do so here.

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

We need your help! If you would like to tell us what you want to hear as part of Dan Snow's History Hit then complete our podcast survey by clicking here. Once completed you will be entered into a prize draw to win a £100 voucher to spend in the History Hit shop.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.