The History of the World podcast is five years old, so we go back and listen to an excerpt from the first ever episode, as well as looking at the modern evolution of writing, the enigmatic King Pyrrhus of Epirus and the reason why the Mayans caused some to believe that the world would end in the year 2012.

1942 - 1945 - Easy Company were such a closely knit unit of men, that they have been referred to as a "band of brothers", a phrase inspired by the writing of William Shakespeare. Follow the Second World War story of these United States army paratroopers.

1532 - 1624 - With the advent of transatlantic seafaring came the opportunity for Spain to become great. Queen Elizabeth I of England wanted to limit Spanish power and so she would grant her greatest naval commanders a free reign, bringing some great characters to the fore.

Unscripted (52) - In this episode of the podcast, we look back at the day of the Battle of Hastings in England in 1066, the incredible geoglyphic creations of the Nazca cultures of Ancient Peru, the amazing life of the early modern King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolfus, and what happened to Egypt after the fall of the New Kingdom.

800 BCE - 1750 CE - This episode serves as a general overview of the archaeological cultures of North America and their connections to each other, as we learn more about the type of people who were living in the eastern United States before the arrival of Europeans.

Join us on this journey back in time to New Kingdom Egypt, Ptolemaic Egypt, Classical World China, and medieval Iceland.

1000 - 1453 - The modern countries of Europe were beginning to evolve and mature as they jostled for lands and superiority over one another. Underpinning the status of the new nations was the influence of religion with the Papacy attempting to rule supreme over the kingdoms of Europe and attempting to create a Roman Catholic bubble that may persecute other religious movements at will.

600 - 1085 - The modern nations of Europe begin to emerge as populations civilise, populate and Christianise. The Papacy becomes central to European politics.

1421 - The execution of Jan Hus caused rebellion in the Kingdom of Bohemia, when early Protestants against the Catholic Church rallied to send a message to the Holy Roman Empire and the Pope. This battle is a part of the wider Hussite Wars.

1410 - The Christianisation of the states of north-east Europe left the Teutonic Order with no neighbouring nations to conduct military missions against. As the relatively new nations of Poland and Lithuania tried to establish their status, the Teutonic Order would inevitably become involved.