HistoryPod
A daily podcast that explores historical events that happened on each day of the year, covering topics from the Roman Empire to the World Wide Web. Written and presented by Scott Allsop, creator of the award-winning educational website mrallsophistory.com.
Episodes
20th July 1969: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin successfully land on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission
The words ‘Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed’ confirmed the safe touchdown at around 8:17pm ...
19th July 1843: The ship SS Great Britain designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel launched in Bristol
Combining an iron hull with screw-propeller propulsion, SS Great Britain was the largest ship afloat at the time of its launch and introduced technologies that would influence ocean-going ships for the remainder of the nineteenth ...
18th July 1976: Nadia Comăneci scores the first ever Olympic gymnastic ‘perfect 10’
Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci scored the first ever perfect 10 in Olympic history on the uneven bars at the Summer Games in ...
17th July 1453: The Battle of Castillon, widely accepted as last conflict of the Hundred Years’ War
The Battle of Castillon, considered to be the last battle of the Hundred Years’ War, was fought between France and ...
16th July 1661: Europe’s first banknotes issued by the Swedish bank Stockholms Banco
The new banknotes were welcomed because they were lighter, easier to carry, and more convenient for trade. The bank also found that paper currency encouraged greater commercial ...
15th July 1834: Abolition of the Spanish Inquisition, formally known as the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition
By the time it was abolished, up to 150,000 people had been tried by the Spanish Inquisition, of whom somewhere between two and five thousand were ...
14th July 1789: Storming of the Bastille marks the start of the French Revolution
The Bastille had long been a symbol of tyranny as a place for the imprisonment of people without trial, but when it was stormed it only contained seven ...
13th July 1930: Inaugural FIFA World Cup begins in Uruguay during the centenary of the country’s first constitution
FIFA president Jules Rimet organised football’s own independent international championship, with Uruguay as the host nation due to Uruguay’s victories in the Olympic football tournaments of 1924 and 1928, as well as the country’s willingness to finance the event during the centenary celebrations of its first ...
12th July 1561: The consecration of Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow
Moscow’s Trinity Church, later renamed Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat and better known as Saint Basil's Cathedral, was ...
11th July 1922: The Hollywood Bowl opens in Los Angeles
The Hollywood Bowl opened in Bolton Canyon near Los ...
10th July 1991: Boris Yeltsin is inaugurated as the first elected President of Russia
Yeltsin swore to uphold the constitution and protect the rights of Russian citizens, emphasising political reform and democratic ...
9th July 1971: Henry Kissinger makes a secret diplomatic trip to China
Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon’s National Security Advisor, made a secret trip to China to meet with Premier Zhou ...
8th July 1932: Dow Jones falls to its lowest point during the Great Depression
From its high of 381.17 on September 3, 1929, the Dow plummeted by almost 90 per cent to 41.22 on July 8, ...
7th July 1937: Marco Polo Bridge Incident acts as a trigger for the Second Sino-Japanese War
What began as a local military incident near the Marco Polo Bridge on the outskirts of Beijing developed into the Second Sino-Japanese War, which later became part of the wider Second World War in ...
6th July 1947: The Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle goes into production in the USSR
The Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle went into production in the Soviet ...
5th July 1948: Launch of the National Health Service in England and Wales
The Labour government of Clement Atlee won the first post-war election with a pledge to implement the recommendations of the 1942 Beveridge Report and improve the social welfare system in ...
4th July 1776: United States Declaration of Independence adopted unanimously by the Second Continental Congress
The Declaration of Independence announced that the thirteen American colonies regarded themselves as “free and independent States”, marking the birth of the United States as a political entity with a set of principles upon which the new nation claimed ...
3rd July 1938: World speed record for steam locomotives set by Number 4468 Mallard at just under 126mph
Mallard set the record of 125.88mph on a stretch of slightly downhill railway track at Stoke Band, south of the town of ...
2nd July 1964: Civil Rights Act signed into law by US President Lyndon B. Johnson
The Act outlawed discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin and is consequently viewed as a landmark piece of civil rights ...
1st July 1569: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth created with the signing of the Union of Lublin
Agreed at the city of Lublin after months of negotiation, the union joined the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into a single political entity with a single elected monarch and a joint parliament responsible for matters affecting the Commonwealth as a ...
30th June 1934: Hitler purges the Nazi party in the Night of the Long Knives
Although the popular name suggests the purge lasted for one night, the executions went on throughout the ...
29th June 2008: Apple release the iPhone
The 29th June 2008 shaped the technological landscape we live in today, when Apple released the very first ...
28th June 1838: Queen Victoria crowned at Westminster Abbey following the death of her uncle, William IV
For many observers, Victoria’s appearance and behaviour during the coronation ceremony contributed positively to perceptions of the monarchy as her youth and visibility contrasted with the image of earlier Hanoverian ...
27th June 1905: Mutiny on board the Russian battleship Potemkin
Seven of the ship’s eighteen officers, including Giliarovsky and the Captain, were killed in the mutiny before the Tsar's forces launched a crackdown at the Odessa ...
26th June 1974: World’s first barcode scanned on a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum
Sharon Buchanan, a cashier at the Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, scanned the world’s first Universal Product Code (better known as a barcode) on a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit ...
25th June 1967: Our World, live global television production, broadcast using satellite technology
Organised by the BBC in cooperation with broadcasters from around the world, the Our World programme connected participants in Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia using satellite ...
24th June 1374: Dancing Plague breaks out in the German city of Aachen and continues for many weeks
Known variously as St John's Dance, St Vitus' Dance, or the ‘dancing plague’, the occurrence in Aachen was neither the first nor the last outbreak but is one of the best ...
23rd June 1314: The Battle of Bannockburn begins, resulting in a victory for Robert the Bruce against Edward II
Bannockburn was unusual for a medieval battle in that it lasted for two days, with the first day being notable for Bruce single-handedly killing the young English knight Sir Henry de Bohun with an axe blow to the head after he tried to charge him with a ...
22nd June 1941: Operation Barbarossa begins as German forces and their allies invade the Soviet Union during the Second World War
By the end of 1940 Hitler had authorised the invasion of the USSR, with the intention of securing agricultural land and raw materials, alongside the eradication of ...
21st June 1919: German High Seas naval fleet scuttled in Scapa Flow, resulting in 52 ships being sunk
Concerned that the entire fleet might be shared out between the victors as the spoils of war Admiral von Reuter, the German officer in charge of the interned fleet, decided to purposely sink the ...
20th June 1789: Tennis Court Oath sworn by the French National Assembly in which they vowed not to separate until a written constitution had been established
The Deputies of the French Third Estate swore not to separate until a written constitution had been established for the ...
19th June 1846: First officially recorded baseball game takes place in Hoboken, New Jersey
On 19 June 1846, the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club travelled across the Hudson River to play against the New York Nine at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New ...
18th June 1815: Battle of Waterloo heralds the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte
Combined British and Prussian military forces defeated the French, but Wellington himself said that the battle was ‘the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your ...
17th June 1885: Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbour on board the French steamship Isère
The statue arrived disassembled, and remained in its 210 separate crates for 10 months while construction of the enormous pedestal it was to stand on was ...
16th June 1824: Reformers meet in London to establish what becomes the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
The meeting in Old Slaughter’s Coffee House formalised the organisation’s structure and objectives. Early activities included bringing prosecutions against individuals accused of mistreating animals, distributing pamphlets, and encouraging more humane standards in markets, transport, and ...
15th June 1215: Magna Carta approved by King John at Runnymede near Windsor in England
Magna Carta, which is Latin for ‘the Great Charter’, confirmed the principle that everyone including the king was subject to the law of the land and gave all free men the right to justice and a fair ...
14th June 1645: The Battle of Naseby fought in the English Civil War
The Battle of Naseby, a decisive engagement of the English Civil War, was fought between the Royalist army of King Charles I and the Parliamentarian New Model ...
13th June 1917: The deadliest air raid on London of the First World War conducted by German Gotha bombers
162 people were killed and over 400 were injured, including at a school in Upper North Street School in Poplar where a bomb struck during school ...
12th June 1987: Ronald Reagan calls on Mikhail Gorbachev to ‘Tear down this wall!’
US President Ronald Reagan made a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin in which he called on the USSR’s leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, to ‘Tear down this ...
11th June 1837: Broad Street Riot takes place in Boston, Massachusetts, between Irish immigrants and existing American citizens
The violence grew to involve around 1,000 people on both sides who also broke into houses and destroyed ...
10th June 1605: False Dmitry I enters Moscow and is recognised as tsar following the death of Boris Godunov
False Dmitry asserted that he was Dmitry Ivanovich, the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible. With support from Polish nobles, mercenaries, and anti-Godunov factions, he entered Russian territory from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in ...
9th June 1815: ‘Final Act’ of the Congress of Vienna signed, nine days before Napoleon’s final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo
The Final Act of the Congress set in place a map of Europe that remained largely unchanged for the next forty years, and which laid the foundations for the First World ...
8th June 793: Viking raiders attack Lindisfarne in Northumbria
Norse raiders attacked the holy island of Lindisfarne off the Northumbrian coast in an event that is generally accepted as the start of the ‘Viking’ period of British ...
7th June 1788: Day of the Tiles breaks out in the French city of Grenoble, serving as an early precursor to the French Revolution
Royal troops entered Grenoble to dissolve the parlement and remove magistrates from the city. Crowds of townspeople gathered in response, and protesters climbed onto rooftops from where they threw roof tiles at the troops ...
6th June 1944: D-Day landings launched by the Allied forces of the Second World War in Normandy
The amphibious landings in Normandy are still the largest seaborne invasion ever to be staged, and marked the start of the Allied invasion of Nazi-held Western ...
5th June 1967: Start of the Six Day War as Israel launches air strikes against the Egyptian air force
By the time a final ceasefire was signed on 10 June, Israel’s territorial gains had put around a million Arabs under their control, signalling the start of a new phase in Arab-Israeli ...
4th June 1916: Russian Army begins the Brusilov Offensive on the Eastern Front of the First World War
The Brusilov Offensive is regarded as one of the most effective operations of the war in terms of tactical innovation and initial results as it involved simultaneous attacks across a broad front to prevent Austro-Hungarian forces from concentrating ...
3rd June 1989: Tiananmen Square protesters fired on by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army
Official figures reported 241 deaths as a result of the crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests but unofficial estimates, including one by the US Ambassador at the time, place the figure at more than twice ...
2nd June 1946: Italians vote in a referendum to abolish the monarchy and turn their country into a republic
More than 89% of eligible Italian citizens voted in the referendum, with 54.3% voting in favour of turning the country into a ...
1st June 1980: CNN begins broadcasting as the first 24-hour news channel
Media entrepreneur Ted Turner assembled a newsroom capable of operating at all hours, recruiting journalists, and establishing technical systems for live reporting of events, supplemented by analysis, interviews, and repeated ...
31st May 1981: Jaffna Public Library in Sri Lanka burnt down during a violent attack
The Jaffna Public Library in Sri Lanka was burnt down during a violent rampage by an organised mob of ethnic ...
30th May 1431: Joan of Arc executed in the French city of Rouen for heresy
Joan was accused of being a witch and a heretic due to the voices she heard and visions she witnessed, but the crime that condemned her to death was that of wearing men’s ...
29th May 1854: Paddington Station opens as the London terminus of the Great Western Railway
The completed station was formally opened for use on 29 May 1854 to link London with the west of England and South Wales, reflecting the broader growth of rail transport during the mid-nineteenth ...
28th May 1987: Mathias Rust, an 18-year-old amateur pilot from West Germany, illegally landed a private aircraft near Moscow’s Red Square
Rust approached Moscow in the early evening and, after passing the city's ‘Ring of Steel’ anti-aircraft defences, touched down on a bridge next to St Basil’s Cathedral and taxied his aircraft into Red ...
27th May 1199: King John of England crowned at Westminster Abbey in London
John ruled for seventeen years before contracting dysentery while in Kings Lynn, an illness from which he later ...
26th May 1972: The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty at the Moscow Summit
The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was intended to limit the development and deployment of missile defence systems during the Cold War to avoid further offensive build-up or create incentives for a first ...
25th May 1961: US President John F. Kennedy announces his plans for a manned moon landing before the end of the decade
Kennedy's $24 billion of investment did work, and Apollo 11 achieved Kennedy's goal by landing on the moon on 20 July ...
24th May 1956: First Eurovision Song Contest takes place in Lugano, Switzerland
The first Eurovision Song Contest featured only seven countries, and was broadcast across Europe using a terrestrial microwave relay network that linked the countries of Europe together like an invisible spider’s ...
23rd May 1701: Captain Kidd, the Scottish privateer, executed in London after being convicted of piracy and murder
Kidd was executed for piracy and murder at Execution Dock on the River Thames, and his body was subsequently placed in gibbet and displayed over the River Thames at Tilbury ...
22nd May 1455: Wars of the Roses begin at the First Battle of St Albans between Richard, Duke of York, and King Henry VI
The Wars of the Roses were fought between the Houses of Lancaster and York, both of whom had claims to the ...
21st May 1972: Laszlo Toth attacks and seriously damages Michelangelo’s Pietà statue
Hungarian-born geologist Laszlo Toth attacked and seriously damaged Michelangelo’s Pietà statue with a ...
20th May 325: First Council of Nicaea brings together bishops from across the early Christian world
Several hundred bishops came from regions including Asia Minor, the eastern Mediterranean, and parts of the Latin West where they formulated the Nicene Creed, which affirmed that the Son was “of the same substance” as the ...
19th May 1536: The execution of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife and mother of the future Elizabeth I
Although found unanimously guilty by a jury of 27 peers, the evidence against Anne was questionable. Only the Flemish musician Mark Smeaton admitted to having an affair with her, and this confession is reputed to have been extracted under ...
18th May 1291: The Siege of Acre saw the Muslim forces of the Mamluk Sultan Al-Ashraf Khalil seize control of the Crusader-controlled city
The Siege of Acre, sometimes known in Christendom as the Fall of Acre, marked the last attempt to exert Crusader influence in the Holy ...
17th May 1954: U.S. Supreme Court rules in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional
The unanimous opinion of the Court said that segregated public schools were inherently unequal and therefore ...
16th May 1966: Start of the Cultural Revolution in China when Mao releases the ‘May 16th Notification’
By the time the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976 an estimated minimum of 400,000 people had died through torture, execution, or ...
15th May 1928: Mickey and Minnie Mouse appear in their first cartoon to be shown to a cinema audience
Mickey Mouse's first animated appearance was in a silent short called Plane Crazy, but the cartoon failed to secure a distributor until a soundtrack was added a year ...
14th May 1932: “We Want Beer” parade takes place in New York City to protest against prohibition
New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker led an estimated 100,000 people on the Beer for Taxation march in favour of legalising beer, framing it as both a cultural issue as well as a practical economic measure to increase tax ...
13th May 1950: First #Formula1 World Championship Grand Prix race at Silverstone
The first Formula One World Championship Grand Prix race took place at the Silverstone circuit in ...
12th May 1949: The Soviet Union ends its blockade of West Berlin
Instigated on 24 June the previous year, the Soviet blockade prevented all rail, road, and water transport between Berlin and the West of the ...
11th May 1981: The musical Cats opens at the New London Theatre in London’s West End
Unlike traditional musicals with a clear linear plot, Cats relied on a sequence of musical numbers linked by theme and atmosphere. Nevertheless, the production attracted strong public interest and went on to become one of the longest-running musicals in theatre ...
10th May 1941: Rudolf Hess, Deputy Führer of the German Nazi Party, flew from Germany to Scotland on a mission to strike a peace deal with the British government
Hess landed twelve miles away from his intended destination of Dungavel House, the home of the Duke of Hamilton, with whom he hoped to open peace ...
9th May 1887: Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show opened in London at the American Exhibition in West Brompton
This was the first time Buffalo Bill had travelled to Britain, and also marked the first time that many Europeans had seen the fabled ‘Cowboys and ...
8th May 1429: Siege of Orléans lifted by French forces, marking a turning point in the Hundred Years’ War
A major engagement on 7 May resulted in the capture of the English stronghold known as Les Tourelles and, the following day, English forces abandoned the siege of Orleans and ...
7th May 1915: RMS Lusitania sunk by the German U-Boat, U-20
The British ship RMS Lusitania sank after being attacked by the German U-boat U-20 off the coast of ...
6th May 1937: Hindenburg Disaster sees the German passenger airship LZ 129 engulfed in flames following a mid-air explosion
The landing ropes were dropped at 7.21pm, and shortly afterwards the Hindenburg was engulfed by ...
5th May 1862: Mexican forces defeat a French army at the Battle of Puebla, commemorated annually as Cinco de Mayo
Despite expectations of a rapid French victory in the Battle of Puebla, the Mexican troops repelled repeated attacks aided by the terrain and defensive ...
4th May 1932: Al Capone begins life as a convict in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary
Capone was found guilty on 17 October 1931 of Federal Income Tax Evasion and was sentenced to eleven years imprisonment by Judge James Herbert ...
3rd May 1830: World’s first steam-powered passenger service begins operating on the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway
Built by George and Robert Stevenson in Newcastle, and transported to Whitstable by sea, Invicta was the first steam locomotive to haul passengers on a public ...
2nd May 1982: Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano sunk by British submarine HMS Conqueror during the Falklands War
Acting on orders authorised by the Strategic Command, HMS Conqueror fired torpedoes at the Belgrano, killing over 200 crewmembers and causing severe ...
