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HistoryPod

1,338 episodes - English - Latest episode: 2 days ago - ★★★★ - 234 ratings

The 'on this day in history' podcast, with a new episode every single day. Featuring historical events that range from the Roman Empire to the World Wide Web, HistoryPod proves that there is always something to be remembered 'on this day'. Written and presented by Scott Allsop, creator of the award-winning www.mrallsophistory.com

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Episodes

28th March 1979: Worst accident in U.S. nuclear power plant history at Three Mile Island Generating Station

March 28, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

The incident at Three Mile Island heralded a dramatic shift in public attitudes towards nuclear power and the second reactor never returned to ...

27th March 1964: Most powerful earthquake ever recorded in North America struck Alaska

March 27, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

The colossal earthquake, registering a magnitude of 9.2, struck Southcentral Alaska and is the most powerful on record in North America and the second-largest ...

26th March 1351: Combat of the Thirty fought between English and Breton soldiers during the Breton War of Succession

March 26, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

Although the event was of little military importance overall, the chivalric nature of the battle was celebrated by chroniclers, balladeers, and artists, while survivors of the Thirty were held in held ...

25th March 1965: The Selma to Montgomery March ends at the Alabama State Capitol

March 25, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

The marchers arrived in Montgomery on 25 March, where King made his ‘How Long, Not Long’ speech to a crowd of more than 25,000 ...

24th March 1989: Start of the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster in Alaska’s Prince William Sound

March 24, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

Exxon Valdez had only recently departed the Valdez Marine Terminal when the captain, Joseph Hazelwood, left Third Mate Gregory Cousins in charge of steering the vessel while he retired to his ...

23rd March 1857: The world’s first successful passenger elevator installed in a five-storey New York City department store

March 23, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

Elisha Otis was an American mechanic who invented the safety elevator, which featured a mechanism to prevent the platform from falling if the hoisting cable ...

22nd March 1622: Indian Massacre of 1622 occurred in the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia

March 22, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

The surprise attack was launched against English settlers by the the Powhatan Confederacy, led by Chief ...

21st March 1952: Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, takes place in Cleveland, Ohio

March 21, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

By the time the concert began at 10pm on 21 March there were thousands of people outside the arena unable to get in who resorted to breaking through the ...

20th March 1854: U.S. Republican Party founded at a meeting in a schoolhouse in Wisconsin

March 20, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

The party quickly built support and by 1856 it proved to be the dominant political force in the North when John C. Fremont, the first Republican presidential candidate, won 11 of the 16 Northern ...

19th March 1831: City Bank of New York robbed in the first widely-reported bank heist in U.S. history

March 19, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

The heist was masterminded by James Honeyman and James Murray entered the bank late at night on 19 March where they raided the vault and safe deposit boxes. Together they left with approximately $245,000 in bank notes and coins, which is the equivalent of more than $50 million ...

18th March 1990: 13 works of art stolen from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in the world’s largest ever art theft

March 18, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

Despite a reward of $10 million, and extensive investigations by the FBI, none of the works have ever been recovered and nobody has ever been arrested for the ...

17th March 1766: The first recorded Saint Patrick’s Day parade took place in the city of New York

March 17, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

Irish soldiers serving in the British Army led the first recorded Saint Patrick's Day parade which, due to the high number of Irish immigrants in New York, quickly became an annual ...

16th March 1660: England’s Long Parliament dissolved after twenty years in session

March 16, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

The dissolution of the Long Parliament signalled the end of the republican experiment initiated by the Civil War and cleared the way for Charles II to return to England as king, marking the beginning of the Restoration ...

15th March 1916: U.S. General Pershing led the Punitive Expedition into Mexico to locate revolutionary leader Pancho Villa

March 15, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

By January 1917 he was still no closer to being caught, and Pershing’s forces were ordered to withdraw and return to the United ...

14th March 1939: The First Slovak Republic proclaimed, as a client state of Nazi Germany

March 14, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

The creation of the First Slovak Republic represented a long-standing aspiration for Slovak autonomy, but came under the shadow of Nazi influence and ...

13th March 1942: Julia Flikke, the commander of the Army Nurse Corps, became the first female Colonel in the United States

March 13, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

Although her rating was only temporary, it marked in important step towards the Army-Navy Nurse Act of 1947 that made such appointments ...

12th March 1947: Truman Doctrine established when the President asks for aid to Greece and Turkey

March 12, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

In a program that won broad support, America committed to providing $400 million in assistance to Greece and ...

11th March 1941: Lend-Lease Act signed into law by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt

March 11, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

By providing substantial military assistance to Allied nations through the Lend-Lease Act, the United States played a crucial role in bolstering their ability to resist Axis aggression and played a major role in the Allied victory in the Second World ...

10th March 2000: The NASDAQ index peaks at the height of the dot-com bubble

March 10, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

The economic bubble that is also referred to as the ‘dot-com boom’ was the result of investors speculatively pouring money into the numerous internet companies that were founded in the mid- to ...

9th March 1776: “The Wealth of Nations” published by Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith

March 09, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

The publication of "The Wealth of Nations" had a profound impact on economic thought and policy, laying the foundation for classical economics and providing justification for the rise of free-market ...

8th March 1971: Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier faced each other in the ‘Fight of the Century’

March 08, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

The match went all the way to the 15th round before Frazier was declared the winner by unanimous ...

7th March 1850: Senator Daniel Webster makes his “Seventh of March” speech in favour of the Compromise of 1850

March 07, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

Daniel Webster’s "Seventh of March" speech saw the prominent senator from Massachusetts, who was a staunch defender of the Union, deliver an address endorsing the compromise measures as a means to preserve national unity and avert a possible civil ...

6th March 1857: The US Supreme Court makes its ruling in the Dred Scott case

March 06, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

Dred Scott was a slave owned by John Emerson, an army surgeon from the slave state of ...

5th March 1936: Supermarine Spitfire aircraft makes its maiden test flight

March 05, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

Captain Joseph "Mutt" Summers, chief test pilot for Vickers, performed a series of exercises to evaluate the Spitfire’s handling characteristics and performance capabilities, and found that the aircraft demonstrated remarkable ...

4th March 1865: Andrew Johnson, Vice President of the United States, delivers his inaugural address while drunk

March 04, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

Johnson’s drunkenness during his inaugural address was widely reported in the press and was a source of embarrassment for Lincoln, who was seated ...

3rd March 1857: The largest ever sale of enslaved people in the United States, known as the Weeping Time

March 03, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

When the two-day sale ended on 3 March, 429 slaves had been ...

2nd March 537: First Siege of Rome begins as the Ostrogoth army encircle the Byzantine forces of the general Belisarius

March 02, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

Despite being driven north towards Ravenna by Emperor Justinian's forces, the Ostrogoths were determined to reclaim Rome and reassert their dominance over ...

1st March 1562: Massacre of Vassy marks the beginning of the French Wars of Religion

March 01, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

The massacre at Vassy exacerbated religious tensions that had been simmering for years, serving as a rallying cry for both Catholics and Protestants, each side seeing the incident as justification for their cause. Within just a few weeks of the massacre, violence erupted across the ...

29th February 1796: Jay Treaty marks the start of ten years of peaceful trade between the United States and Britain

February 29, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

The Jay Treaty, named after John Jay, the chief negotiator on behalf of the United States, sought to resolve several key disputes in the aftermath of the American Revolutionary War and the subsequent Treaty of Paris in ...

28th February 1849: First ‘49ers arrive in San Francisco to begin the California Gold Rush

February 28, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

On February 28, 1849, SS California steamed into San Francisco carrying around 400 passengers seeking their fortune. The city's population, which had been around a thousand in 1848, skyrocketed to tens of thousands within a ...

27th February 1973: Oglala Lakota and members of the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee

February 27, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

Approximately 200 Oglala Lakota and members of the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee, South Dakota, for 71 ...

26th February 1917: The Original Dixieland ‘Jass’ Band makes the first commercially released jazz recording

February 26, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

The resulting record was released in May, and went on to sell hundreds of thousands of ...

25th February 1870: Hiram Rhodes Revels becomes the first African-American U.S. Senator

February 25, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

After intense debate Senators voted 48 to 8 to seat Revels as the first African-American in the United States ...

24th February 1920: Adolf Hitler announces the 25 Point Programme and the establishment of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP)

February 24, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

Hitler announced that the DAP had officially become the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), known colloquially as the Nazi Party. Alongside the name change, he also introduced the 25 Point Programme, a set of ideological principles outlining the party’s ...

23rd February 1836: The Siege of the Alamo begins, lasting for thirteen days before the final battle

February 23, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

Having received few reinforcements by the time the Mexicans attacked on 6 March, the Alamo’s defenders suffered a decisive defeat that is believed to have killed every soldier in the ...

22nd February 1946: The ‘Long Telegram’ sent by George F. Kennan, a senior American diplomat in Moscow

February 22, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

The Long Telegram emphasized that the Soviet Union was inherently expansionist and ideologically driven, and advocated for the restriction of Soviet influence rather than direct ...

21st February 1885: the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. was dedicated

February 21, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

The 555-foot tall Washington Monument was dedicated at a ceremony featuring President Chester Arthur alongside fellow politicians, engineers and ...

20th February 1939: Pro-Nazi rally held at Madison Square Garden in New York City

February 20, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

On February 20, 1939, at an event that arguably marked the height of the German American Bund, Fritz Julius Kuhn addressed approximately 20,000 people at a rally at New York City’s Madison Square ...

19th February 1913: Pedro Lascurain began the world’s shortest ever presidency in Mexico

February 19, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

Pedro Lascuráin began the shortest presidential term in history when he became President of Mexico for less than an ...

18th February 1915: Germany initiates a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare during the First World War

February 18, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

On February 4, 1915, Admiral Hugo von Pohl of the German High Seas Fleet warned that ‘every enemy merchant vessel’ in British waters would be targeted and that ‘it may not always be possible to prevent attacks on enemy ships from harming neutral ...

17th February 1966: First recording session for the Beach Boys song ‘Good Vibrations’ takes place at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles

February 17, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

Referred to by Wilson as a ‘pocket symphony’, the modular process used for ‘Good Vibrations’ involved the recording and re-recording of individual sections of the song using the Wall of Sound formula that had been developed by record producer Phil ...

16th February 1861: Abraham Lincoln meets the girl who advised him to grow a beard to gain more votes

February 16, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

During the presidential campaign, 11-year-old Grace Bedell had written a letter to Abraham Lincoln in which she suggested that he would look more distinguished, and garner more votes, if he grew a ...

15th February 1946: ENIAC, the world’s first programmable general-purpose electronic digital computer, formally dedicated

February 15, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

ENIAC was soon put to use running calculations to help build a hydrogen bomb, and continued to operate until ...

14th February 1939: German battleship Bismarck launched at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg

February 14, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

Bismarck was the first of two of the largest battleships ever built by Germany. Ordered for Nazi Germany’s Kriegsmarine, the ship was a testament to Nazi Germany’s ambitions to build a powerful and modern ...

13th February 1981: The sewers of Louisville, Kentucky, explode after industrial waste makes its way into the tunnels

February 13, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

The explosion wiped out services for thousands of residents, while the stench from the open sewers was ...

12th February 1924: First performance of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”

February 12, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was performed for the first time at a concert by Paul Whiteman and his Palais Royal Orchestra called An Experiment in Modern ...

11th February 1919: Friedrich Ebert elected as first President of the German Weimar Republic

February 11, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

Although committed to democratic principles, the Weimar Republic and President Ebert faced persistent challenges from both the left and the right amidst the daunting task of guiding Germany through economic turmoil, political polarization, and the drafting of a new ...

10th February 1962: Captured U-2 spy plane pilot Gary Powers freed in a prisoner exchange

February 10, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

Powers had been sentenced to 10 years’ confinement in the USSR but, amidst concerns that he might reveal any remaining secrets to the Soviet authorities, the U.S. government agreed to exchange Powers and imprisoned student Frederic Pryor in return for Soviet Colonel Rudolf ...

9th February 1950: Joseph McCarthy starts the Second Red Scare with a speech claiming Communists were working in the U.S. Department of State

February 09, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

In his address to the Ohio County Women’s Republican Club, McCarthy claimed to possess a list of 205 State Department employees with Communist affiliations. This assertion marked the start of what became known as McCarthyism or the Second Red ...

8th February 1910: The Boy Scouts of America organization incorporated by William D. Boyce in Washington D.C.

February 08, 2024 03:05 - 1 Byte

Although the organization’s numbers have fallen in recent years, it still has an estimated 2.2 million ...