HistoryPod
1,354 episodes - English - Latest episode: 2 days ago - ★★★★ - 234 ratingsThe '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
9th March 1776: “The Wealth of Nations” published by Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith
March 09, 2024 03:05 - 1 ByteThe 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 ByteThe 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 ByteDaniel 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 ByteDred 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 ByteCaptain 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 ByteJohnson’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 ByteWhen 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 ByteDespite 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 ByteThe 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 ByteThe 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 ByteOn 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 ByteApproximately 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 ByteThe 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 ByteAfter 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 ByteHitler 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 ByteHaving 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 ByteThe 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 ByteThe 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 ByteOn 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 BytePedro 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 ByteOn 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 ByteReferred 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 ByteDuring 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 ByteENIAC 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 ByteBismarck 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 ByteThe 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 ByteGeorge 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 ByteAlthough 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 BytePowers 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 ByteIn 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 ByteAlthough the organization’s numbers have fallen in recent years, it still has an estimated 2.2 million ...
7th February 1914: Charlie Chaplin’s iconic ‘Tramp’ character makes his first public appearance in the film Kid Auto Races at Venice
February 07, 2024 03:05 - 1 ByteThe film was an immediate success, and audiences were quick to recognize the arrival of a new and unique talent. Reviewers at the time identified Chaplin as ‘a born screen ...
6th February 1778: France and the US sign the first treaties that recognise American independence
February 06, 2024 03:05 - 1 ByteFrance and the United States signed the first two treaties ever negotiated by the American government, and which formally recognised the independence of the United ...
5th February 1909: Bakelite, the world’s first synthetic plastic, announced by Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland
February 05, 2024 03:05 - 1 ByteThe commercial success of Bakelite extended beyond its utility as its distinctive appearance, became a hallmark of the Art Deco era and added another layer to Bakelite’s rapid and widespread ...
4th February 1555: John Rogers became the first Protestant martyr under ‘Bloody’ Mary I of England
February 04, 2024 03:05 - 1 ByteJohn Rogers became the first English Protestant martyr under Mary I after he was burnt at the ...
3rd February 1972: The deadliest recorded blizzard hit northwestern, central and southern Iran
February 03, 2024 03:05 - 1 ByteApproximately 4,000 people perished in the blizzard, where the worst affected areas were buried in up to 8 metres (26 feet) of snow that would have covered a two and half story ...
2nd February 1709: Alexander Selkirk rescued after spending more than four years as a castaway
February 02, 2024 03:05 - 1 ByteMarooned alone on Más a Tierra Island in the uninhabited Juan Fernández archipelago, Selkirk survived for more than four years, foraging for food and hunting wild goats, while using the limited tools available to him to construct huts for ...
1st February 1861: Texas declares its secession from the United States after a convention votes overwhelmingly in favour
February 01, 2024 03:05 - 1 ByteElected representatives assembled in Austin on January 28, 1861, and four days later on 1 February the convention voted 166 to 8 in favour of secession. The decision was confirmed through a state-wide referendum on 23 ...
31st January 1865: Thirteenth Amendment passed by the US Congress to formally abolish slavery
January 31, 2024 03:05 - 1 ByteIt was sent to the states for ratification the next day, a process that was concluded on 6 December after the necessary three-quarters of states approved ...
30th January 1835: Andrew Jackson survives the first assassination attempt of a sitting US President
January 30, 2024 03:05 - 1 ByteWould-be assassin Richard Lawrence was found ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’ and was committed to an ...
29th January 2002: The phrase ‘Axis of Evil’ used for the first time by President George W. Bush
January 29, 2024 03:05 - 1 ByteThe phrase 'axis of evil' soon became a hallmark of Bush’s foreign ...
28th January 1896: First speeding ticket for an automobile issued to British motorist Walter Arnold
January 28, 2024 03:05 - 1 ByteArnold faced three additional charges of using a locomotive without a horse, having fewer than three people in charge of the vehicle and for not having his name and address on the vehicle. The local magistrates found him guilty on all counts and placed a fine of £4 7s, of which one shilling plus costs, was for ...
27th January 1916: Conscription for WW1 introduced by the British Government in the Military Service Act
January 27, 2024 03:05 - 1 ByteThe Military Service Act made all single men and childless widowers between the ages of 18 and 41 liable to be called up. It received royal assent on 27 January but was met with a protest demonstration of approximately 200,000 people in London’s Trafalgar Square, while by July almost 30% of those called up to fight had failed to ...
26th January 1885: Siege of Khartoum ends when Sudanese Mahdist forces capture the city from Governor-General Charles George Gordon
January 26, 2024 03:05 - 1 ByteGeneral Gordon’s pleas for reinforcements for the besieged city fell on deaf ears in the British government, and the city’s plight became a symbol of imperial overreach and strategic ...
25th January 1924: First Winter Olympic Games begin in Chamonix, France
January 25, 2024 03:05 - 1 ByteInternational Winter Sports Week was an incredible success, and the following year the IOC retroactively designated it as the first Winter ...
24th January 1935: The first canned beer goes on sale from the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company in Richmond, Virginia
January 24, 2024 03:05 - 1 ByteCanned beer was an immediate success and the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company saw sales skyrocket. Other brewers soon began to adopt the new packaging, and by the end of the year over 200 million cans of beer had sold in the United ...
23rd January 1849: Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman to receive a medical degree in the USA
January 23, 2024 03:05 - 1 ByteBlackwell graduated first in her class and became the first woman to achieve a medical degree in the United ...
22nd January 1973: The Supreme Court issues its decision on the Roe v. Wade abortion case
January 22, 2024 03:05 - 1 ByteJustice Harry Blackmun wrote the majority opinion that the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution gives women in the United States the ‘fundamental’ freedom choice in family matters, including whether or not to have an ...
21st January 1954: Launch of USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine
January 21, 2024 03:05 - 1 ByteNuclear propulsion enabled Nautilus to smash numerous records including those for both submerged speed and distance, and became the first submarine to transit the North Pole in August ...
20th January 1986: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day first observed as a federal holiday
January 20, 2024 03:05 - 1 BytePresident Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law on 2 November ...