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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13th December 1939: The Battle of the River Plate takes place off the coast of Uruguay and Argentina as the first major naval battle of WW2
Although the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee inflicted significant damage on the British HMS Exeter, the combined efforts of three British cruisers successfully crippled the Graf Spee’s fuel system and she was later ...Von Scott Allsop
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Kenya had been under British rule since the 19th Century, and since becoming a colony in 1920 African demands for a greater role in politics had ...Von Scott Allsop
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The first transatlantic yacht race, from Sandy Hook in New Jersey to the Needles off the coast of the Isle of Wight in England, was the result of a drunken wager between three prominent New York businessmen: James Gordon Bennett Jr., Pierre Lorillard, and George ...Von Scott Allsop
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It is estimated that up to a quarter of a million different units of measurement were in use throughout France at eve of the Revolution in 1789, and that these differed not only from trade to trade but also from town to ...Von Scott Allsop
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A Charlie Brown Christmas went on to win both a Peabody Award and the Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's ...Von Scott Allsop
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Theatre in England had been banned by the Puritan Long Parliament in 1642 but, following the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II, the ban was ...Von Scott Allsop
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7th December 1941: The Imperial Japanese Navy attack the United States’ Hawaiian naval base at Pearl Harbor
The following morning, President Franklin D. Roosevelt described the day of the attack on PEarl Harbor as ‘a date which will live in infamy’ and called for Congress to declare war on the Empire of ...Von Scott Allsop
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Meredith Hunter was killed at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival during a performance by the Rolling ...Von Scott Allsop
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5th December 1955: Montgomery bus boycott begins in Alabama, marking a pivotal moment in the American Civil Rights Movement
The boycott lasted for 381 days and called for African Americans in Montgomery to refrain from using the city’s buses, which were segregated, until fair treatment was ...Von Scott Allsop
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Mary Celeste had departed New York on 7 ...Von Scott Allsop
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3rd December 1973: NASA’s Pioneer 10 becomes the first space probe to send close-up images of the planet Jupiter
Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft designed to explore beyond the inner planets and, after a 21-month journey, was approaching Jupiter when it began transmitting data and images as it passed within 132,000 kilometres (82,000 miles) of the planet’s cloud ...Von Scott Allsop
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United States Senator Joseph McCarthy was censured for “conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonour and ...Von Scott Allsop
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1st December 1955: Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, after the white section of the bus became full
This simple act of defiance led to her quickly becoming a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement, and sparked the Montgomery Bus ...Von Scott Allsop
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On 30 November 1786 Leopold formally abolished the death sentence as well as banning the use of ...Von Scott Allsop
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29th November 1972: Pong is officially released by Atari, and soon becomes the first commercially successful video game
By the end of 1972, Atari had produced around 2,500 PONG machines, which were distributed across the United States and sparked the growth of the arcade game ...Von Scott Allsop
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28th November 1943: The Tehran Conference begins, marking the first meeting between Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin
The secret conference took place in Tehran, Iran, with the primary purpose of discussing the opening of a second front in Western Europe during the Second World ...Von Scott Allsop
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Organized by the department store R.H. Macy & Co., the inaugural event was called the “Macy’s Christmas Parade” and was intended to be a way for Macy’s to attract customers and kick off the holiday shopping ...Von Scott Allsop
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26th November 1805: The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, the highest canal aqueduct in the world, opens in North Wales
Built to carry the Llangollen Canal across the River Dee, which provided a direct waterway link between the industrial towns of Shropshire and the Welsh coalfields, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is one of the most remarkable engineering achievements of the Industrial ...Von Scott Allsop
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25th November 1952: Agatha Christie’s play The Mousetrap opens in London, later to become the longest-running play in the world
Christie stipulated that The Mousetrap should not be adapted into other formats, helping to maintain its appeal as a unique theatrical experience. It holds the world record for the longest continuous run of any play, with more than 29,000 ...Von Scott Allsop
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Improved fencing systems were vital to the farmers who had headed west to settle in the Great ...Von Scott Allsop
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An Unearthly Child was the first of a four-part serial that saw actor William Hartnell take the role of the time-travelling Doctor ...Von Scott Allsop
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The British pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was killed during a battle with British sailors under the command of Lieutenant Robert ...Von Scott Allsop
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21st November 1877: Thomas Edison announced his phonograph, the world’s first practical machine that could record and play sound
Within two decades, Edison's invention of the phonograph had spawned an entire industry built around the recording, distribution and sale of sound ...Von Scott Allsop
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The Occupation of Alcatraz was launched by a group of 89 members of the Indians of All Tribes in an attempt to gain control under the Treaty of Fort Laramie that had been signed in ...Von Scott Allsop
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U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev met for the first time at the Geneva ...Von Scott Allsop
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18th November 1883: The Day of Two Noons sees four standard time zones applied across the continental United States
Railroad companies found it difficult to coordinate train schedules and prevent accidents as trains crossed different regions with varied local times, so adopted a solution to divide the country into four distinct time zones: Eastern, Central, Mountain, and ...Von Scott Allsop
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During Holmes’ time in Chicago, he owned a multi-story building that later became known as the “Murder Castle” thanks to sensationalist newspaper reports from the ...Von Scott Allsop
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16th November 1793: Mass drownings begin in Nantes as part of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution
The drownings at Nantes began when dozens of refractory priests were loaded onto adapted barges, which were taken to the middle of the Loire River and deliberately sunk, or the prisoners thrown ...Von Scott Allsop
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Clemenceau's appointment heralded a marked change in government as he sought to consolidate French support behind its ...Von Scott Allsop
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Bridges was born in 1954, the same year that the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that racially segregated schools were ...Von Scott Allsop
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The United States Supreme Court upheld the District Court’s ruling in Browder v. Gayle that segregation on public buses and transportation in Alabama was ...Von Scott Allsop
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Voters were asked whether they approved of the Nazi government’s withdrawal from the League of Nations. Official results indicated overwhelming support, with approximately 95% of voters casting ballots in favour of the ...Von Scott Allsop
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11th November 1865: Dr Mary Walker becomes the first (and only) woman to receive the Medal of Honor
American surgeon Dr Mary Walker became the first, and so far only, woman to receive the Medal of ...Von Scott Allsop
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Henry Morton Stanley, a Welsh-American journalist and explorer, allegedly greeted the missing Scottish missionary David Livingstone with the phrase, “Dr Livingston, I ...Von Scott Allsop
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After the coup, the Law of Brumaire established a new government under the direction of three consuls although Napoleon held the real power as First ...Von Scott Allsop
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8th November 1620: Battle of White Mountain fought near Prague in the early stages of the Thirty Years’ War
While the Battle of White Mountain allowed Ferdinand II to reassert Habsburg control over the region, initiating a harsh re-Catholicization process and stripping the Bohemian nobility of their lands and privileges, the war grew into a pan-European conflict that caused up to 8 million military and civilian ...…
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The 'storming of the Winter Palace' presents the takeover of the Winter Palace as a huge battle. However, this popular image is a ...Von Scott Allsop
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Abraham Lincoln was elected barely five months before the outbreak of the American Civil War, and was assassinated less than a month before its ...Von Scott Allsop
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5th November 1605: Gunpowder Plot foiled when Guy Fawkes was discovered guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder beneath the House of Lords in London
However, the plot was revealed in an anonymous letter and Guy Fawkes was discovered guarding 36 barrels of ...Von Scott Allsop
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Focusing on reform of the electoral system to improve the conditions of the working class, the release of the People’s Charter in 1838 had prompted the creation of the national working-class Chartist protest ...Von Scott Allsop
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The mutiny quickly spread throughout the Kiel naval base, and within days tens of thousands of sailors and workers had joined the ...Von Scott Allsop
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2nd November 1936: BBC Television Service launched in the UK as the world’s first regular high-definition television service
Prior to the launch from Alexandra Palace in London, television had been in experimental stages. The BBC's launch of regular programming set a new standard for the medium and was a key part of the BBC’s broader mission to bring new forms of entertainment and information to the ...Von Scott Allsop
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1st November 1894: Nicholas II becomes Tsar of Russia following the death of his father, Tsar Alexander III
The 26 year old Tsar Nicholas II inherited an autocratic government, which had long resisted democratic reforms, and a society that was increasingly dissatisfied with the existing ...Von Scott Allsop
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Mussolini, who was determined to restore the glory of the Roman Empire following the ‘mutilated victory’ of the First World War, had formed the precursor to the Fascist Party in ...Von Scott Allsop
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30th October 1938: The War of the Worlds radio play, directed by Orson Welles, terrifies listeners in America
Announcements were made before, during and after the radio broadcast that the events in War of the Worlds were fictitious, but it was clear that these warnings went unheeded by ...Von Scott Allsop
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29th October 1959: Comic book character Asterix the Gaul’s first appearance in the debut issue of Pilote magazine
Created by writer René Goscinny and illustrator Albert Uderzo, the story of Asterix is set in 50 B.C. and follows the adventures of the warrior Asterix from a small village in Gaul (modern-day France), during the time of the Roman Empire's ...Von Scott Allsop
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28th October 1962: End of the Cuban Missile Crisis as Khrushchev agrees to remove nuclear missiles from Cuba
Because America’s part of the agreement was kept secret, Khrushchev appeared to have ‘lost’. The reality is that both sides made ...Von Scott Allsop
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By the summer of 1987 it had become public knowledge that the Soviets had bugged the new building with technology that the United States was struggling to ...Von Scott Allsop
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Giuseppe Garibaldi met with Victor Emmanuel II, the King of Sardinia, at Teano and handed him control of southern ...Von Scott Allsop
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Davis first entered military service following the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898, and later served as Professor of Military Science and Tactics at both Wilberforce University in Ohio and Tuskegee University in Alabama as well as serving tours of duty around the ...Von Scott Allsop
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