HistoryPod
byScott Allsop
History
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
Episodes(40 episodes)
25th October 1854: Charge of the Light Brigade undertaken by British forces during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War
Due to miscommunication and a lack of clear orders Lord Cardigan led the Light Brigade, a cavalry unit consisting of approximately 670 horsemen, in a frontal assault against a fortified Russian artillery position at the end of the ...
Published: Oct 25, 2026
24th October 1901: Annie Edson Taylor, the first person to deliberately go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survive
Taylor had a specially constructed barrel built of oak, reinforced with iron bands, and fitted with internal padding. She survived the plunge with just some bruising and a small cut to her ...
Published: Oct 24, 2026
23rd October 1739: The War of Jenkins’ Ear begins when England declare war on Spain
The writer Thomas Carlyle is credited with giving the conflict its name in his 1858 biography of the Prussian King Friedrich ...
Published: Oct 23, 2026
22nd October 1895: Granville-Paris Express train crashes through a wall at the Gare Montparnasse railway station
The Granville–Paris Express train ran across the station platform in Paris, crashed through a 60cm wall, and fell 10 metres to the street below after it overran the buffer stop at the Gare Montparnasse ...
Published: Oct 22, 2026
21st October 1879: Thomas Edison makes a breakthrough in his attempt to develop an incandescent electric light
The breakthrough came when the team used carbonised cotton thread as a filament. A lamp that was initially illuminated on 21st October stayed lit for more than thirteen hours, providing evidence that a practical incandescent lamp was ...
Published: Oct 21, 2026
20th October 1740: Maria Theresa inherits the Austrian throne, prompting the War of the Austrian Succession
Maria Theresa inherited the Austrian throne, prompting the War of the Austrian ...
Published: Oct 20, 2026
19th October 202 BCE: Roman Republic defeats Carthage at the Battle of Zama
After seventeen years, the Second Punic War was finally brought to an end with the decisive victory of the Roman general and consul Scipio Africanus over Hannibal at the Battle of ...
Published: Oct 19, 2026
18th October 1967: Soviet spacecraft Venera 4 becomes the first to enter the atmosphere of Venus and transmit scientific data back to Earth
Instruments on board Venera 4 measured temperature, pressure, and the composition of the surrounding gases, with the results transmitted by radio to receiving stations on ...
Published: Oct 18, 2026
17th October 1814: London Beer Flood kills eight people when nearly one and a half million litres of beer sweep out of the Horse Shoe Brewery
Once the beer began to pour into the street, it quickly began to fill the cellars of nearby houses in which families lived, killing eight ...
Published: Oct 17, 2026
16th October 1939: First German air raid on Britain during WW2 took place when bombers attacked Rosyth naval base in Scotland
The light cruiser HMS Southampton and the destroyer Mohawk were damaged, while sixteen Royal Navy sailors died and 44 were ...
Published: Oct 16, 2026
15th October 1815: Napoleon Bonaparte arrives at his exile on the island of St Helena in the South Atlantic
Napoleon was exiled to the island of St Helena, situated roughly halfway between Africa and South America, where he lived for six years before his ...
Published: Oct 15, 2026
14th October 1962: U-2 spy plane captures images of Cuban missile sites
A U-2 spy plane captured images of the construction of a missile site on Cuba, triggering the Cuban Missile ...
Published: Oct 14, 2026
13th October 1908: Suffragette Margaret Travers Symons becomes the first woman to speak in the House of Commons when she burst into the main chamber
As she was accompanied through the Members’ Lobby, Travers Symons broke away from her escort and burst into the chamber where MPs were debating a bill regarding issues related to ...
Published: Oct 13, 2026
12th October 539 BCE: Babylon falls to the Persian king Cyrus the Great
Cyrus the Great’s Persian forces defeated the Babylonians at the Battle of Opis before entering Babylon on 12 October, bringing the Neo-Babylonian Empire to an end. He subsequently incorporated Mesopotamia into the Persian Empire while preserving Babylon’s importance as a major ...
Published: Oct 12, 2026
11th October 1521: King Henry VIII of England given the title Defender of the Faith by Pope Leo X
The Pope granted the Latin title Fidei defensor to Henry after he published a book in which he defended Catholic doctrine against the criticisms levelled at it by Martin Luther in his Ninety-five Theses during the early stages of the Protestant ...
Published: Oct 11, 2026
10th October 1780: The Great Hurricane of 1780 kills an estimated 22,000 people, making it the deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record
At around 6am on 10 October the hurricane made landfall at Barbados in the Lesser Antilles, where it unleashed its full fury as it moved through the ...
Published: Oct 10, 2026
9th October 1665: King Charles II moves Parliament to the University of Oxford to escape the Great Plague
Charles opened the fifth session of the Cavalier Parliament in the Great Hall at Christ Church College in Oxford, having left London to escape the Great ...
Published: Oct 9, 2026
8th October 1480: The Great Stand on the Ugra River by Ivan III
The Great Stand on the Ugra River marked the start of the decline of the Great ...
Published: Oct 8, 2026
7th October 1879: Germany and Austria Hungary form the Dual Alliance
Keen to consolidate the newly-united Germany, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck turned to diplomacy in an attempt to ensure the status quo in ...
Published: Oct 7, 2026
6th October 1927: The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson, the first major “talkie” movie, premieres in New York City
The Jazz Singer demonstrated to a large audience that recorded dialogue could be incorporated successfully into a commercial feature film. It used the Vitaphone system that played large phonograph discs in synchronisation with the film ...
Published: Oct 6, 2026