HistoryPod

Although the Secret Service is now most commonly associated with the protection of national leaders, this didn't begin until after the assassination of President William McKinley in September ...

Prior to the last song of the performance, Bowie told the crowd, “Not only is it the last show of the tour, but it's the last show that we'll ever do.” Even some of the band members were taken by surprise at the ...

While retailers were unsure about the demand for a playback-only cassette device, Sony conducted street demonstrations and distributed units to celebrities and influencers that led to the Walkman selling over 30,000 units in Japan within its first two ...

The opening ceremony was attended by the Lord Chamberlain and the Home Secretary, H. H. Asquith, who watched the Prince of Wales formally declare the bridge open while a parade of vessels passed underneath the raised ...

Constructed of granite-lined concrete and reinforced with steel, the vault is located at the centre of the building. Gold began arriving in January 1937, transported by the U.S. Army in a series of high-security rail ...

The aircraft used was a tethered hydrogen balloon named l'Entreprenant, operated by the French army's newly established Company of Aeronauts, and it represented an innovation in military ...

Henry's joint coronation with his wife, Catherine of Aragon, marked the start of a 38 year rule, during which England experienced political, religious, and dynastic changes that dramatically altered the landscape of English ...

The two armies met near the village of Palashi, on the banks of the Bhagirathi River, in present-day West Bengal. Despite commanding an estimated 50,000 troops, his army was ineffective so the Nawab fled the battlefield and was later captured and ...

St Paul's Cathedral was completed in 1710, and was the first cathedral in England to be completed under the direction of a single ...

The introduction of the Deutsch Mark sought to stabilise the German economy and curb widespread inflation and black-market activity in the aftermath of the Second World War, but caused concern in the Soviet Union which implemented its own currency reform in the eastern zone and soon after began the Berlin ...

Tensions escalated throughout the day, with reports indicating that initial pushing and shouting developed into running battles between the two ...

Over the course of nearly three days, Valentina Tereshkova orbited the Earth 48 times on board Vostock 6, maintaining radio contact with Bykovsky using the call sign "Chaika," meaning "Seagull" in ...

The trial lasted over nine months, making it the longest murder trial in U.S. history at that time. In January 1971, Manson and three of his followers were found ...

Although the emperor Galerius had previously issued an Edict of Toleration towards Christians, the Edict of Milan went further by establishing religious freedom throughout the empire and granting Christians the right to practice their religion without interference or ...

The idea for the race came from two students, Charles Merivale of Cambridge and Charles Wordsworth of Oxford, who proposed a race between their two universities. It took place over approximately 2¼ miles of the River Thames from Hambleden Lock to Henley ...

Ray arrived in London in late May 1968 and, on 8 June, went to Heathrow Airport where he was detained after attempting to board a flight to Brussels using a false Canadian ...

Officially known as the Representation of the People Act 1832, the Great Reform Act was introduced to improve the outdated and unrepresentative electoral system in England and Wales by eliminating rotten boroughs, creating new constituencies to represent industrial towns, and standardising voting ...

The Profumo affair was one of the defining political scandals of post-war Britain, damaging the credibility of the Conservative government of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, and was seen as contributing to the erosion of public trust in ...

The royal charter marked one of the earliest recorded examples of legal protection for a specific regional food product in Europe by ensuring that only cheese matured in the caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon could bear the name "Roquefort," preventing producers in other regions from marketing similar cheeses under the same ...

Marconi filed a patent application in London for a spark-gap transmitter that generated radio waves and a coherer as a receiver to detect the signals, which was the first patent for a communication system based on radio ...

Beginning in May 1946, Ion Antonescu's trial was overseen by the People's Tribunal in Bucharest that found him guilty of war crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to death by firing ...

While the British lost 14 ships and over 6,000 personnel, compared to Germany's 11 ships and 2,500 personnel, the strategic outcome of the Battle of Jutland favoured ...

Charles arrived in Dover on 25 May and entered London on 29 May, which was also his 30th birthday. He was welcomed with public celebrations and a general sense of relief, and was formally crowned at Westminster Abbey the following ...

While precise details are unclear, it's known that the engagement lasted only about 15 minutes. Around a quarter of the French soldiers were killed, including their commander, Joseph Coulon de ...

The first race began at 4 p.m. on 26 May 1923 and concluded at the same time on the following day. Taking place on public roads closed for the occasion, the circuit of just over 17 kilometres included long straights, village roads, and tight ...

West Germany was a federal parliamentary republic with a Chancellor as head of government and a President who held a largely ceremonial ...

Officially known as the Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organisation in honour of the recently deceased Bolshevik leader, the Young Pioneers were modelled in part on scouting organisations, but with a strong political and ideological framework aligned with the principles of the Communist ...

The Parliament sought to draft a constitution to unify the independent German states into a single nation governed by liberal principles, but faced significant challenges from the outset and was dissolved by force in June ...

The Seven Years' War is widely regarded as the first truly global conflict as the declaration of war marked the start of full-scale hostilities between the major European powers and their colonies across the ...

The device constructed by Maiman used a small rod of synthetic ruby crystal, surrounded by a helical flash lamp that provided the necessary energy to excite the atoms within the ruby, and is often seen as the start of the 'laser ...

Lucretia Brown was a member of the Christian Science religion and alleged that a man named Daniel Spofford had used his "mesmeric" mental powers to harm her, asking the court to prevent Spofford from exercising control over her through his mental ...

Britain's declaration of neutrality recognised the Union and the Confederacy as belligerents, allowing the Confederacy to contract for supplies and commission warships, but it fell short of recognising the Confederacy as a sovereign nation. This protected British interests by avoiding entanglement in the conflict while maintaining the country's right to trade with both the Union and the ...

The ‘Golden Spike' symbolised the joining of the Central Pacific Railroad, which had built eastward from California, and the Union Pacific Railroad, which had built westward from Nebraska to form a continuous rail link between the east and west coasts of the ...

The Tollund Man was remarkably well-preserved thanks to the cold, acidic, and low oxygen conditions of the peat bog, which slowed ...

When the Estates General opened on 5 May many hoped that it would provide a platform for reform, but in practice it acted as a precursor to the French ...

The Government of Ireland Act established one parliament in Belfast for Northern Ireland and another in Dublin for Southern Ireland. While both remained under the authority of the United Kingdom, each was granted a degree of self-governance and the border remains today as the boundary between the Republic of Ireland and Northern ...

The Hudson's Bay Company maintained a monopoly over trade in the area for over 200 years, ensuring it had a lasting impact on the economic and political development of what would later become ...

Ali's refusal to be inducted led to him being stripped of his boxing titles and later convicted of draft evasion for which he was sentenced to five years in prison, a $10,000 fine, and a ban from boxing. He remained free on bail while the case was under ...

Mussolini was captured by Italian partisans near the village of Dongo whilst attempting to flee to Switzerland, and was executed the next ...

The canal was designed as a sea-level waterway stretching approximately 120 miles across the Isthmus of Suez, and its completion in 1869, ten years after work began, significantly reduced travel time between Europe and ...

The Kinder Mass Trespass involved approximately 400 people walking to the Kinder Scout plateau in deliberate defiance of the landowners, in a protest in favour of the right to ...

Babur, a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan, had established a power base in Kabul but the victory at Panipat gave him control of Delhi and Agra, allowing him to establish the foundations of what would become the Mughal Empire in ...

As the British troops arrived in Lexington, they encountered a small group and, although the exact events that unfolded are unclear, a shot was fired that initiated the first skirmish of the American Revolutionary ...

The Doolittle Raid saw sixteen B-25 Mitchell bombers demonstrate Japan's vulnerability to air raids, and forced the Japanese military to divert resources to homeland ...

Culloden was the last pitched battle fought on British soil and the defeat ended Jacobite hopes of restoring the Stuart monarchy to the ...

Lincoln's call for volunteers was part of his effort to maintain the authority of the federal government after several southern states seceded from the ...

MKUltra was established during the Cold War to explore ways to manipulate human behaviour using drugs, hypnosis, psychological conditioning, and other ...

On 11 April 1951, Truman announced that he had removed MacArthur from his command and replaced him with General Matthew Ridgway, emphasising that military leaders must follow policies set by civilian ...

Scott developed the phonautograph, which used a horn to collect sound waves and direct them onto a membrane, and made a recording of a fragment of the song “Au Clair de la Lune” on 9 April ...

Turpin committed numerous highway robberies and soon became one of the most notorious criminals of his time, though he was ultimately executed for horse ...

Shortly after his inauguration, Harrison developed a cold that worsened into pneumonia from which he died. As well as becoming the first U.S. president to die in office this also marked the shortest presidency in US ...