This week in history we’ve got French heroes burning and Byzantine cities falling, we’ve got the birthdays of singers and spies and activists - that’s all actually just one person - and we’ve got the tale of the man who decided to reach the top of Mount Everest… by flying there in a plane.

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In this week's episode, meet J.R.R. Tolkien, the immensely influential fantasy author whose works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, revolutionised the fantasy genre and made it what it is today.

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This week in history we’ve got assassinations and defenestrations and the release of a hugely popular global franchise, we’ve got the birthdays of palaeontologists and queens and jazz musicians, and we’ve got one of the most ridiculous promotional disasters you’ll ever come across.

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In this week's episode, get to know the famed Chinese admiral Zheng He, who led seven voyages at the head of a huge treasure fleet for the glory of Ming China.

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This week in history we’ve got the test of the first-ever vaccine, and the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, we’ve got the birthdays of artists and political leaders and walking disasters, and we’ve got the end of the Crusader States in the Holy Land.

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In this week's episode, meet Pocahontas, the famous Indigenous American woman, and uncover the truth of her story - or as much of it as we know, at any rate.

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This week in history we’ve got the theft of the crown jewels and of a Confederate steamboat, we’ve got the birthdays of nurses and composers and artists, and we’ve got the story of the only British prime minister ever to have been assassinated.

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In this week's episode, get to know John Harrison, and understand how his pioneering marine chronometers finally solved the famous longitude problem and ushered in a new age of navigation at sea.

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This week in history we’ve got the union of crowns, the beginning of a revolution, and an aeronautical disaster, we’ve got the birthdays of political philosophers, and we’ve got the tale of one of the weirdest hoaxes you’ll ever hear.

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In this week's episode, hear the gruesome tale of the Donner Party, when a group of westward migrants became trapped in snow on the Sierra Nevada, forced to horrifying and desperate lengths in order to survive.

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This week in history we’ve got famous mutinies, huge canals, and wartime invasions, we’ve got the birthdays of writers of philosophy and plays and novels, and we’ve got something of a watershed moment in the history of Ireland.

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