On the morning of September 11th, 2001, terrorists from the Islamic extremist group Al Qaeda hijacked four commercial aircraft in a coordinated attack against targets in the United States. Two planes were intentionally crashed in New York City. A third hit the government’s military and defence headquarters at the Pentagon. The fourth jet plummeted into a field when passengers fought back against hijackers and prevented it from reaching a target in Washington. The atrocity, which became widely known as 9/11, saw almost 3,000 people from 93 different countries lose their lives.

Why did Al Qaeda target the United States? How did they devise a plan to use aircraft as weapons? And why did it take almost a decade to hunt down the terrorist mastermind, Osama bin Laden?

This is a Short History Of 9/11.

A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Garrett Graff, historian and author of The Only Plane in the Sky, an Oral History of 9/11.

Written by Jo Furniss | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Matt Peaty | Sound design by Mirianna Pitman-Latham | Assembly edit by Dorry Macaulay | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Fact check: Sean Coleman

Unlock the next two episodes of Short History Of… right now by subscribing to Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network, including Real Survival Stories and Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. Just click the subscription banner at the top of the feed, or head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions to get started.

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This is a preview of a brand-new audiobook from the Noiser Podcast Network. Join Dame Julie Andrews as she reads another beloved Austen classic, Emma, on the Jane Austen Stories podcast.

Step into the village of Highbury, home to the handsome and clever Emma Woodhouse.

As new visitors arrive and quiet mysteries unfold, what will our heroine learn both of the secrets of others and of her own hearts desires?

For more episodes, search for Jane Austen Stories in your podcast app and hit follow, or head to www.noiser.com

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Nina Simone was not only renowned for her powerful, groundbreaking music; she also became an icon of the civil rights movement at a crucial point in its evolution. And while she lived with the spotlight of fame trained firmly upon her, she struggled to keep her tempestuous personal life out of the public eye.

How did she use her bountiful talent to become a champion of political causes? Why did she ultimately spend so much of her life in self-imposed exile? And how much did private struggle impact her role as a public figure and her personal search for happiness?

This is a Short History Of Nina Simone.

A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Alan Light, a music journalist and author of the biography What Happened, Miss Simone?

Written by Dan Smith | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Matt Peaty | Sound design by Oliver Sanders | Assembly edit by Dorry Macaulay | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Fact check: Sean Coleman

Unlock the next two episodes of Short History Of… right now by subscribing to Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network, including Real Survival Stories and Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. Just click the subscription banner at the top of the feed, or head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions to get started.

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Isambard Kingdom Brunel is remembered as one of the greatest engineers of the nineteenth century. Working on a dizzying array of infrastructure projects, he pushed the boundaries of what was considered technologically possible, and drove forward Britain's industrial revolution.

What inspired Brunel to become such a multi-talented engineer? What was the secret of his incredible work ethic? And does he deserve his reputation as one of the most significant figures in Britain's industrial history?

This is a Short History Of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Tim Bryan, historian and author of Iron, Stone and Steam: Brunel's Railway Empire.

Written by Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Matt Peaty | Sound design by Oliver Sanders | Assembly edit by Dorry Macaulay | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Fact check: Sean Coleman

Unlock the next two episodes of Short History Of… right now by subscribing to Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network, including Real Survival Stories and Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. Just click the subscription banner at the top of the feed, or head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions to get started.

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With his expressive face and gravity-defying moustache, Salvador Dalí is one of the most recognisable – and influential – artists of the 20th century. Famed for his paintings of melting clocks and his lobster telephone, Dalí also cultivated a larger-than-life character for himself to play, using fashion and performance to blur the boundaries between art and reality. But alongside the deliberately provocative persona lurked a fascination with fascism and a sometimes-violent temper.  

So what can we be sure of about the life of an artist who loved to self-mythologise? And how did he become the best known of the surrealists, creating images that far outlasted his own lifetime?

This is a Short History Of Salvador Dalí.

A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Dr Elliott H King, a professor of art history at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, who has studied the life of Salvador Dalí for more than two decades.

Written by Nicola Rayner | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Matt Peaty | Sound design by Mirianna Pitman-Latham and George Tapp | Assembly edit by Dorry Macaulay | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Fact check: Sean Coleman

Unlock the next two episodes of Short History Of… right now by subscribing to Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network, including Real Survival Stories and Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. Just click the subscription banner at the top of the feed, or head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions to get started.

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Nellie Bly was one of the most famous journalists on earth, a trailblazer who forged a unique path through an industry in which few women had ever worked. Challenging powerful institutions and exposing hidden injustice, she chased danger across continents, shocking readers with the places she was willing to go in pursuit of a story.

But how did an ordinary young woman convince major editors to give her a chance to become a pioneer in journalism? What drove her to fake insanity in order to expose abuse inside a New York asylum? And how did she help change not just journalism, but the way women could move through the modern world?

This is a Short History Of Nellie Bly.

A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Brooke Kroeger, journalist and author of Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist.

Written by Lizzie Enfield | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Matt Peaty | Sound design by Mirianna Pitman-Latham | Assembly edit by Dorry Macaulay | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Fact check: Sean Coleman

Unlock the next two episodes of Short History Of… right now by subscribing to Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network, including Real Survival Stories and Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. Just click the subscription banner at the top of the feed, or head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions to get started.

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Ned Kelly, the leader of the infamous Kelly gang, has been described as Australia's only truly national hero. During a short but intense crime spree at the end of the 1870s, he led a gang of notorious outlaws who rampaged through the Australian bush, robbing banks and stealing horses as they evaded capture for more than two years.

For some, Kelly embodies a certain rugged, masculine Australian spirit - a heroic anti-establishment figure, standing up for poor farmers against the corruptions of the government and powerful landowners. Yet to the Victorian police who hunted him, he was nothing more than a thief and murderer.

So what put Ned Kelly on a collision course with the law? Was he a brave rebel, or a cold-blooded criminal? And how did the Australia he grew up in determine the course of his life – and the legend that formed after his death?

This is a Short History Of Ned Kelly.

A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Professor Graham Seal, an expert on Australian folklore and the author of 'Tell em I Died Game': The Legend of Ned Kelly.

Written by Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Mirianna Pitman-Latham and Matthew Peaty | Assembly edit by Dorry Macaulay | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Fact check: Sean Coleman

Unlock the next two episodes of Short History Of… right now by subscribing to Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network, including Real Survival Stories and Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. Just click the subscription banner at the top of the feed, or head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions to get started.

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It was once one of the great unsolved problems of the early modern world: the calculation of exactly how far east or west a given point was on the surface of the Earth. Longitude was a challenge that sat at the intersection of science, navigation, empire and time itself.  

For centuries, sailors had been able to determine latitude, or their position north or south, with reasonable confidence. But its counterpart remained dangerously elusive, leaving those traversing the oceans vulnerable to error, shipwreck and disaster. In the search for a solution, astronomers, inventors, statesmen, and seafarers all played their part.  

But why was Longitude so hard to figure out reliably? Who really solved the problem? And what changed when sailors could finally measure their position at sea with precision?

This is a Short History Of Longitude.

A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Dr Emily Akkermans, Curator of Time at Royal Museums Greenwich.

Written by Sean Coleman | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by George Colwey | Assembly edit by Dorry Macaulay | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw

Unlock the next two episodes of Short History Of… right now by subscribing to Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network, including Real Survival Stories and Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. Just click the subscription banner at the top of the feed, or head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions to get started.

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In April 1916, a small group of poorly-armed Irish radicals made a stand against the British Army, in a bid for independence for their homeland. Over six days during Easter week, almost 500 people died in the uprising, and thousands more were injured, leaving Dublin one of the most war-damaged cities in Europe.

The Irish insurgents in what some call the Poet’s Rebellion were not soldiers but writers, teachers, and thinkers. And though these men and women brought destruction and bloodshed to their own city, they were later hailed as heroes and martyrs who set the country on a new course. 

So what prompted intellectuals to take up arms in 1916? How did the rebels plan to overthrow the biggest empire on the planet? And why did a failed insurrection mean the beginning of the end of 800 years of British rule in Ireland?

This is a Short History Of Ireland’s Easter Rising.

A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Dr Diarmuid Ferriter, Professor of Modern Irish History at University College Dublin.

Written by Jo Furniss | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Mirianna Pitman-Latham and Matthew Peaty | Assembly edit by Dorry Macaulay | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Fact check: Sean Coleman

Unlock the next two episodes of Short History Of… right now by subscribing to Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network, including Real Survival Stories and Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. Just click the subscription banner at the top of the feed, or head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions to get started.

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In 1986, seven astronauts boarded Space Shuttle Challenger for what was meant to be a routine tenth flight of the orbiter. Seventy-three seconds after lift-off, the shuttle broke apart in front of millions of viewers, in what remains one of the worst disasters in the history of human spaceflight.

But how did a craft NASA claimed was as safe as an airliner come to fail in full view of a watching nation? Who knew the risks, and when? And why, seventeen years later, did it happen again?

This is a Short History Of the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster.

A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Dr. Matthew Hersch, an historian at New York and Harvard universities, and author of Dark Star: A New History of the Space Shuttle.

Written by Kate Harrison | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Mirianna Pitman-Latham and Matthew Peaty | Assembly edit by Dorry Macaulay | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Fact check: Sean Coleman

Unlock the next two episodes of Short History Of… right now by subscribing to Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network, including Real Survival Stories and Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. Just click the subscription banner at the top of the feed, or head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions to get started.

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The Brink’s-Mat robbery was one of the largest thefts in British history. The discovery of the record-breaking haul in a west London warehouse in 1983 set off a chain of events that would echo through Britain’s criminal underworld for decades. It helped shape the property boom of the 1980s, the drugs trade of the 1990s and left an enduring mark on UK crime and policing.  

But who were the men behind the so-called robbery of the century? Why did the tentacles of the theft reach so far? And what is the “curse of Brink’s-Mat”?

This is a Short History Of the Brink’s-Mat Robbery.

A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Wensley Clarkson, author of The Curse of Brink’s-Mat: 25 years of Murder and Mayhem.

Written by Nicola Rayner | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Pascal Wyse | Assembly edit by Dorry Macaulay | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Fact check: Sean Coleman

Unlock the next two episodes of Short History Of… right now by subscribing to Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network, including Real Survival Stories and Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. Just click the subscription banner at the top of the feed, or head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions to get started.

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