In my Thesis I have studied the environments of historical supernovae of different types, observationally, backed up with theoretical modelling of the local hydrodynamic interactions. The radio emission produced by the hydrodynamical interaction of the SN ejecta with the circumstellar environment can be used to derive clues on the pre-supernova star system, i.e. can be used as a test of SN progenitor systems. In the interstellar medium around SNe, instead, light echoes produced by the scattering of the supernova light by dust can be used to determine extragalactic distances geometrically (Sparks 1994, 1996). In my presentation I will outline the results obtained from these studies.