PastRush

What happened on my birthday?

Pick a date and open its case file: events from every century, famous people born that day and a five-clue game where you guess the year.

Case file

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    Facts from Wikipedia's On This Day, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Each line links to its article.

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    How to find out what happened on your birthday

    Pick your month and day and open the file. The tool pulls Wikipedia's On This Day archive for that date: notable events, people born that day and holidays observed on it. The events list starts with the most recent and goes back centuries, and every line links to its full Wikipedia article.

    By default the list leaves out wars, disasters and deaths, so it is easy to share with kids or read at a party. Tick "Include wars, disasters and deaths" to see the full record.

    The guess-the-year game

    Before you scroll the list, try the game. The tool picks five events from your date, spread from the 1500s to today, and you guess the year of each. A guess on the exact year scores 100 points. Points fall away the further off you are, so 10 years off still earns about 64 and 50 years off earns about 10. Share your score and a friend gets the same date to play.

    Guessing years is harder than it looks, and that is the point. You start using clues: the technology in the sentence, the countries named, the way events cause other events. That is exactly how historians date evidence.

    Ideas for using your birthday history

    • Birthday cards and toasts. One surprising event from someone's birthday makes a better opener than "another year older".
    • Classroom warm-ups. Open today's file and play the five clues as a class. It takes about three minutes.
    • Famous birthday twins. The "Born this day" tab lists people who share your birthday, newest first.
    • Family history. Check the dates of grandparents' birthdays or weddings and see what the world looked like then.

    Questions people ask

    Where does the information come from?

    Every event, birth and holiday comes live from Wikipedia's On This Day feed, which the Wikimedia Foundation publishes for free. Each line links to the article it comes from, so you can check the details.

    Can I see what happened on my exact birthday year?

    This tool shows everything that happened on your date across all years. For your birth year, scan the Events list for that year. It is sorted newest first.

    Why are some events missing?

    The default view hides wars, disasters and deaths. Tick the box under the list to include them. Wikipedia's archive also focuses on notable events, so smaller local history will not appear.

    How is the game scored?

    Each of the five clues is worth up to 100 points. An exact year scores 100, and points fall away smoothly the further your guess is from the real year.

    Does this work on February 29?

    Yes. Pick February and 29 and the tool opens events from every leap day in the archive.

    Is anything I enter saved?

    No. Your date only goes to Wikipedia to fetch that day's list. Nothing is stored, and there is no sign-up.

    Sources

    1. Wikipedia: Selected anniversaries
    2. Wikimedia Feed API: On this day
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