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What else happened on the day you were born?
(Or at other times in history?)
Online

A-Z How to Find Information > Special Topics Archive

What else was happening when you came into the world? Were any famous people born on the same day? What major events took place in that year? What happened on your birth date in other years?
What national or world events happened in history on the same day and month as today?

Online

As a library member you can access a range of e-resources by logging in with your library card number and PIN.

  • Britannica Library Online - has a 'This day in history' feature on the front page every day, linking you to articles about, and images of, people and events
  • Newspapers Online - you can search by date two hundred and thirty years of newspapers!
    For recent decades, use PressReader; for dates from 1785 to 2008, use the Times Digital Archive. This gives you access to over two hundred years of the entire Times newspaper, including articles, photographs and other illustrations, advertisements and classified sections. To limit by date, simply click 'On' in the section that limits by date, then select your date. If you want to find obituaries enter the word 'obituary' in the search box.
  • Reference Books Online - hundreds of reference books for you to search including books arranged in date order and specially prepared timelines
  • Credo Reference - has the 'Hutchinson Chronology of World History' volumes 1-4, covering all periods of history in year order
  • Credo Reference - try simply entering a year in the search box. You will find all mentions of that year in a large range of reference books, including birth and death dates, dates when important novels were written, dates of paintings, and dates of events
  • If you see far more results than you want, click the option for longer entries. Longer entries are more likely to relate to more well-known people, things and events. Another way of reducing your results is to limit your search to a particular subject area, by clicking one of the subject categories
  • You could even try entering a day and month. Try searching different forms of the date and enter it in quotation marks. For example, try "14 July" and also "14th July"
  • History and archaeology on WebLinks - there are several web sites that enable you to search by date to find people, events and news

More resources


Page last updated: 29th August 2019