On This Day in 275 – For the last time, the Roman Senate chooses an emperor; they elect 75-year-old Marcus Claudius Tacitus.

History Delivered

OnThisDay is a simple API that can be used to fetch historical events into JSON format. While it's not hard to find a similar API, most of them require registration or just plain suck. Our service makes development quick and to the point.

No API Key Required

The OTD-API can be used free of charge but you may not use this service in a manner that exceeds reasonable request volume. When no API key is provided, attribution is required and the number of requests per IP address is limited.

Check out the full documentation →

Unlimited Requests

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Events for September 25


762 – Led by Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, the Hasanid branch of the Alids begins the Alid Revolt against the Abbasid Caliphate.

1912Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is founded in New York City.

1987 – Fijian Governor-General Penaia Ganilau is overthrown in a coup d'état led by Lieutenant colonel Sitiveni Rabuka.

1944World War II: Surviving elements of the British 1st Airborne Division withdraw from Arnhem via Oosterbeek.

1959Solomon Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, is mortally wounded by a Buddhist monk, Talduwe Somarama, and dies the next day.

1775 – American Revolution: Benedict Arnold's expedition to Quebec sets off.

1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese Eighth Route Army gains a minor, but morale-boosting victory in the Battle of Pingxingguan.

1962 – The North Yemen Civil War begins when Abdullah al-Sallal dethrones the newly crowned Imam al-Badr and declares Yemen a republic under his presidency.

1998PauknAir Flight 4101, a British Aerospace 146, crashes near Melilla Airport in Melilla, Spain, killing 38 people.

1911 – An explosion of badly degraded propellant charges on board the French battleship Liberté detonates the forward ammunition magazines and destroys the ship.

1790 – Four Great Anhui Troupes introduce Anhui opera to Beijing in honor of the Qianlong Emperor's eightieth birthday.

1804 – The Teton Sioux (a subdivision of the Lakota) demand one of the boats from the Lewis and Clark Expedition as a toll for allowing the expedition to move further upriver.

1890 – The United States Congress establishes Sequoia National Park.

1396 – Ottoman Emperor Bayezid I defeats a Christian army at the Battle of Nicopolis.

1513 – Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa reaches what would become known as the Pacific Ocean.

1775American Revolution: Ethan Allen surrenders to British forces after attempting to capture Montreal during the Battle of Longue-Pointe.

1918 – World War I: The end of the Battle of Megiddo, the climax of the British Army's Sinai and Palestine campaign under General Edmund Allenby.

1789 – The United States Congress passes twelve constitutional amendments: the ten known as the Bill of Rights, the (unratified) Congressional Apportionment Amendment, and the Congressional Compensation Amendment.

1962 – The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is formally proclaimed. Ferhat Abbas is elected President of the provisional government.

1957Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, is integrated by the use of United States Army troops.

1956TAT-1, the first submarine transatlantic telephone cable system, is inaugurated.

1690Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick, the first newspaper to appear in the Americas, is published for the first and only time.

1963Lord Denning releases the UK government's official report on the Profumo affair.

Notable Births & Deaths for September 25

  1990 – Daria Strokous, Russian model, actress, and photographer
  2016 – Arnold Palmer, American golfer (b. 1929)
  2012 – Alonso Lujambio, Mexican academic and politician (b. 1962)
  2013Ron Fenton, English footballer, coach, and manager (b. 1940)
  1993Brandin Cooks, American football player
  1992 – Ruslan Zhiganshin, Russian ice dancer
  2017Jan Tříska, Czech actor (b. 1936)
  2012 – Eric Ives, English historian and academic (b. 1931)
  2015 – John Galvin, American general (b. 1929)
  2014Ulrick Chérubin, Haitian-Canadian educator and politician (b. 1943)
  2012Billy Barnes, American composer and songwriter (b. 1927)
  2012 – Andy Williams, American singer (b. 1927)
  1993 – Abdel Nader, Egyptian-American basketball player
  1990Mao Asada, Japanese figure skater
  1987Monica Niculescu, Romanian tennis player
  1992Zoël Amberg, Swiss race car driver
  1993 – Toby Greene, Australian footballer
  1992 – Rosalía, Spanish singer-songwriter
  2013 – Choi In-ho, South Korean author and screenwriter (b. 1945)
  1987 – Mustafa Yumlu, Turkish footballer
  2012 – John Bond, English footballer and manager (b. 1923)
  1996 – Yue Yuan, Chinese tennis player
  1992 – Kerrod Holland, Australian rugby league player
  1989 – Aldon Smith, American football player
  2016José Fernández, Cuban-American baseball player (b. 1992)
  1991 – Calle Järnkrok, Swedish ice hockey player
  2011Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmentalist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1940)
  2015 – Moti Kirschenbaum, Israeli journalist (b. 1939)
  1991 – Alessandro Crescenzi, Italian footballer
  2013 – Bennet Wong, Canadian psychiatrist and academic, co-founded Haven Institute (Gabriola Island, Canada) (b. 1930)
  2013 – José Montoya, American poet and academic (b. 1932)
  2001Cade Cunningham, American basketball player
  2013 – Billy Mure, American guitarist and composer (b. 1915)
  1991Emmy Clarke, American actress
  2014 – Sulejman Tihić, Bosnian lawyer, judge, and politician (b. 1951)
  1989 – Cuco Martina, Curaçaoan footballer
  1996Anett Vilipuu, Estonian footballer
  1992 – Massimo Luongo, Australian footballer
  2009 – Pierre Falardeau, Canadian actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1946)
  2014 – Dorothy Tyler-Odam, English high jumper (b. 1920)
  1989Jordan Gavaris, Canadian actor
  1995Todd Hazelwood, Australian race car driver
  2016 – Nahid Hattar, Jordanian writer and political activist (b. 1960)
  2015Claudio Baggini, Italian Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1936)
  2015 – Tom Kelley, American baseball player and manager (b. 1944)
  1992 – Keauna McLaughlin, American figure skater
  2013 – Pablo Verani, Italian-Argentinian lawyer and politician (b. 1938)
  1986 – Choi Yoon-young, South Korean actress

 Quick Start

Our API is incredibly easy to use, check out the code samples below to get started:

Read the full documentation →

Fetch Historical Events

All you need to do is send a request to https://today.zenquotes.io/api/[month]/[day]/[key] in order to generate a JSON array of historical events, including notable births and deaths. API data pulled from WikiPedia.

*[key] not required but recommended.


Sample Requests

https://today.zenquotes.io/api - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for current server time (UTC).

https://today.zenquotes.io/api/1/1 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for January 1.

https://today.zenquotes.io/api/5/5 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for May 5.

https://today.zenquotes.io/api/12/25 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for December 25.


Response

The result data is formatted as a JSON array, grouped by event type.


{ "info":"OnThisDay API", "date":"April_20", "updated":"1615972324",
"data":{
  "Events":[ 
    { 
      "text":"1303 – The Sapienza University of Rome is instituted by a bull of Pope Boniface VIII.[1]", 
      "html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/1303\" title=\"1303\">1303</a> &#8211; The <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapienza_University_of_Rome\" title=\"Sapienza University of Rome\">Sapienza University of Rome</a> is instituted by a <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_bull\" title=\"Papal bull\">bull</a> of <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Boniface_VIII\" title=\"Pope Boniface VIII\">Pope Boniface VIII</a>." 
    },
    //.. MORE DATA ..//
  ],
  "Births":[ 
    { 
      "text":"1494 &#8211; Johannes Agricola, German theologian and reformer (d. 1566)&#91;8&#93;", 
      "html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/1494\" title=\"1494\">1494</a> &#8211; <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Agricola\" title=\"Johannes Agricola\">Johannes Agricola</a>, German theologian and reformer (d. 1566)" 
    },
    //.. MORE DATA ..//
  ],
  "Deaths":[ 
    { 
      "text":"689 &#8211; Cædwalla, king of Wessex (b. 659)&#91;21&#93;", 
      "html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/689\" title=\"689\">689</a> &#8211; <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A6dwalla_of_Wessex\" title=\"Cædwalla of Wessex\">Cædwalla</a>, king of <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Wessex\" title=\"Wessex\">Wessex</a> (b. 659)" },
      //.. MORE DATA ..//
    }
  ]
} }

 Usage Limits and Attribution

Requests are restricted to 5 per 30 second period, an API key or registered IP is required for unlimited access and to enable Access-Control-Allow-Origin headers. We require that you show attribution with a link back to https://today.zenquotes.io/ when using the free version of this API. Contact support@zenquotes.io to chat with our friendly dev team and get registered.

Historical event data provided by <a href="https://today.zenquotes.io/" target="_blank">ZenQuotes.io</a>
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