On This Day in 590 – Emperor Maurice proclaims his son Theodosius as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire.

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.

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Events for March 26


1351Combat of the Thirty: Thirty Breton knights call out and defeat thirty English knights.

1830 – The Book of Mormon is published in Palmyra, New York.

1896An explosion at the Brunner Mine near Greymouth, New Zealand kills 65 coal miners in the country's worst industrial accident.

1651Silver-loaded Spanish ship San José is pushed south by strong winds, subsequently it wrecks in the coast of southern Chile and its surviving crew is killed by indigenous Cuncos.

1954Nuclear weapons testing: The Romeo shot of Operation Castle is detonated at Bikini Atoll. Yield: 11 megatons.

1484William Caxton prints his translation of Aesop's Fables.

1931Swissair is founded as the national airline of Switzerland.

1922 – The German Social Democratic Party is founded in Poland.

1939Spanish Civil War: Nationalists begin their final offensive of the war.

1971East Pakistan declares its independence from Pakistan to form Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Liberation War begins.

1997 – Thirty-nine bodies are found in the Heaven's Gate mass suicides.

1967 – Ten thousand people gather for one of many Central Park be-ins in New York City.

1697Safavid government troops take control of Basra.

1958 – The African Regroupment Party is launched at a meeting in Paris.

1970South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu implements a land reform program to solve the problem of land tenancy.

1700William Dampier is the first European to circumnavigate New Britain, discovering it is an island (which he names Nova Britannia) rather than part of New Guinea.

1344 – The Siege of Algeciras, one of the first European military engagements where gunpowder was used, comes to an end.

1945 – World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends as the island is officially secured by American forces.

1636Utrecht University is founded in the Netherlands.

1640 – The Royal Academy of Turku, the first university of Finland, is founded in the city of Turku by Queen Christina of Sweden at the proposal of Count Per Brahe.

1169Saladin becomes the emir of Egypt.

2005 – Around 200,000 to 300,000 Taiwanese demonstrate in Taipei in opposition to the Anti-Secession Law of China.

Notable Births & Deaths for March 26

  1989Simon Kjær, Danish footballer
  2015 – Friedrich L. Bauer, German mathematician, computer scientist, and academic (b. 1924)
  2014 – Marcus Kimball, Baron Kimball, English politician (b. 1928)
  1990 – Matteo Guidicelli, Filipino actor, model, singer and former kart racer
  1986 – Emma Laine, Finnish tennis player
  1998Satoko Miyahara, Japanese figure skater
  2016Jim Harrison, American novelist, essayist, and poet (b. 1937)
  2013 – Dave Leggett, American baseball player (b. 1933)
  2011 – Diana Wynne Jones, English author (b. 1934)
  1990Choi Woo-shik, South Korean actor
  1989 – Von Miller, American football player
  1990 – Xiumin, South Korean singer and actor
  1996 – Kathryn Bernardo, Filipino actress
  2011Roger Abbott, English-Canadian actor, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1946)
  1990 – Patrick Ekeng, Cameroonian footballer (d. 2016)
  1990 – Yuya Takaki, Japanese idol, singer, dancer, model and actor
  2012 – Thomas M. Cover, American theorist and academic (b. 1938)
  1991Matt Davidson, American baseball player
  1992Nina Agdal, Danish model
  2014 – Dick Guidry, American businessman and politician (b. 1929)
  2009Shane McConkey, Canadian skier and BASE jumper (b. 1969)
  2014Roger Birkman, American psychologist and author (b. 1919)
  1994 – Paige VanZant, American mixed martial artist and model
  1986 – Rob Kearney, Irish rugby player
  2015 – Tomas Tranströmer, Swedish poet, translator, and psychologist Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1931)
  2013Tom Boerwinkle, American basketball player and sportscaster (b. 1945)
  2004Awra Briguela, Filipino actor and comedian
  2013 – Don Payne, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1964)
  2018Fabrizio Frizzi, Italian television presenter (b. 1958)
  2003Bhad Bhabie, American rapper and social media personality
  2012 – David Craighead, American organist and educator (b. 1924)
  1994Alison Van Uytvanck, Belgian tennis player
  1994 – Jed Wallace, English footballer
  1994 – Marcela Zacarías, Mexican tennis player
  2013 – Krzysztof Kozłowski, Polish journalist and politician, Polish Minister of Interior (b. 1931)
  2015Dinkha IV, Iraqi patriarch (b. 1935)
  2012 – Helmer Ringgren, Swedish theologian and academic (b. 1917)
  1996Zane Musgrove, New Zealand rugby league player
  2010Charles Ryskamp, American art collector and curator (b. 1928)
  1987 – Steven Fletcher, Scottish footballer
  1987 – Jermichael Finley, American football player
  1987Kim Dong-suk, South Korean footballer
  2011 – Geraldine Ferraro, American lawyer and politician (b. 1935)
  2009 – Arne Bendiksen, Norwegian singer and composer (b. 1926)
  1992 – Stoffel Vandoorne, Belgian racing driver
  2012 – Michael Begley, Irish carpenter and politician (b. 1932)
  2012Sisto Averno, American football player (b. 1925)
  2012 – Manik Godghate, Indian poet and educator (b. 1937)

 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 ..//
    }
  ]
} }

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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.

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