On This Day in 1215 – Zhongdu (now Beijing), then under the control of the Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, is captured by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, ending the Battle of Zhongdu.

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 June 1


1941World War II: The Battle of Crete ends as Crete capitulates to Germany.

1950 – The Declaration of Conscience speech, by U.S. Senator from Maine, Margaret Chase Smith, is delivered in response to Joseph R. McCarthy's speech at Wheeling, West Virginia.

1939 – First flight of the German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter aircraft.

1979 – The first black-led government of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 90 years takes power.

1988 – The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty comes into effect.

1857 – The Revolution of the Ganhadores begins in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.

1812War of 1812: U.S. President James Madison asks the Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom.

1670 – In Dover, England, Charles II of England and Louis XIV of France sign the Secret Treaty of Dover, which will force England into the Third Anglo-Dutch War.

1862 – American Civil War: Peninsula Campaign: The Battle of Seven Pines (or the Battle of Fair Oaks) ends inconclusively, with both sides claiming victory.

1922 – The Royal Ulster Constabulary is founded.

1919Prohibition comes into force in Finland.

1958Charles de Gaulle comes out of retirement to lead France by decree for six months.

1941 – The Farhud, a massive pogrom in Iraq, starts and as a result, many Iraqi Jews are forced to leave their homes.

2009Air France Flight 447 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. All 228 passengers and crew are killed.

1999American Airlines Flight 1420 slides and crashes while landing at Little Rock National Airport, killing 11 people on a flight from Dallas to Little Rock.

1978 – The first international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty are filed.

2009 – General Motors files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It is the fourth largest United States bankruptcy in history.

1930 – The Deccan Queen is introduced as first intercity train between Bombay VT (Now Mumbai CST) and Poona (Pune) to run on electric locomotives.

1792Kentucky is admitted as the 15th state of the United States.

1535 – Combined forces loyal to Charles V attack and expel the Ottomans from Tunis during the Conquest of Tunis.

1950 – The Chinchaga fire ignites. By September, it would become the largest single fire on record in North America.

Notable Births & Deaths for June 1

  1991 – Tyrone Roberts, Australian rugby league player
  2008Tommy Lapid, Israeli journalist and politician, 17th Justice Minister of Israel (b. 1931)
  1988Javier Hernández, Mexican footballer
  2012Faruq Z. Bey, American saxophonist and composer (b. 1942)
  2005 – George Mikan, American basketball player and coach (b. 1924)
  1990Miller Bolaños, Ecuadoran footballer
  2015 – Joan Kirner, Australian educator and politician, 42nd Premier of Victoria (b. 1938)
  2002Hansie Cronje, South African cricketer (b. 1969)
  1994Kagayaki Taishi, Japanese sumo wrestler
  1985 – Sam Young, American basketball player
  2012 – Milan Gaľa, Slovak politician (b. 1953)
  1985Tirunesh Dibaba, Ethiopian runner
  1985 – Nick Young, American basketball player
  1982Justine Henin, Belgian tennis player
  2015 – Nicholas Liverpool, Dominican lawyer and politician, 6th President of Dominica (b. 1934)
  1986 – Ben Smith, New Zealand rugby player
  1996 – Tom Holland, English actor
  2007Tony Thompson, American singer and songwriter (b. 1975)
  2009Vincent O'Brien, Irish horse trainer (b. 1917)
  1999Technoblade, American YouTuber and streamer (d. 2022)
  1986 – Chinedu Obasi, Nigerian footballer
  1990 – Carlota Ciganda, Spanish golfer
  2018Sinan Sakić, Serbian pop-folk singer (b. 1956)
  1986Moses Ndiema Masai, Kenyan runner
  2012 – Pádraig Faulkner, Irish educator and politician, 19th Irish Minister of Defence (b. 1918)
  2015 – Jean Ritchie, American singer-songwriter (b. 1922)
  2015Charles Kennedy, Scottish journalist and politician (b. 1959)
  2005Hilda Crosby Standish, American physician (b. 1902)
  1984 – Olivier Tielemans, Dutch racing driver
  1987Zoltán Harsányi, Slovakian footballer
  2004William Manchester, American historian and author (b. 1922)
  2010Kazuo Ohno, Japanese dancer (b. 1906)
  2014 – Valentin Mankin, Ukrainian sailor (b. 1938)
  2015 – Jacques Parizeau, Canadian economist and politician, 26th Premier of Quebec (b. 1930)
  1996Edvinas Gertmonas, Lithuanian footballer
  2008 – Yves Saint Laurent, French fashion designer, founded Saint Laurent Paris (b. 1936)
  1984 – Nikki Glaser, American comedian
  2011Haleh Sahabi, Iranian humanitarian and activist (b. 1957)
  1985 – Dinesh Karthik, Indian cricketer
  1987 – Yarisley Silva, Cuban pole vaulter
  1984Jean Beausejour, Chilean footballer
  2019Ani Yudhoyono, Indonesian politician, 6th First Lady of Indonesia. (b. 1952)
  2010 – Andrei Voznesensky, Russian poet (b. 1933)
  1991Zazie Beetz, German-American actress
  1989Nataliya Goncharova, Ukrainian/Russian volleyball player
  2013James Kelleher, Canadian lawyer and politician, 33rd Solicitor General of Canada (b. 1930)
  1989 – Sammy Alex Mutahi, Kenyan runner
  2014Ann B. Davis, American actress (b. 1926)

 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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