On This Day in 1500 – Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral lands in Brazil (discovery of Brazil).

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 April 22


1945 – World War II: Prisoners at the Jasenovac concentration camp revolt. Five hundred twenty are killed and around eighty escape.

1944 – World War II: In Greenland, the Allied Sledge Patrol attack the German Bassgeiger weather station.

1969 – The formation of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) is announced at a mass rally in Calcutta.

1993 – Eighteen-year-old Stephen Lawrence is murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus in Well Hall, Eltham.

1969 – British yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston wins the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race and completes the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world.

1954Red Scare: Witnesses begin testifying and live television coverage of the Army–McCarthy hearings begins.

1992 – A series of gas explosions rip through the streets in Guadalajara, Mexico, killing 206.

1930 – The United Kingdom, Japan and the United States sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting shipbuilding.

1519 – Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés establishes a settlement at Veracruz, Mexico.

2020 – Four police officers are killed after being struck by a truck on the Eastern Freeway in Melbourne while speaking to a speeding driver, marking the largest loss of police lives in Victoria Police history.

1944 – World War II: Operation Persecution is initiated: Allied forces land in the Hollandia (currently known as Jayapura) area of New Guinea.

1809 – The second day of the Battle of Eckmühl: The Austrian army is defeated by the First French Empire army led by Napoleon and driven over the Danube in Regensburg.

1915World War I: The use of poison gas in World War I escalates when chlorine gas is released as a chemical weapon in the Second Battle of Ypres.

2016 – The Paris Agreement is signed, an agreement to help fight global warming.

1970 – Chicano residents in San Diego, California occupy a site under the Coronado Bridge, leading to the creation of Chicano Park.

1898Spanish–American War: President William McKinley calls for 125,000 volunteers to join the National Guard and fight in Cuba, while Congress more than doubles regular Army forces to 65,000.

1529Treaty of Zaragoza divides the eastern hemisphere between Spain and Portugal along a line 297.5 leagues (1,250 kilometres (780 mi)) east of the Moluccas.

1945 – World War II: Sachsenhausen concentration camp is liberated by soldiers of the Red Army and Polish First Army.

2005 – Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi apologizes for Japan's war record.

1836Texas Revolution: A day after the Battle of San Jacinto, forces under Texas General Sam Houston identify Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna among the captives of the battle when some of his fellow soldiers mistakenly give away his identity.

1864 – The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 that permitted the inscription In God We Trust be placed on all coins minted as United States currency.

Notable Births & Deaths for April 22

  1979Zoltán Gera, Hungarian international footballer and manager
  1991Danni Wyatt, English cricketer
  1983Sam W. Heads, English-American entomologist and palaeontologist
  2011Violet McGraw, American actress
  2009Jack Cardiff, British cinematographer, director and photographer (b. 1914)
  2005 – Philip Morrison, American physicist and academic (b. 1915)
  1990 – Eve Muirhead, Scottish curler
  2010Richard Barrett, American lawyer and activist (b. 1943)
  1987David Luiz, Brazilian footballer
  1966Mickey Morandini, American baseball player and manager
  2012George Rathmann, American chemist, biologist, and businessman (b. 1927)
  1996 – Jug McSpaden, American golfer and architect (b. 1908)
  2006 – Alida Valli, Italian actress (b. 1921)
  2015Dick Balharry, Scottish environmentalist and photographer (b. 1937)
  1995Jane Kenyon, American poet and author (b. 1947)
  1980Quincy Timberlake, Kenyan-Australian activist, engineer, and politician
  1978Paul Malakwen Kosgei, Kenyan runner and coach
  2013 – Lalgudi Jayaraman, Indian violinist and composer (b. 1930)
  1999Munir Ahmad Khan, Pakistani nuclear engineer (b. 1926)
  1966 – Jeffrey Dean Morgan, American actor
  2020Shirley Knight, American actress (b. 1936)
  1970Regine Velasquez, Filipino singer and actress
  1990 – Kevin Kiermaier, American baseball player
  2017Donna Leanne Williams, Australian writer, artist, and activist (b. 1963)
  2014Oswaldo Vigas, Venezuelan painter (b. 1926)
  1979 – Daniel Johns, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
  1967David J. C. MacKay, English physicist, engineer, and academic (d. 2016)
  2005Erika Fuchs, German translator (b. 1906)
  2023Len Goodman, English ballroom dancer and television personality (b. 1944)
  1982Kaká, Brazilian footballer
  1986 – Marshawn Lynch, American football player
  1963 – Sean Lock, English comedian and actor (d. 2021)
  1988Dee Strange-Gordon, American baseball player
  1976Dan Cloutier, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  2007Juanita Millender-McDonald, American educator and politician (b. 1938)
  1986Amber Heard, American actress
  2022Guy Lafleur, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1951)
  2013 – Robert Suderburg, American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1936)
  1967 – Sherri Shepherd, American actress, comedian, and television personality
  1990Machine Gun Kelly, American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor
  1983 – Shkëlzen Shala, Albanian entrepreneur and veganism activist
  2021Adrian Garrett, American professional baseball player (b. 1943)
  1996Erma Bombeck, American journalist and author (b. 1927)
  2013Richie Havens, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1941)
  2003Felice Bryant, American songwriter (b. 1925)
  2006Henriette Avram, American computer scientist and academic (b. 1919)
  2005 – Eduardo Paolozzi, Scottish sculptor and artist (b. 1924)
  1963Rosalind Gill, English sociologist and academic

 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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