On this Day in History: A Research Guide

Whether looking up your birth date or other days in history, it is interesting to find out what events took place locally, nationally, and around the globe. Equally as fascinating are the prices that people paid for cars and houses, as well as products advertised. The resources listed below will help researcher find both events and facts about days passed. This guide introduces the researcher to some of the basic informational sources on the topic. The terms and phrases listed in the subject headings below can be used to search for more materials in the library's catalog and research databases. If you need further assistance, please ask a librarian.

American Book of Days, 4th ed. by Stephen G. Christianson. New York: H. W. Wilson, 2000. ISBN: 0824209540.
Essays explore significant events for each day of the year including military, scientific, ethnic, and cultural events. An appendix features historical documents.

The Big Book of Dates: A Chronology of the Most Important People, Events, and Achievements of All Time by Laurie E. Rozakis. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001. ISBN: 0071361022.
Chronological guide to the most important people, events, ideas, inventions, art, and achievements including fascinating sidebars about home, fashion, and fun, and excerpts from primary documents.

Chase's Calendar of Events. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004. ISBN: 0071424059.
A calendar of over 12,000 listings with special days, weeks, and months as well as holidays, historical anniversaries, and fairs and festivals.

On This Date: A Day-by-Day Listing of Holidays, Birthday and Historic Events, and Special Days, Weeks and Months edited by Sandra Whiteley, et al. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 2003. ISBN: 0071398279.
Comprised of select entries from the Chase's Calendar of Events, this handy, fact-filled reference is packed with more than 2,000 events, milestones and trivia.

The Oxford Book of Days by Bonnie J. Blackburn and Leofranc Holford-Strevens. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN: 0198662602.
Includes historical facts, legend, lore, and literature listed for each season, month, and day of the calendar.

America in the 20th Century, 2nd ed. 13 vols. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish, 2003. ISBN: 0761473645.
Organized by decade and features photos and art, vols. 1–10 consider important people and trends in American politics, social policy and civil rights, foreign policy, popular culture and recreation, economy and trade, literature and arts, and the environment. A selection of over one hundred primary sources are contained in vols. 11 and 12. Grades 7 and up.

America's Century: Year by Year from 1900 to 2000 by Tom Anderson and Clifton Daniel. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2000. ISBN: 0789453398.
Events of the 20th century are recounted year-by-year in newspaper-style reports. Also includes over 1,300 full-color photographs and drawings.

American Chronicle: Seven Decades in American Life, 1920–1989 by Lois G. Gordon and Alan Gordon. New York: Crown, 1990. ISBN: 0517575752.
Highlights of each decade are reviewed including vital economic, social, and consumer statistics.

American Decades by Vincent Tompkins, et al. 10 vols. Detroit: Gale Research, 1994–2001. ISBN: 0810357224. Vol. 1: 1900–1909; vol. 2: 1910–1919; vol. 3: 1920–1929; vol. 4: 1930–1939; vol. 5: 1940–1949; vol. 6: 1950–1959; vol. 7: 1960–1969; vol. 8: 1970–1979; vol. 9: 1980–1989; vol. 10: 1990–1999.
Documents and analyzes periods of contemporary American social history. Presents overview of time period and chronology covering the entire decade including an explanatory background overview; subject-specific time line; and alphabetically arranged entries discussing the people, events and ideas important to that subject during the period.

The People's Chronology: A Year-by-Year Record of Human Events from Prehistory to the Present by James Trager. New York: Henry Holt, 1994. ISBN: 0805031340.
Comprehensive reference detailing everyday social and political life.

The Timetables of History: A Horizontal Linkage of People and Events, 3rd ed. by Bernard Grun and Werner Stein. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991. ISBN: 0671749196.
Lists more than 30,000 events in an overview of 7,000 years of civilization highlighting significant moments in history, politics, philosophy, religion, art, science, and technology.

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Anyday: Today in History
www.scopesys.com/anyday/
Provides brief listing of historic events that occurred on a selected days.

dMarie Time Capsule
http://dmarie.com/timecap/
Enter a date and create a time capsule that highlights events, famous people born on that date, popular music, movies, books, TV shows and toys during that time.

The New York Times: On This Day www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/index.html
Provides brief information on events and photographs of famous people.

This Day in History
www.historychannel.com/today/
Select a date and retrieve general interest or any of the following categories: automotive, Civil War, cold war, crime, entertainment, literary, Old West, Vietnam War, Wall Street, World War II. Provides more detailed information.

Today in History from Library of Congress
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/today/today.html
Provides in-depth information on national historical events.