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Sometimes, the best bits of the web are the most retro and the 'On This Day' site is about as old school as they come. You guys know the drill: you type in a date and the site spits back a list of famous people who were born on that day, historical events that occurred on that day, et cetera. We all fired up Prodigy back in 1996 and visited these sites.

But, 1996 is a long time ago and no one remembers what Prodigy was (besides a one hit wonder British electronica group) and so I thought to myself "wouldn't it be cool to visit the 'On This Day' sites that exist today and see how, if at all, they've changed, improved, and grown in the depth of their coverage?" Yes, that's a pretty articulate thought to just have to yourself. So what?

After the break, enjoy my foray into the world of 'On This Day' sites.


To focus this adventure, I thought it might be fun to learn all about what happened on my birthday throughout history. So, I headed over to on-this-day.com, the granddaddy of the 'On This Day' sites, and typed in August 24. Either my birthday is a really depressing day, or on-this-day.com likes to focus on disasters:



Yeeesh. I mean, okay, sure, I get that history is full of horrific tragedies, but I would have preferred to hear about how the guy who invented peanut butter was born on my birthday or something.

To clear the air, I went looking for some 'On This Day' sites focused on art and I found a couple of good ones. IMDB runs a cool 'On This Day' site focused all around movies and there's also a site all about Billboard's number one songs. What did they they turn up for me?


Oh man! Dave Chappelle! Who doesn't love Dave Chappelle? But yoooowza...wow..The Black Eyed Peas...Rihanna...and Sean Kingston? All right, I'm sorry everyone. My birthday has been responsible for some terrible music.


I figured I needed to class things up a bit, so I tried out The New York Times' 'On This Day' site. The Times' site was kind of disappointing: it's essentially identical to on-this-day.com. They did have one nifty feature, though, in which you could buy a reproduction of any front page going all the way back to 1851. I didn't buy the front page of August 24, 1851, but I was tempted, let me tell you.


The more I poked around, the more I realized just what a variety of 'On This Day' sites exist these days. Reference.com has a really neat one. Although it's similar to others, it stands out because it provides tons of quick links for all of the events it describes. If you're particularly interested in famous birthdays, I recommend the 'On This Day' site that biography.com runs. If you're only interested in your birth year, definitely try dmarie.com's time capsule generator. I'm particularly partial to the 'On This Day' site run by Finding Dulcinea. It turns up much more in-depth information than the other sites, although, if you're just looking for something to skim, it may not be the best choice.


Finally, there are even state and country specific 'On This Day' sites. Here's one for Oregon, one for Wisconsin, and one for Britain. I'm sure, with a little poking around, you'll be able to find one specific to whatever region in which you're interested.

These were all surprisingly fun to skim. If you're looking for a good way to while away some time, I definitely recommend checking them out. Now, if only someone would start doing those animated 'Choose Your Own Adventure' games that Prodigy used to have...