About On This Day


With over 234,000 entries On This Day is the world's largest, most accurate and popular site for on this day in history.

Our extensive today in history archives evolved from a smaller database originally collated by Bruce T. Goldman that we have added to, expanded and corrected. Our dedicated team of history lovers has also had the invaluable help of many of our visitors who regularly send us omissions and corrections and valuable feedback.

Important Events

  • 2000-12-22 On This Day launched as HistoryOrb.com
  • 2004-12-12 On This Day launches MusicOrb.com and TodayinSport.com, separate sites for music and sports history, now our music and sport channels
  • 2008-10-04 On This Day (then HistoryOrb.com) receives its first major overhaul and redesign
  • 2012-03-27 On This Day launches a sister site in Spanish, Hoy en la Historia
  • 2015-07-21 On This Day changes its domain name and brand from HistoryOrb.com to OnThisDay.com
  • 2016-01-27 On This Day receives its second substantial face-lift, courtesy of a fresh new website design and brand by design studio Fhoke. Dedicated history and film and television channels are launched alongside the new design.
  • 2017-08-17 On This Day helps launch Borneo Dictionary, an online not for profit dictionary of indigenous Borneo languages with translations in English and Bahasa Malaysia
  • 2021-04-19 On This Day Pte. Ltd. incorporated in Singapore

Famous Editors

Person-of-interestJames Graham - Managing Editor

James founded On This Day in 2000 as History Orb and it has kept him busy ever since!

He shares his love of history with a love of travel, often combining the two in trips to see historical places and ancient archeological sites. Some of his favourites have been the Angkor Wat complex of temples in Cambodia, the numerous Chachapoyas ruins of northern Peru and the majestic Machu Picchu, near Cusco in Peru.

James has Conjoint Bachelor of Arts and Commerce degrees from the University of Auckland, majoring in political studies and economics.

Person-of-interestWendy Graham - Senior Editor

Wendy is our resident expert in ancient history and thus swears she has seen enough entries about popes to last a life time! When not pulling her hair out ensuring On This Day is as accurate as possible, she loves to read and spend time with her young family.

Wendy has a Masters of Arts with first class honours majoring in Ancient History from the University of Auckland. Since then she has worked in both university and research libraries and in the book publishing industry, both in the United Kingdom and in New Zealand.

Person-of-interestAlmalyn Ayok - Photo & Social Editor

Almalyn is our photo and social media guru and thus spends her day sourcing the most interesting historical photos and sharing them via our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter feeds.

Almalyn has a Bachelor of Social Science from the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) in Kuching, Borneo. Her native language is Bidayuh Biatah, which she is working to preserve as a co-founder of Borneo Dictionary, a not for profit project supported by On This Day.

Person-of-interestBen Gaskin - Editor

Ben is passionate about bird law, dogs (especially Golden Retrievers and Whippets) and Photoshop trickery, mainly to inflict visual puns on friends and passersby.

He is studying towards Conjoint Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees at the University of Auckland, with a particular interest in psychology.

Person-of-interestBriar Hollings - Editor

Briar works tirelessly on keeping On This Day fresh and up to date and processes corrections and submissions from our visitors.

Briar has a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and History and is currently pursuing a Masters in Conflict and Terrorism from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, with the goal of becoming a master in conflict and terrorism. We assume this is why she enjoys firing a crossbow in her spare time.

Person-of-interestIan Trent - Sports Editor

If you were looking for a specialist to take care of your sport channel why wouldn’t you hire the guy who wrote the book On This Day in Sport, Ian Trent? Well, we did!

Ian has spent his life talking, writing, editing, producing, coaching and playing sport. He has worked primarily in radio sport but has also dabbled in television and obviously print. Ian also coached the Australian Women’s Water Polo team to a World Championship gold medal in 1986 and World Cup win in 1984.

He has a BA, Dip Ed from Sydney University and has a special interest in the Essendon and Sydney Swans AFL clubs, West Ham United F.C., San Francisco Giants MLB club and the Colorado Avalanche in the NHL.

Person-of-interestPeter Stapleton - Editor

As a grammar pedant he strives to ensure that no On This Day reader will suffer the agony of seeing a grocer’s apostrophe.

Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Chemistry (yes, really!) from New College, Oxford, and has recently retired from working in finance for a global telecoms company. He does voluntary work with a couple of young people’s organisations, is on his local Parochial Church Council, and is a Cotswold Morris dancer (which has directly contributed to surgery to both his knees).

Person-of-interestSam Button - Editor

When he's not adding entries or updating famous people for On This Day, Sam counts video editing as a big passion, and has created a number of his own historical education videos. He’s also a big fan of writing and has written a few things for North & South magazine. He hopes that one day he can travel the world – while working for On This Day on his laptop!.

Born and raised in Auckland, Sam gained his Bachelor of Arts in History and International Relations from the University of Auckland.

Person-of-interestRay Setterfield - Feature Writer

Ray is a retired journalist who has worked on newspapers in the UK for 40 years, starting as a junior reporter on Berrow's Worcester Journal – the oldest surviving newspaper in the world. During his career he has been a "Fleet Street" sub-editor on both the Daily Telegraph and The Times.

Passionate about Shakespeare, he thinks nothing of queueing for an hour or two to win a prized place leaning on the stage with other "groundlings" in the reconstructed Globe Theatre on London's South Bank.

Ray also finds photography and social history absorbing and it was this interest that led him to explore and eventually write for On This Day. His feature articles shine light on some of history's more obscure and interesting events.


Our Google Adsense Success Story


For the 10 year anniversary of Google's Adsense program, Google sent a professional video crew to profile 10 publisher success stories around the world, including us!

We called ourselves HistoryOrb.com then, which as this video embarrassingly shows was much harder to say out loud than On This Day!

Enjoy the story and the scenery of our then beautiful home base, Tauranga, New Zealand.


Corrections, Submissions and Referencing


Corrections and submissions can be sent via our corrections page.

Referencing information on how to reference On This Day in your essay or paper can be found on our referencing page.

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