Historical events, births and deaths on a date

Events, births, deaths or holidays on a date (default: today).

Request

GEThttps://wikipedia-search.p.apihiver.com/v1/on-this-day?limit=2
Number. Default: today (1–12).
Number. Day of the month (default: today) (1–31).
String. events, births, deaths, holidays or selected (default events).
String. Wikipedia language code, e.g. en, hi, mr, ta (default en).
Number. Maximum number of results (1–100, default 20).
Language
Client
1curl --request GET \
2  --url 'https://wikipedia-search.p.apihiver.com/v1/on-this-day?month=%7Bmonth%7D&day=%7Bday%7D&type=%7Btype%7D&lang=%7Blang%7D&limit=2' \
3  --header 'Accept: application/json' \
4  --header 'X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY'

Historical events, births and deaths on a date: Wikipedia Search API reference

Events, births, deaths or holidays on a date (default: today). This endpoint is part of the Wikipedia Search API: Search Wikipedia in 300+ languages, get article summaries with images, 'on this day' events, random articles and autocomplete.

Example response (200, application/json)

Success.

1{
2  "date": "09-26",
3  "type": "events",
4  "count": 2,
5  "items": [
6    {
7      "text": "Hurricane Helene makes landfall in Perry, Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, killing over 250 people, causing US$78.7 billion in damage and becoming the deadliest hurricane in the mainland United States since Katrina.",
8      "year": 2024,
9      "pages": [
10        {
11          "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Helene",
12          "title": "Hurricane Helene"
13        },
14        {
15          "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry%2C_Florida",
16          "title": "Perry, Florida"
17        },
18        {
19          "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffir%E2%80%93Simpson_scale",
20          "title": "Saffir–Simpson scale"
21        }
22      ]
23    },
24    {
25      "text": "A mass shooting occurs at a school in Izhevsk, Udmurtia, Russia, resulting in the deaths of 18 people, including 11 children.",
26      "year": 2022,
27      "pages": [
28        {
29          "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izhevsk_school_shooting",
30          "title": "Izhevsk school shooting"
31        },
32        {
33          "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izhevsk",
34          "title": "Izhevsk"
35        },
36        {
37          "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udmurtia",
38          "title": "Udmurtia"
39        }
40      ]
41    }
42  ],
43  "attribution": "Content from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0"
44}

Errors

  • 400 — A required parameter is missing or a value has the wrong format.
    1{
    2  "error": {
    3    "code": "INVALID_INPUT",
    4    "message": "A parameter has the wrong format — the message names it."
    5  }
    6}

Gateway errors (missing key, no subscription, rate limits) are listed in Error codes.