On This Day : History Facts

Every day has a past. On This Day shows you what happened on today's date — the events, the births, the deaths and the observances that share your calendar day, going back thousands of years. Open the app and today is already there. Step back a day, jump to your own birthday, or shuffle to a date at random and see what the world was doing. Reads like a timeline, not a list Entries hang off a vertical timeline, newest first, each with its year and how long ago it was. Tap one for the full story and a link to the source article. Keeps the days you have read Every day you open is stored on your device, pictures and all. Once a day is loaded you can read it again with no connection — underground, on a plane or out of signal. New days still need a connection the first time. Search what you have read Remember a fact but not the date? Search across every day you have opened and everything you have saved. Matching words are highlighted, results are sorted newest first, and one tap takes you back to the day it belongs to. A widget that changes on its own Put one fact on your home screen and it refreshes in the background, not only when you open the app. Four looks: follow your system theme, always light, always dark, or transparent so your wallpaper shows through. You choose which section it quotes from, and you can switch it off from Settings. One notification a day, with something in it The daily reminder carries a real event from today rather than an empty nudge. Set it to any time you like. A test button lets you check it works instead of waiting until tomorrow. Save what matters Bookmark anything worth keeping. Saved entries stay readable offline and are searchable alongside the rest. Discover Wikimedia's picture of the day with its full credit, and what people were reading on Wikipedia yesterday. Thirteen languages English, Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano, Português, Русский, Українська, Čeština, Svenska, Türkçe, العربية and 中文. Pick a language and the whole app follows — the interface and the history itself. German history comes from German Wikipedia rather than being translated from English, so you get what that edition actually recorded. Which sections are available depends on the language, because each Wikipedia edition maintains its own. Choose what you see Turn off any section you do not want and it disappears from the tabs. Light theme, dark theme, or follow your system. No account, no sign-up, no subscription Nothing to register and nothing to pay for. Open it and read. The app is supported by ads, and they stay out of the way: nothing full-screen while you are browsing dates or switching tabs, and new readers see no full-screen ads at all for their first few sessions. If you would rather read in peace, you can watch one short video for 30 minutes without ads — an option, never a gate. No feature is locked behind an ad. About the content Text comes from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. Every entry links back to its source article. Summaries are shortened for display. This app is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or developed by the Wikimedia Foundation.