OnThisDay.js

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OnThisDay.js is a zero-dependency JavaScript library for fetching historical events, births, deaths, and holidays from the Wikimedia REST API. It works in Node.js 18+ and modern browsers.

Example and usage

How to use OnThisDay.js:

import { OnThisDay } from 'https://esm.sh/gh/MarketingPipeline/OnThisDay.js';

// Fetch events, births, and deaths for a specific date
try {
    const result = await OnThisDay(7, 4);
    
    console.log(result.getEvents());   // historical events
    console.log(result.getBirths());   // famous births
    console.log(result.getDeaths());   // notable deaths
    console.log(result.getHolidays()); // holidays & observances
    console.log(result.getSelected()); // editor's picks
    console.log(result.getAll());      // everything at once
    console.log(result.getRaw());      // full Wikimedia response
} catch (error) {
    console.log(error.message)
}

// Fetch events, births, and deaths that happened on the current date.
try {
    const onToday = await OnThisDay()
    console.log('All Data:', onToday.getAll());
    console.log('Births:', onToday.getBirths());
    console.log('Deaths:', onToday.getDeaths());
    console.log('Events:', onToday.getEvents());
    console.log('Holidays:', onToday.getHolidays());
    console.log('Editor Picks:', onToday.getSelected());
    console.log('Wikimedia:', onToday.getRaw());
} catch (error) {
    console.log(error.message)
}

// With options
try {
    const withOptions = await OnThisDay(7, 4, {
      lang: 'de',       // see supported languages below
      timeout: 5000     // milliseconds
    });
} catch (error) {
    console.log(error.message)
}

// Invalid date
try {
    await OnThisDay(2, 30);
} catch (error) {
    console.log(error.message)
}

// Unsupported language
try {
    await OnThisDay(7, 4, { lang: 'ja' });
} catch (error) {
    console.log(error.message)
}

Options

Option	Default	Description
lang	'en'	en, es, de, fr, zh, ru, ar, pt, sv, tr, cs, uk
timeout	10000	Request timeout in milliseconds

Contributing

Want to improve this? Create a pull request with detailed changes.

See the list of contributors who participate in this project.

License

This library is open-source and available under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more details.