How to Search On This Day

Our on this day in history search engine has been designed to be both simple and powerful to use. Below we explain some of our search's more powerful features.

General Search Tips


  • Searches are not case sensitive. e.g. orange and Orange return the same results.
  • To search for all years, leave the year field blank.
  • A maximum of 300 results are shown per page. To view more results click on the "< Previous", 1, 2 ... or "Next >" links below each section.
  • You can narrow your search by selecting only a single type. e.g. Famous Birthdays
  • All result pages are unique and thus can be bookmarked and linked to. When clicked the links will deliver the same results you previously searched for.

Boolean Operators


You can use boolean operators in a search in the same way you can on Google and other search engines.

  • ""
    Quotes can be used to search for a phrase. e.g. "World Record"
  • *
    A star can be used as a wildcard operator in a search to return all results starting with the letters entered. e.g. Reco*
  • -
    Minus signs can be used to exclude a term from the results. e.g. World -Record
  • +
    Plus signs can be used to include a term in the results. e.g World +Record, note that this gives the same results as a search for Record by itself.
  • ( )
    Brackets can be used to group words into subexpressions. Bracketed groups can also be nested. e.g. ("World Record") -runs

Multiple boolean operators can also be used togther in a search.

Search Restrictions


  • You must select more than just a day
  • You must select more than just a month.
  • All keyword(s) searches must be at least 4 characters long.

Famous People and Topics

When a keyword(s) with no date information is entered and the keyword(s) match a country, famous person or a topic exactly our search engine will re-direct you straight to the relevant page. To get around this you can place a plus sign in front of one of the keywords. e.g. +New Zealand

Searching by Channel


OnThisDay.com has four channels that can be searched for channel specific results.

Search On This Day in Film & TV

Search On This Day in History

Search On This Day in Music

Search On This Day in Sport

Habla EspaƱol?


OnThisDay.com has a sister site in Spanish, called Hoy en la Historia, which can be searched in Spanish.

On This Day in SpanishHoy en la Historia
(Spanish Language)