A day on the globeROENES中文
The Earth on 7 March, with the rays of the day’s events
  1. A birthday on the globe

    7 March on the globe: what happened in the world on this day, and who was born

    For 7 March, the English Wikipedia lists 38 events and 145 births. 18 of the events stand at their places as rays of light; seven more are dashed circles, where the sentence links only to a country or a sea. The taller the ray, the longer ago it happened. The people born that day come further down, as blue points.

    A birthday, yours or someone else’s:

  2. The Earth on 7 March

    The picture on the globe was assembled by NASA from satellite photographs taken in March 2004: the snow, the ice and the green are those of the month.

    On 7 March the Sun passes straight overhead at noon along the parallel of 5.1° south. In London, the day lasts about 11 hours 20 minutes.

    Beyond 85° south the Sun no longer sets; beyond 85° north it no longer rises.

    The line between day and night is tilted on the globe exactly as on this day of the year. On the dark side you can see the lights of towns.

  3. 7 March

    Europe#

    Six events from the day’s list are placed here, between 1814 and 2024.

    The globe stops at one of them; the whole list is further down. All six

  4. Europe · Parliament House, Helsinki

    1931

    The Parliament House of Finland is officially inaugurated in Helsinki, Finland.

    On the map: Parliament House, Helsinki.

    Wikipedia: Parliament House, Helsinki

  5. 7 March

    Asia#

    10 events from the day’s list are placed here, between 681 and 2007.

    The globe stops at one of them; the whole list is further down. All 10

  6. Asia · 7 March Speech of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

    1971

    Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, political leader of then East Pakistan (present day-Bangladesh), delivers his historic 7th March speech in the Racecourse Field (Now Suhrawardy Udyan) in Dhaka.

    On the map: the coordinates Wikidata gives for the article “7 March Speech of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman”.

    Wikipedia: 7 March Speech of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

  7. 7 March

    What the other Wikipedias remember#

    For these years the English list has nothing on this day. The events below come from the same day’s lists on Wikipedia in Romanian and were translated for this page.

  8. From Wikipedia in Romanian · South Pole

    1912

    The success of Roald Amundsen's expedition to the South Pole (14 December 1911) is announced publicly, when the ship Fram arrives at Hobart, in Australia.

    On the map: South Pole.

    Translated from the list on Wikipedia in Romanian.

    The article on Wikipedia in Romanian: Roald Amundsen

  9. 7 March

    Born on 7 March#

    The English Wikipedia lists 145 births for this day. The blue points are the birthplaces of 60 of these people: those written about in the most Wikipedia editions, where Wikidata gives a place of birth.

  10. Born on 7 March

    1785

    Alessandro Manzoni, Italian author and poet (died 1873)

    Place of birth: Milan.

    Wikipedia: Alessandro Manzoni

  11. Born on 7 March

    1875

    Maurice Ravel, French pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1937)

    Place of birth: Ciboure.

    Wikipedia: Maurice Ravel

  12. Born on 7 March

    1970

    Rachel Weisz, English actress

    Place of birth: Westminster.

    Wikipedia: Rachel Weisz

  13. Born on 7 March

    1872

    Piet Mondrian, Dutch-American painter (died 1944)

    Place of birth: Amersfoort.

    Wikipedia: Piet Mondrian

  14. Born on 7 March

    1792

    John Herschel, English mathematician and astronomer (died 1871)

    Place of birth: Slough.

    Wikipedia: John Herschel

  15. Born in Britain and Ireland

    1994

    Jordan Pickford, English footballer

    Place of birth: Washington.

    Wikipedia: Jordan Pickford

  16. Born in Britain and Ireland

    1963

    E. L. James, English author

    Place of birth: London.

    Wikipedia: E. L. James

  17. Born in Britain and Ireland

    1957

    Robert Harris, English journalist and author

    Place of birth: Nottingham.

    Wikipedia: Robert Harris

  18. The whole globe of the day

    Drag the globe to turn it. Touch a ray or a point to read what happened there.

Everything Wikipedia lists for 7 March

The list is the English Wikipedia’s, in its own wording, as it stood in October 2026. 13 events have no place on the map: the sentence links to no place with coordinates, only to places too wide to mark, or to several countries.

  1. 161

    Marcus Aurelius and L. Commodus (who changes his name to Lucius Verus) become joint emperors of Rome on the death of Antoninus Pius.

    no place on the mapWikipedia: Marcus Aurelius
  2. 321

    Emperor Constantine I decreed that Sunday, the day honoring the sun god Sol Invictus, would be the Roman day of rest.

  3. 681

    The Third Council of Constantinople deposes patriarch Macarius I of Antioch.

    Asia · Third Council of ConstantinopleWikipedia: Third Council of Constantinople
  4. 1138

    Konrad III von Hohenstaufen is elected king of Germany at Coblenz in the presence of the papal legate Theodwin.

  5. 1277

    The University of Paris issues the last in a series of condemnations of various philosophical and theological theses.

  6. 1573

    A peace treaty is signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice, ending the Ottoman–Venetian War and leaving Cyprus in Ottoman hands.

  7. 1799

    Napoleon Bonaparte captures Jaffa in Palestine and his troops proceed to kill more than 2,000 Albanian captives.

    Asia · Siege of JaffaWikipedia: Siege of Jaffa
  8. 1814

    Emperor Napoleon I of France wins the Battle of Craonne.

    Europe · Battle of CraonneWikipedia: Battle of Craonne
  9. 1826

    Shrigley abduction: 15-year old Ellen Turner is abducted by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a future figure in the establishment of colonies in South Australia and New Zealand.

  10. 1850

    Senator Daniel Webster gives his "Seventh of March" speech endorsing the Compromise of 1850 in order to prevent a possible civil war.

  11. 1871

    José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco, began a four-year premiership as Prime Minister of the Empire of Brazil, the longest in the state's history.

    Latin America · Empire of BrazilWikipedia: José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco
  12. 1876

    Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for an invention he calls the "telephone".

  13. 1900

    The German ocean liner SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse became the first ship to send a wireless telegraph message to an onshore receiver.

    no place on the mapWikipedia: Ocean liner
  14. 1902

    Second Boer War: Boers, led by Koos de la Rey, defeat the British at the Battle of Tweebosch.

    Africa · Battle of TweeboschWikipedia: Battle of Tweebosch
  15. 1921

    The short-lived socialist Labin Republic is proclaimed.

    Europe · Labin RepublicWikipedia: Labin Republic
  16. 1931

    The Parliament House of Finland is officially inaugurated in Helsinki, Finland.

    Europe · Parliament House, HelsinkiWikipedia: Parliament House, Helsinki
  17. 1936

    Nazi German forces re-occupied the demilitarized Rhineland, violating both the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaties that were signed after World War I.

    Europe · Remilitarisation of the RhinelandWikipedia: Remilitarisation of the Rhineland
  18. 1941

    World War II: Günther Prien and the crew of German submarine U-47, one of the most successful U-boats of World War II, disappear without a trace.

    no place on the mapWikipedia: World War II
  19. 1945

    World War II: The American 9th Armored Division unexpectedly captures an intact bridge over the Rhine.

    Europe · Battle of RemagenWikipedia: Battle of Remagen
  20. 1951

    Iranian prime minister Ali Razmara is assassinated by Khalil Tahmasebi, a member of the Islamic fundamentalist Fada'iyan-e Islam, outside a mosque in Tehran.

    Asia · TehranWikipedia: Ali Razmara
  21. 1951

    Korean War: Operation Ripper: United Nations troops led by General Matthew Ridgway begin an assault against Chinese forces.

    Asia · Operation RipperWikipedia: Korean War
  22. 1951

    Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 307 crashes in Lynnhurst, Minneapolis, killing 15 people.

    North America · Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 307Wikipedia: Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 307
  23. 1965

    Aeroflot Flight 542 crashes in the Yermakovsky District, killing all 31 aboard.

    Asia · Yermakovsky DistrictWikipedia: Aeroflot Flight 542
  24. 1965

    Bloody Sunday: A group of 600 civil rights marchers are brutally attacked by state and local police in Selma, Alabama.

    North America · Selma, AlabamaWikipedia: Selma to Montgomery marches
  25. 1968

    Vietnam War: The United States and South Vietnam began Operation Truong Cong Dinh to sweep the area surrounding the Mekong Delta town of Mỹ Tho to root out Viet Cong forces in the area.

    Asia · Mekong DeltaWikipedia: Vietnam War
  26. 1971

    Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, political leader of then East Pakistan (present day-Bangladesh), delivers his historic 7th March speech in the Racecourse Field (Now Suhrawardy Udyan) in Dhaka.

    Asia · 7 March Speech of Sheikh Mujibur RahmanWikipedia: 7 March Speech of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
  27. 1985

    The charity single "We Are the World" by the supergroup USA for Africa was released, and went on to sell more than 20 million copies.

    no place on the mapWikipedia: Charity record
  28. 1986

    Challenger Disaster: Divers from the USS Preserver locate the crew cabin of Challenger on the ocean floor.

    North America · Space Shuttle Challenger disasterWikipedia: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
  29. 1989

    Iran and the United Kingdom break diplomatic relations after a fight over Salman Rushdie and his controversial novel, The Satanic Verses.

    Asia · IranWikipedia: Iran
  30. 1990

    Teachers in West Virginia began a labor strike that involved several thousand educators across the state.

    North America · West VirginiaWikipedia: 1990 West Virginia teachers' strike
  31. 2006

    The terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba coordinates a series of bombings in Varanasi, India.

    Asia · VaranasiWikipedia: 2006 Varanasi bombings
  32. 2007

    Garuda Indonesia Flight 200 crashes at Adisutjipto International Airport in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, killing 21 people.

    Asia · Garuda Indonesia Flight 200Wikipedia: Garuda Indonesia Flight 200
  33. 2007

    Reform of the House of Lords: The British House of Commons votes to make the upper chamber, the House of Lords, 100% elected.

  34. 2009

    Massereene Barracks shooting: The Real Irish Republican Army kills two British soldiers and injures two other soldiers and two civilians at Massereene Barracks, the first British military deaths in Northern Ireland since the end of The Troubles.

    Britain & Ireland · Massereene Barracks shootingWikipedia: Massereene Barracks shooting
  35. 2009

    The Kepler space telescope, designed to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars, was launched.

  36. 2021

    At least 108 die and 615 are injured in the 2021 Bata explosions in Bata, Equatorial Guinea.

    Africa · 2021 Bata explosionsWikipedia: 2021 Bata explosions
  37. 2024

    Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie Rust, the first time someone has been found guilty for causing a death on a movie set.

    North America · Rust shooting incidentWikipedia: Rust shooting incident
  38. 2024

    Sweden officially joins NATO, becoming its 32nd member.

    Europe · SwedenWikipedia: NATO

What the other Wikipedias remember

For these years the English list has nothing on this day. The events below come from the same day’s lists on Wikipedia in Romanian and were translated for this page.

  1. 1912

    The success of Roald Amundsen's expedition to the South Pole (14 December 1911) is announced publicly, when the ship Fram arrives at Hobart, in Australia.

    Oceans · South PoleTranslated from the list on Wikipedia in RomanianWikipedia: Roald Amundsen

Who was born on 7 March

In order of how many Wikipedia editions have an article about each. The first 60 of 145 are shown.

  1. 1785

    Alessandro Manzoni, Italian author and poet (died 1873)

    MilanWikipedia: Alessandro Manzoni
  2. 1875

    Maurice Ravel, French pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1937)

    CiboureWikipedia: Maurice Ravel
  3. 1850

    Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Austrian-Czech politician, 1st President of Czechoslovakia (died 1937)

    HodonínWikipedia: Tomáš Masaryk
  4. 1970

    Rachel Weisz, English actress

    WestminsterWikipedia: Rachel Weisz
  5. 1872

    Piet Mondrian, Dutch-American painter (died 1944)

    AmersfoortWikipedia: Piet Mondrian
  6. 1792

    John Herschel, English mathematician and astronomer (died 1871)

    SloughWikipedia: John Herschel
  7. 1956

    Bryan Cranston, American actor, director, and producer

    HollywoodWikipedia: Bryan Cranston
  8. 1693

    Clement XIII, pope of the Catholic Church (died 1769)

    VeniceWikipedia: Pope Clement XIII
  9. 1904

    Reinhard Heydrich, German SS officer and a principle architect of the Holocaust (died 1942)

    Halle (Saale)Wikipedia: Reinhard Heydrich
  10. 1908

    Anna Magnani, Italian actress (died 1973)

    RomeWikipedia: Anna Magnani
  11. 189

    Publius Septimius Geta, Roman emperor (died 211)

    MilanWikipedia: Geta
  12. 1994

    Jordan Pickford, English footballer

    WashingtonWikipedia: Jordan Pickford
  13. 1765

    Nicéphore Niépce, French inventor, invented photography (died 1833)

    Chalon-sur-SaôneWikipedia: Nicéphore Niépce
  14. 1938

    David Baltimore, American biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2025)

    ManhattanWikipedia: David Baltimore
  15. 1980

    Laura Prepon, American actress

    WatchungWikipedia: Laura Prepon
  16. 1857

    Julius Wagner-Jauregg, Austrian physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1940)

  17. 1960

    Ivan Lendl, Czech tennis player and coach

    OstravaWikipedia: Ivan Lendl
  18. 1936

    Georges Perec, French author (died 1982)

    19th arrondissement of ParisWikipedia: Georges Perec
  19. 1964

    Bret Easton Ellis, American author and screenwriter

    Los AngelesWikipedia: Bret Easton Ellis
  20. 1998

    Amanda Gorman, American poet and activist

    Los AngelesWikipedia: Amanda Gorman
  21. 1963

    E. L. James, English author

    LondonWikipedia: E. L. James
  22. 1984

    Mathieu Flamini, French footballer

    MarseilleWikipedia: Mathieu Flamini
  23. 1849

    Luther Burbank, American botanist (died 1926)

    LancasterWikipedia: Luther Burbank
  24. 1837

    Henry Draper, American physician and astronomer (died 1882)

    Prince Edward CountyWikipedia: Henry Draper
  25. 1957

    Robert Harris, English journalist and author

    NottinghamWikipedia: Robert Harris
  26. 1971

    Peter Sarsgaard, American actor

    Scott Air Force BaseWikipedia: Peter Sarsgaard
  27. 1915

    Jacques Chaban-Delmas, French general and politician, Prime Minister of France (died 2000)

    13th arrondissement of ParisWikipedia: Jacques Chaban-Delmas
  28. 1971

    Matthew Vaughn, English director and producer

    LondonWikipedia: Matthew Vaughn
  29. 1922

    Olga Ladyzhenskaya, Russian mathematician and academic (died 2004)

    KologrivWikipedia: Olga Ladyzhenskaya
  30. 1974

    Jenna Fischer, American actress

    Fort WayneWikipedia: Jenna Fischer
  31. 1995

    Haley Lu Richardson, American actress

    PhoenixWikipedia: Haley Lu Richardson
  32. 1678

    Filippo Juvarra, Italian architect, designed the Basilica of Superga (died 1736)

    MessinaWikipedia: Filippo Juvarra
  33. 1946

    John Heard, American actor and producer (died 2017)

    Washington, D.C.Wikipedia: John Heard
  34. 1964

    Wanda Sykes, American comedian, actress, and screenwriter

    PortsmouthWikipedia: Wanda Sykes
  35. 1671

    Rob Roy MacGregor, Scottish outlaw (died 1734)

    GlengyleWikipedia: Rob Roy MacGregor
  36. 1886

    G. I. Taylor, English mathematician and physicist (died 1975)

    St John's WoodWikipedia: G. I. Taylor
  37. 1902

    Heinz Rühmann, German actor (died 1994)

    EssenWikipedia: Heinz Rühmann
  38. 1930

    Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, English photographer and politician (died 2017)

  39. 1959

    Donna Murphy, American actress and singer

    New York CityWikipedia: Donna Murphy
  40. 1952

    William Boyd, British author and screenwriter

    AccraWikipedia: William Boyd
  41. 1962

    Taylor Dayne, American singer-songwriter and actress

    ManhattanWikipedia: Taylor Dayne
  42. 1958

    Rik Mayall, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter (died 2014)

    HarlowWikipedia: Rik Mayall
  43. 1984

    Brandon T. Jackson, American actor and comedian

    DetroitWikipedia: Brandon T. Jackson
  44. 1917

    Betty Holberton, American engineer and programmer (died 2001)

    PhiladelphiaWikipedia: Betty Holberton
  45. 1983

    Manucho, Angolan footballer

    LuandaWikipedia: Manucho
  46. 1974

    Tobias Menzies, English actor

    LondonWikipedia: Tobias Menzies
  47. 1934

    Willard Scott, American television personality and actor (died 2021)

    AlexandriaWikipedia: Willard Scott
  48. 1995

    Aboubakar Kamara, French footballer

    GonesseWikipedia: Aboubakar Kamara
  49. 1975

    T. J. Thyne, American actor

    Wikipedia: T. J. Thyne
  50. 1904

    Ivar Ballangrud, Norwegian speed skater (died 1969)

    LunnerWikipedia: Ivar Ballangrud
  51. 1944

    Ranulph Fiennes, English soldier and explorer

    WindsorWikipedia: Ranulph Fiennes
  52. 1942

    Michael Eisner, American businessman

    New York CityWikipedia: Michael Eisner
  53. 1973

    Sébastien Izambard, French tenor and producer

    ParisWikipedia: Sébastien Izambard
  54. 1992

    Bel Powley, English actress

    LondonWikipedia: Bel Powley
  55. 1839

    Ludwig Mond, German-born chemist and British industrialist who discovered the metal carbonyls (died 1909)

    KasselWikipedia: Ludwig Mond
  56. 1903

    Maud Lewis, Canadian folk artist (died 1970)

    South OhioWikipedia: Maud Lewis
  57. 1945

    Elizabeth Moon, American author

    McAllenWikipedia: Elizabeth Moon
  58. 1959

    Nick Searcy, American actor

    CullowheeWikipedia: Nick Searcy
  59. 1994

    Chase Kalisz, American swimmer

    Bel AirWikipedia: Chase Kalisz
  60. 1715

    Ewald Christian von Kleist, German soldier and poet (died 1759)

    CybulinoWikipedia: Ewald Christian von Kleist

What is celebrated on 7 March

  • Christian feast day: Blessed Leonid Feodorov (Russian Greek Catholic Church)
  • Christian feast day: María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa
  • Christian feast day: Perpetua and Felicity
  • Christian feast day: Siméon-François Berneux (part of The Korean Martyrs)
  • Christian feast day: Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart
  • Christian feast day: March 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Maritime Day in Slovenia

A greeting link for someone

Type a name and, if you like, the year of birth. The link opens with a greeting, and beside each event it says how old the person turned that day, or how many years before their birth it happened.

The name and the year go only into the link you send.

Download the day’s picture

All 366 days

How the globe is made

Where the events come from

Each edition of this page uses the day’s list from Wikipedia in its own language: Romanian, English, Spanish, Chinese. The lists are written by volunteers and differ from one edition to the next; the text of each event is Wikipedia’s, with a link to the article. A row that appears twice in a list is shown once. The lists have not been checked event by event: they are Wikipedia’s, mistakes included.

For events before 1582, and for countries that moved to the Gregorian calendar later (Britain in 1752, Russia in 1918), the same day may be counted Old Style in one list and New Style in another.

The chapter “What the other Wikipedias remember” adds up to five events a day from the lists of the other three editions, only for years in which the English list has nothing on that day. They were translated for this page, passed the same filters as the tour, and are not counted among the events of the English list.

How an event gets onto the map

The place comes from Wikidata. If the sentence links to the article about the event itself (a battle, an opening, an earthquake), dated to the same year, the ray stands on its coordinates or on those of its location. Otherwise it stands on the first place the sentence links to: a town, a building, a mountain, an island. This second step can be wrong: sometimes the sentence only mentions the place. That is why the page says, under each event, which place the ray stands on.

When the sentence links to a single state or province, or to a single sea, lake or desert larger than 5,000 km², the globe shows a dashed circle, not a ray. The circle has the area Wikidata gives, with its radius kept between 1.2° and 16°, or a radius of 4.5° when Wikidata gives no area; it says only that the sentence links to that place. Organisations, ships, spacecraft, museum objects, rivers, mountain ranges, languages and continents are never used as places. When a sentence names several states and no exact place, the event stays in the list only.

What the height means

The height of a ray shows how many years have passed, on a logarithmic scale: 10 years, 100 years and 1,000 years are equal steps apart; anything older than about 2,600 years has the tallest ray. The colour runs from pale yellow for recent years to violet for antiquity.

Where the tour stops

In each region the tour stops at up to three events (five in Britain and Ireland), chosen mainly by three things: whether Wikipedia’s editors put the event in the “On this day” box of their main page (the English, Spanish and Chinese editions), how many Wikipedia editions have an article about it, and how many of the four lists include it. Events whose sentence or article is about a war, an attack, a crime or a disaster are left out of the tour; they stay in the whole list, in Wikipedia’s wording. The filter is a list of words and a list of Wikidata types, so it can miss some.

The tour of births names the people with articles in the most editions and leaves aside those whom the list or Wikidata describes as rulers, politicians, commanders, leaders of movements or criminals; they stay in the list.

The Earth and the Sun

The daytime images are NASA’s Blue Marble Next Generation mosaics, one for each month of 2004; the night side is Black Marble 2016. The tilt of the line between day and night is computed for the day; the hour is chosen so that the place being read is in daylight. The latitude where the Sun stands overhead is the average of the four years of the leap cycle; in a given year it can differ by up to 0.4°.

The day you were born

The number ones come from the weekly lists on Wikipedia: Billboard for the United States (from 1940; the Hot 100 from August 1958), the UK Singles Chart (from November 1952), Los 40 Principales for Spain (from July 1966) and, for Romania, the Romanian Top 100 and Airplay 100 (2001–2021, with missing weeks). The page shows the chart of the week in which the day of birth falls, with its date; Billboard and the UK chart are dated at the end of their week. For Romania before 2001 and for China these sources have no weekly chart.

The films are those that reached cinemas in the United States up to ten days before or three days after that day (some of them in a few cinemas at first), from the English Wikipedia’s yearly lists (from 1968), in order of how many editions have an article about them. The events “in those days” are the ones on the neighbouring days’ lists that carry the year of birth, passed through the same filter as the tour.

The day of birth, year included

The Moon, the star sign and the constellation are worked out by the page itself, for noon Universal Time on the day. The lit part of the Moon is rounded and can differ by a few per cent from that at the hour of birth. The sign follows the usual zodiac of twelve equal parts starting at the March equinox; the constellation is the one the Sun actually stood in front of, by the borders set by the International Astronomical Union, and within a day of a border the page does not name it. When the Sun changes sign while it is that day anywhere on Earth, the page gives the moment of crossing, rounded to ten minutes and accurate to within about a quarter of an hour, and the clock time in a few cities, with the time zone and summer time of that year.

The year in the Chinese calendar is the one your device’s own calendar gives for the date, checked against the Hong Kong Observatory’s tables. “All your birthdays” uses the same sources as the rest of the chapter for the same day in every year since the birth: the temperature, well-known launches that took place on that very day, matches of the teams the edition follows, snow deeper than 10 cm and strong geomagnetic storms. The three things at the top and the four on the picture are chosen in a fixed order (the song, the animal, a full Moon, a well-known launch before an ordinary earthquake); on the picture you can change them.

When the link carries a year of birth, the page adds a few things about that exact day. The weather is the Met Office’s Central England temperature record and the readings from New York’s Central Park; the “usual high” is the average of the daily highs of 1961–1990 for that date, with two days either side. The carbon dioxide figure is the monthly mean at the Mauna Loa observatory, where measurements begin in March 1958.

The earthquake is the one with the largest magnitude in the USGS catalogue for that day, counted in Universal Time. Before the 1960s the catalogue has gaps even above magnitude 5.5, so in the older years many days have no earthquake. The page gives only the magnitude and the place: the country the epicentre falls in or, when the epicentre is at sea within 300 km of a coast, the nearest country; farther out, only the ocean.

The launches are those that reached orbit or left for the Moon and the planets, from Jonathan McDowell’s GCAT catalogue. If nothing left that day, the page shows the nearest launch within three days before or after, and says how many days away it was. The geomagnetic storm appears only when the Kp index reached at least 5 in one of the day’s eight three-hour intervals.

The animal comes from GBIF: an observation made by a person (the animal seen or heard, or its tracks), dated to that exact day, with coordinates and a CC0 or CC BY licence. Only a few hundred well-known species are searched (mammals, birds, turtles, butterflies); of those noted that day, mammals and species with articles in many Wikipedia editions come first; birds noted almost every day, and species used recently, wait their turn. Observations dated 1 January are left out, because records without a day are often filed there. An observation shows that the animal was recorded there, not how many animals there were.

The matches are those between national teams. Only matches of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, Canada and Australia are shown, along with those at the big final tournaments. The picture to send is drawn in the page from the day’s globe and the facts above, and stays on your device until you send it.

Sources

More pages about birthdays