Historical Events API

About the Historical Events API

Historical Events works by retrieving historical events from various reliable sources and curated lists of events. It them parses and provides them in a structured format. Super useful for history buffs and trivia enthusiasts.

What people use it for

Trivia Game Generation

Populate quiz rounds by looking up terms like space exploration or revolutions to source factual event descriptions for player prompts.

Daily Newsletter Factoids

Newsletter writers query topics to extract intriguing event snippets and furnish daily historical trivia sections for readers.

Educational Course Builders

To build lesson modules, curriculum designers search subject keywords to gather historical event accounts for classroom reading material.

Museum Display Panels

When visitors inspect physical exhibits, interactive museum kiosk displays present matching historical event narratives based on topic searches.

Ways to call it

One endpoint, many ways in — REST with JSON, XML, YAML and CSV, plus GraphQL and an MCP interface for AI agents.

JSON

Default REST response

XML

Markup format

YAML

Human-readable

CSV

Tabular export

Beta

GraphQL

Query language

New

MCP

For AI agents

Request parameters — GET /v1/historicalevents

Sent in the query string. Premium parameters are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them. Anything not listed here is dropped rather than passed through.

Required

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curl "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/historicalevents?text=moon%20landing" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Authentication

Send your key in the x-api-key header. That is the only auth step — no token exchange, and no per-endpoint scope to configure.

Response — GET /v1/historicalevents

Every APIVerve endpoint returns the same three top-level keys, so one response handler covers your whole integration: status, error and data. Only data changes shape.

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{
  "status": "ok",
  "error": null,
  "data": {
    "count": 6,
    "filteredOn": [
      "text"
    ],
    "events": [
      {
        "year": "1969",
        "month": "05",
        "day": "18",
        "date": "1969/05/18",
        "event": " Apollo program: ''Apollo 10'' (Tom Stafford, Gene Cernan, John Young) is launched, on the full dress-rehearsal for the Moon landing.",
        "range": "May",
        "granularity": "year"
      },
      {
        "year": "1969",
        "month": "05",
        "day": "25",
        "date": "1969/05/25",
        "event": "Apollo program: ''Apollo 10'' returns to Earth, after a successful 8-day test of all the components needed for the upcoming first manned Moon landing.",
        "range": "May",
        "granularity": "year"
      },
      {
        "year": "1969",
        "month": "07",
        "day": "20",
        "date": "1969/07/20",
        "event": " Apollo program: The lunar module ''Eagle'' lands on the lunar surface. An estimated 500 million people worldwide watch in awe as Neil Armstrong takes his historic first steps on the Moon at 02:56 UTC, the largest television audience for a live broadcast at that time.cite web|title=Manned Space Chronology: Apollo_11|url=<a href=\"http://www.spaceline.org/flightchron/apollo11.html|publisher=spaceline.org|accessdate=2008-02-06|\">http://www.spaceline.org/flightchron/apollo11.html|publisher=spaceline.org|accessdate=2008-02-06|</a>; archiveurl= <a href=\"http://web.archive.org/web/20080214213826/http://www.spaceline.org/flightchron/apollo11.html|\">http://web.archive.org/web/20080214213826/http://www.spaceline.org/flightchron/apollo11.html|</a>; archivedate= 14 February 2008 !--DASHBot--| deadurl= no}}cite web|title= Apollo Anniversary: Moon Landing quotInspired Worldquot|url=<a href=\"http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0714_040714_moonlanding.html|publisher=nationalgeographic.com|accessdate=2008-02-06|\">http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0714_040714_moonlanding.html|publisher=nationalgeographic.com|accessdate=2008-02-06|</a>; archiveurl= <a href=\"http://web.archive.org/web/20080209140059/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0714_040714_moonlanding.html|\">http://web.archive.org/web/20080209140059/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0714_040714_moonlanding.html|</a>; archivedate= 9 February 2008 !--DASHBot--| deadurl= no}}",
        "range": "July",
        "granularity": "year"
      },
      {
        "year": "1969",
        "month": "07",
        "day": "20",
        "date": "1969/07/20",
        "event": "The ''Apollo 11'' astronauts return from the first successful Moon landing, and are placed in biological isolation for several days, on the chance they may have brought back lunar germs. The airless lunar environment is later determined to preclude microscopic life.",
        "range": "July",
        "granularity": "year"
      },
      {
        "year": "1971",
        "month": "02",
        "day": "08",
        "date": "1971/02/08",
        "event": "Apollo program: ''Apollo 14'' returns to Earth after the third manned Moon landing.",
        "range": "February",
        "granularity": "year"
      },
      {
        "year": "1973",
        "month": "01",
        "day": "07",
        "date": "1973/01/07",
        "event": "Elvis Presley's concert in Hawaii. The first worldwide telecast by an entertainer watched by more people than watched the Apollo moon landings.",
        "range": "January",
        "granularity": "year"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Response fields

Paths are relative to data. Premium fields are absent rather than zeroed on plans that do not include them, so check for presence instead of comparing to 0.

Response headers

Every response carries your balance, so your own code always knows where it stands without polling anything. All four are exposed to browsers through CORS.

Errors

Read the HTTP status first, then error for the specific reason. The body names the parameter that has to change.

What a call costs — 2 credits per call

Credits are shared across every APIVerve API — one balance, one key, one bill. Failed requests never count against it, so a rejected input costs nothing.

Calls are what the credits buy at this API's rate — spend them here, on any of the other APIs, or across both. Nothing is reserved per endpoint.

Zero-code embed — one snippet, no backend

Drop an interactive Historical Events form onto any page. The widget calls the API for you, so no key ever appears in your markup and there is nothing to deploy.

Changelog — Historical Events API

Every change to this endpoint, newest first. Breaking changes ship as a new version and the previous one keeps serving — response fields are added, never removed or retyped in place, so an integration written against v1 keeps working.

Currently v1