One Day in History

One Day in History was a single-day initiative by several UK heritage organisations that aimed to provide a historical record of the everyday life of the British public in the early 21st century.

Described as the "world's biggest blog",[1] it encouraged UK citizens to write diary entries of 100–650 words of what they had done on 17 October 2006, and then upload them to the official website of the initiative.

[6] The date was chosen to be 17 October by History Matters in the hope that it would be "an ordinary day much like any other of no particular national significance", and would therefore reflect the everyday life of its participants.

[9][10] On the day itself, the homepages of the 2,000 computers in the easyCafe network were all set to the History Matters website,[11] and several celebrities and public figures also voiced their support of the initiative, including Stephen Fry, Bob Geldof and Tony Robinson.

[2] David Cannadine of the Institute of Historical Research spoke positively of One Day in History, remarking: "The wonderful thing about these records is we don't yet know what it is about them that will be interesting in the future."

In promotion of the project, Fiona Reynolds, the Director-General of the National Trust, stated: "We want this day to have its own place in history and be a snapshot of everyday life at the beginning of the 21st century."