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Free Proofreading by Real People

Free Proofreading by Real People

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Editing and proofreading are vitally important, but they can also be expensive. You could do it yourself, but I don’t recommend it. You’re too close to your writing and you’ll see what you think is there, not what is actually there. You need the help of other people. If you’re not yet making a fortune from your writing, you might struggle with this. But don’t worry; in this article you’ll learn how to get free proofreading by real people.

Errors are bad – really bad

We’ve all read books that are full of typos and formatting errors. You might even have come across a few plot holes in novels, and other things that didn’t make any sense. Clearly, the impoverished author (or publisher) saved money by not employing an experienced editor or proofreader.

This reflects badly on the author (even if it was the publisher’s fault). One or two typos might be forgiven, but too many will turn readers off. Some will give up on your book right there and then. Others might persevere to the end, grinding their teeth every time they come across yet another mistake. Either way, they’re unlikely to read anything else you write.

Those who bought Book One in your series won’t come back for Books Two, Three and Four. Once you get a few bad reviews (which you will), you’ll also notice a decline in sales for Book One (even if it’s free). So basic errors can seriously harm your book sales.

Even if you write a new series, employ the world’s best editor, and move to a better publisher, your sales might never be as good as they could be. You might even get some one-star reviews for your new series – even if there are no errors in them. If you look deeper, you’ll notice the reviews were left by people who haven’t read your new series. They’re still talking about the mistakes in your previous one. Nevertheless, reviews like this will put new readers off.

Some of your previous readers might have been planning to give you another chance. But when they see the reviews for your new series, they think, “Oh, his books are still full of typos, I’ll buy something else.” Even if your new series is word-perfect.

What can you do?

There are two ways of fixing this:

1. write your new series under a different name

2. don’t release a book with so many mistakes in the first place

How to get it right

No matter how good a writer you are, you will make mistakes. Your spelling should always be spot-on, thanks to the spelling checker in your word processor. But you’ll also need a decent grammar checker to spot when you’ve misused their, there or they’re; its or it’s; or to, too or two. The grammar checker in your word processor is not up to the job.

I’ve tried most of the more advanced grammar checkers. The only one I recommend is Pro Writing Aid. You can get started for free, so it’s worth giving it a try, but if you want to use it on all your writing projects you’ll have to pay. Pro Writing Aid isn’t perfect. It’s the best of the bunch in my opinion, so it will help. But it won’t catch everything. People are better at this kind of work.

But what if you’re impoverished and you can’t afford their fee? Or you can’t afford to pay for Pro Writing Aid. (Or you have an aversion to spending money, like me?)

That’s what friends are for

You might not be able to write perfect text, but you can certainly publish it.

Before you release your first book, ask some of your friends and family to read it and mark any mistakes they come across. If you don’t have any friends or family, ask other people:

● your colleagues
● neighbours
● librarians
● shop assistants
● waiters
● your dental assistant
● the garage receptionist
● your kids’ teachers
● or your neighbours’ kids’ teachers

You’ll be able to think of someone.

You can even bribe them: tell them you’ll pay them for every mistake they find.

(Warning: only do this after a few people have already read your book and found most of the mistakes. There’s no point in throwing good money away.)

The second time is better

One or two of these people might turn out to be really good at finding mistakes, so you can go straight to them next time.

You might even offer to pay them if your first book is selling well.

If your first book is selling really well, I strongly advise employing a professional editor for your next one. Reedsy is a good place to find professional editors. All the editors on their list have been vetted and have a great track record in the industry.

But this article is aimed at those who can’t afford to hire a professional (yet).

Recruit your readers

Another thing you can do is to put a message in the back of your book, near the link to the next book in your series.

Say something like:

“Hey, Dave here. I realise there might be a few mistakes in this book – sorry about that. I could really use your help. Please tell me about any mistakes you find – no matter how small. In exchange, I’ll send you an exclusive bonus story called … that only goes out to my VIP readers.”

Give your email address so readers can contact you with any mistakes.

Thank them … and rope them in!

If someone reports a mistake, make the correction and send them a reply like this:

“Hey, thanks so much for telling me about the mistake in … I’ve fixed it now. Here’s that bonus story I promised.

Would you be interested in joining my VIP readers list? You’ll get all the other books in the series – for free! – at least a month before they’re published.

All I ask in return is that you let me know of any mistakes you find within two weeks of receiving each copy.”

Your VIP team

You shouldn’t have too many readers in your VIP team: around ten would be a good number. That should be enough to ensure your books are error-free by the time they’re published. It also allows for the fact that some of your VIP team might not respond in time.

Don’t expect your VIP team to remain constant; members will come and go. Some might not respond when you send them your next book, or they might reply too late. If they do this once, you might decide to give them another chance. But if they do it twice, I would delete them and give their place to someone else. There should be no shortage of volunteers. You want an active, highly engaged list of avid readers who are massive fans of your work, fast readers, and really good at finding mistakes.

And that’s how you get free proofreading by real people. So now you can publish perfect text every time.

***

Would you like more editing and proofreading ideas, tips and advice? I have a book!
117 Painless, Efficient and Awesome Ideas for Editing and Strengthening Your Writing.

The Date-A-Base Book Survey Results

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Our grateful thanks to everyone who took part in our 2022 survey.

We asked which version of The Date-A-Base Book you preferred, the chronological version or the day by day (sorted by date) version.

There were 114 votes.

The result was fairly evenly split, which confirmed what we suspected.

● Chronological: 59 votes (52%)

● Day by day: 52 votes (48%)

As a result, we will be publishing printed copies of the day by day versions for 2023 to 2027. We’ll let you know when they’re available.

We are also enormously grateful to those of you who emailed us to request other versions and extra features. We loved some of your ideas and we’re working on something special right now. Look out for an announcement in a couple of weeks. We think you’re going to love it too!

Why authors are writing books faster – and how to do it yourself

Why authors are writing books faster – and how to do it yourself

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How to write books faster. Speedometer showing words per minute.

There’s a growing trend in today’s writing industry: write books faster.

Faster is better, they say. We’ll see why in a moment.

Writing books quickly doesn’t (necessarily) mean there’s any loss of quality. If anything, the quality of books is improving too. Many self-published books are as good as (or better than) traditionally published books these days.

I’m mainly talking about the writing and editing here. But other aspects, including the cover, blurb, and production can be just as good as books from the leading publishers.

We’ll look at how authors can produce perfect text (at no extra cost) in the next article.

So, why are authors writing faster?

In the case of fiction, series of novels sell far better than standalone novels. Self-published novelists generally make the first book in each series free (or very low cost – but free always works better). Hopefully, readers will love Book One and go on to buy Books Two, Three, Four, and so on.

The trouble is that even the slowest readers can read books faster than we can write them. If the next one isn’t available, and readers can’t even pre-order it, the plan fails.

If you manage to get the reader’s email address, you might entice them back when the next book is available. But otherwise, most readers will never return.

The Solution

The best solution is to write at least four or five books in the series before releasing the first one. Release the first one for free and release the second one at the same time. Make the third one available to pre-order, and release it thirty days after the first two. At the same same, make Book Four available to pre-order, and release that thirty days later.

By this point, your adoring readers will have fallen in love with your stories and characters. They’ll have happily signed up for your mailing list to get the bonuses you offered them. They’ll be willing to wait for the next book in the series – as long as you don’t take too long.

If you follow the rapid-release plan, the next book in your series should always be available to pre-order. Even if you haven’t started writing it yet. (Amazon gives you ninety days to upload the final version.)

What if it doesn’t make enough money?

Of course, there’s also a risk that your brilliant new series might flop completely. You don’t want to waste years of your life writing a series of novels that doesn’t sell. So, once again, faster is better. If you’ve spent four months writing four books, you won’t have wasted too much time. Write a different series instead.

(In a future article, we’ll see how to resurrect a failed series and give it a second shot at success.)

If you have a well-loved series, extending it is a reliable way of making a good living. By the time you release Book Five and beyond, you should know exactly how much money each book will earn.

If you can write books quickly, you could even launch a second series at the same time.

Amazon’s free marketing boost

Many self-published novelists release new books every thirty days because of how Amazon’s marketing works.

Amazon gives each new book a boost in its search results for the first thirty days. If it sells well, that boost will be extended. But if it doesn’t sell, it will drop down to page 30 (or thereabouts) and no one will ever see it.

If you release a new book every thirty days, you can take advantage of this ‘push’.

But that doesn’t just mean writing your book, of course. It also needs to be edited and proofread, and you’ll need a cover and a blurb. And everything will need to be finished and uploaded to Amazon within thirty days. It might sound like a lot of work, but it’s perfectly achievable.

So, how do you write books faster?

To release books this quickly, you need a detailed plan. Not just for each book, but for the whole series – or at least the first three or four books.

If you prefer to make up the story as you go along, this won’t work for you. There’s nothing wrong with writing that way; but you’ll be happier writing one book a year, not one a month. (That’s a different marketing plan that we’ll look at in a future article.)

Okay, back to the rapid-release plan.

● Before you start writing the first book, you’ll already know exactly what happens in every book in the series.

● You’ll have broken each book down into chapters and scenes.

● Bullet points will list every major plot point – and ideally for every minor one too.

● You’ll have a timeline for the series plot and sub-plots

● You’ll also have timelines for the plots and sub-plots in each book.

● Each character will have their own timeline. It will show which scenes they appear in and where they are at the time. It will also show their interactions and relationships with the other characters.

● You’ll know each character intimately. You’ll be able to picture them and hear how they speak. And you’ll know what they’ll do and say in any situation you put them in. Each character will be distinct – in their names, appearance, manner, speech patterns, behaviour, reactions, skill sets, and so on.

It’s all about the planning

Now, you might be thinking it will take you weeks or months to put all of this together. And, yes, it probably will. It’s a necessary part of writing a series on a rapid-release schedule – but it can be enormously enjoyable. You can have scenes that rely on something the characters did several books earlier. And you can have running jokes throughout the series

Software can help

There’s software that can help with the planning process.

● You could use a word processing document, with a page for each book, broken down into bullet points.

● Or you could use a dedicated outliner, such as Workflowy – which I often use to plan my non-fiction books.

● Scrivener works like a word processor, but it lists books, chapters and scenes down the side of the screen. You can drag things around if they would work better in a different order. It also has a corkboard so you can see everything visually.

● Plottr shows your project as a timeline, with the main plot, sub-plots, chapters, scenes and characters all clearly displayed. It also has built-in plot templates and scene templates to help you plan your story.

● And there are several others, depending on what help you need. We’ll look at these in a future article.

Other people can help too

Writing, editing, proofreading, cover design, writing the blurb, marketing… It can be tricky if you only have thirty days for each book. But if you can persuade other people to help you (ideally for free) you can concentrate on the writing. We’ll look at some ways of doing this in future articles (starting with the next one!)

Going further

Now, obviously there’s a lot more to writing a great series than this.

● You need ideas – and lots of them – and they need to be brilliant.

● Then you need to evaluate them, ditch the bad ones, and expand the best ones.

● You need to know what to research (and what not to). And you need to fill any gaps in your knowledge as quickly as possible.

● You need to find enough time to write all of these books – without giving up your whole life.

● And you need to keep yourself motivated. This can be particularly tricky when you’re writing Book Four, but Book One hasn’t even been published yet. (Especially if you’ve decided you hate the covers. And the titles. And you don’t know if anyone will be interested in the series anyway.)

The benefits

You’ll get an immense feeling of satisfaction from writing and publishing a series that does well. It can make you a decent amount of money too. Readers will tell you how much your stories and characters mean to them. They’ll recommend your books to other people.. They’ll send you drawings of what they think your characters look like. They’ll suggest plots, scenes, characters and jokes you could use. It can be a joyful experience.

(We’ll look at some great ways to connect with your readers in another article.)

Take the next step…

Obviously, I can’t tell you everything you need to know in a short article like this. It would take a whole book. But, good news, I’ve already written it. Check out The Fastest Way to Write Your Book. (And you might also like the follow-up The Fastest Ways to Edit, Publish and Sell Your Book.)

If you need ideas, you’ll find thousands of them, including unique, ready-made storylines, in the ideas4writers ideas collection. The 35 volumes cover everything from plot, characters, settings and dialogue to specific genres like romance, science fiction, thrillers, mystery, comedy, and more.

How to Make a Living as a Writer

How to Make a Living as a Writer

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In this article, we’ll look at how to make a living as a writer. We’ll start by writing letters and articles for newspapers, magazines and online publications, and graduate to writing books later. No experience necessary – we’re starting from scratch here.

In these troubled times, many of us feel … well, troubled.

If you have a job, you probably hate it and it eats up all your time, but you have to keep working because you need the money. (Even though it’s not nearly enough.)

If you don’t have a job, there are plenty of vacancies, but either they don’t want you or you don’t want them – I mean, who wants that sort of job?

Wouldn’t you rather … write a book or something?

Okay, maybe writing a book is too big a step at this stage if you haven’t written anything before.

(But if you fancy giving it a go, check out my books The Fastest Way to Write Your Book and The Fastest Ways to Edit, Publish and Sell Your Book.)

Let’s start with something simpler

How about writing some letters? That’s easy enough, right?

So, what will you write about?

Well, it needs to be something that interests you (because writing should be fun and interesting) and it needs to be something that interests other people. Does that help?

Okay, so what newspapers and magazines do you read? Do any of them have readers’ letters pages? If not, go shopping and look for an interesting publication that has a letters page. Let’s write a letter for them!

What will you write about?

Historical anniversaries are my suggestion: this day in history, the 100th anniversary of Interpol (September 2023), the 175th anniversary of the invention of chewing gum (also September 2023), that sort of thing. Readers (and radio listeners – another potential market) love this stuff. They’re really easy to research and write, and there are so many that you should always be able find some interesting ones.

Where do you find them?

Well, definitely don’t start by searching online. Yes, there are lists of anniversaries, but they’re not particularly helpful for our purposes. For example, Wikipedia has a long list of anniversaries for each day of the year, but nobody has heard of most of them, most of them aren’t notable (as I’ll explain below), and a lot of the dates and facts are just plain wrong. You could waste a lot of time here – or write a letter or article that’s full of errors, which is even worse.

Wouldn’t it be better if there was a book that listed all the good anniversaries months in advance, and they had all been properly checked? There is! Check out The Date-A-Base Book.

(Don’t rush off and buy a copy just yet. I’ll show you how to get some of the anniversaries for free – as well as other bonuses – at the end of this article.)

How to do it

Let’s jump ahead: you now have a good list of notable anniversaries in front of you.

1. Choose an anniversary

Browse through them and have a look for one that’s interesting (to you and to the readers of whichever newspaper or magazine you chose).

There’s no shortage of great anniversaries to choose from – there are at least 3,000 in each annual edition of The Date-A-Base Book.

2. Select a market

Let’s say you’re really interested in cycling (for example). So are lots of other people. And there are several good cycling magazines available. You’ve found one that has a readers’ letters page and a “star letter” spot too, for which you can win a small prize. Perfect!

Now, hunt through your list for some good cycling anniversaries: a notable race, the birth or death of a famous cyclists, the invention of an important bicycle component, the founding of a major bicycle manufacturer – anything like. It needs to be a notable anniversary – the 50th, 75th, 100th or 150th, for example – not the 23rd, 87th or 119th, which no one is particularly interested in.

(The Date-A-Base Book only lists notable anniversaries.)

3. A little bit of research

Once you’ve chosen your anniversary, you can look it up online. Google is the best starting point. Wikipedia isn’t bad either. But don’t trust anything they say without checking it properly.

See what you can find out about the anniversary. Look for facts that are interesting and intriguing, but most people might not know. You want something that will make your readers say, “Oooh, I never knew that!”

4. Write a letter

And then you can write your letter telling the readers all about it.

Don’t write a long letter: check how long the other letters are, and keep yours around the same length. You won’t have much space, but cram in as much as you can, and make it as entertaining and informative as possible.

If your letter isn’t published, just try again. Choose a different anniversary (or a different cycling magazine), write another letter, and keep trying until you succeed. (You will succeed.)

5. Repeat.

Keep doing this until you’ve had several letters published, and (ideally) won the “star letter” prize at least once as well.

How to make a living as a writer

Now, you might be thinking, why I am writing all these letters if I won’t get paid for writing them? Well, this is all about getting people to notice you – especially the editor.

This would be a great time to ask the editor if he would be interested in some short articles about other anniversaries. Send him a quick email, mention your letters that he’s published, and enclose a sample article to show the sort of article you’re planning to write. Just like your letters, it should be interesting, intriguing, and highly entertaining.

Hopefully he’ll say yes – and he’ll tell you how much he’s willing to pay you for writing them.

After that, just keep sending new articles in every month. You now have a regular slot in the magazine, and a regular income from writing.

You won’t make a living as a writer just by writing small articles for one magazine, of course. But there are other tens of thousands of other magazines in the world, and they’re all just an email away. You might end up with regular slots in dozens of them, if you can write that many articles each month (which you can – see my free guide below!)

And then write a book – the easy way

After a year or two of writing articles, you might have enough of them to fill a book – or, more likely, several books on several different subjects, all of which you’re interested in. Turning them into books is exactly what I suggest you do. And you can mention your books (and where to buy them) at the end of each article you write – so your books should pretty much sell themselves. And then you really will be making a living as a writer!

More information (free!)

By this point, I’m sure you’re crying out for more details and proper instructions. It’s all very well saying things like “turn your articles into books”, for example, but how do you get your books published and printed and distributed? How do you even contact newspaper and magazine editors in the first place? What exactly should you say to them to persuade them to accept your articles?

All the information you need is right here in my FREE 68-page guide Ditch Your Day Job. It walks you through the whole process in easy steps.

You get some really useful bonuses too, including a free ebook of 301 article-writing ideas.

Hop over to ideas4writers.com now to grab your copy of Ditch Your Day Job. It’s a free download, and you’re welcome to forward it to anyone who needs it.

***

Dave Haslett is the founder of ideas4writers and the author of Ditch Your Day Job, The Date-A-Base Book series, The Fastest Way to Write Your Book, The Fastest Ways to Edit, Publish and Sell Your Book, How to Win Short Story Competitions (co-authored with Geoff Nelder), a 35-volume collection of ideas for writers, and more.

31 newsworthy historical anniversaries in May 2023

31 newsworthy historical anniversaries in May 2023

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Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in May 2023
(listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for “On This Day in History” features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into films, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more. (Find out more at the end of this article.)

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries.

1 May 1873 – 150 years ago
Death of David Livingstone, Scottish missionary and explorer. Best known for his search for the sources of the Nile, and for going missing (and being found) in Africa.

2 May 1933 – 90 years ago
The first modern sighting of Scotland’s Loch Ness monster was reported in the Inverness Courier.

3 May 1923 – 100 years ago
U.S. Army Air Service Lieutenants Oakley G. Kelly and John Arthur Macready made the first non-stop coast-to-coast flight across the USA. They flew from New York to San Diego in 26 hours and 50 minutes.

4 May 2003 – 20 years ago
The first member of the horse family to be cloned: a mule named Idaho Gem was born at the University of Idaho, USA.

5 May 1948 – 75 years ago
The Organization of American States was officially founded.

6 May 1953 – 70 years ago
The first successful open-heart surgery on a human, using a heart-lung machine, was performed by John Gibbon in Pennsylvania, USA.

7 May 1963 – 60 years ago
The USA launched the Telstar 2 communications satellite. It transmitted the first colour transatlantic television broadcasts. It was shielded against the radiation that had damaged its predecessor, Telstar 1.

8 May 1933 – 90 years ago
Polythene was discovered (by accident) by chemists Reginald Gibson and Eric Fawcett at ICI in Wallerscote, Cheshire, UK.

9 May 1873 – 150 years ago
Birth of Anton Cermak, Mayor of Chicago (1931–33).
(Shot in 1933 during an assassination attempt on U.S. President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. He died three weeks later – but most likely from ulcerative colitis rather than the wound.)

10 May 1933 – 90 years ago
The Nazis staged massive public burnings of ‘un-German’ books outside Berlin University.

11 May 1998 – 25 years ago
India exploded three atomic bombs underground – its first nuclear tests for 24 years – violating a global ban on testing and shocking the world. It carried out a second round of tests on 13th May. In response, Pakistan exploded five underground nuclear bombs on 28th May.

12 to 25 May 1943 – 80 years ago
World War II: the Trident Conference (also called the Third Washington Conference) took place in the USA. Delegations led by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made plans for the next phase of the war. Topics included planning for the Allied invasion of Sicily, setting the date of the Normandy Landings (Operation Overlord/D-Day – 1st May 1944 but later delayed to 6th June), and the progress of the Pacific Campaign.

13 May 1973 – 50 years ago
The first Battle of the Sexes tennis match: Bobby Riggs v. Margaret Court, in Ramona, California, USA. Riggs won the two-set exhibition match.
(On 20th September 1973 Riggs played Billie Jean King in the three-set Battle of the Sexes II. King won.
In 1992, Jimmy Connors played Martina Navratilova in the Battle of the Sexes III. Connors won.)

14 May 1973 – 50 years ago
NASA launched Skylab – the USA’s first manned space station. The first manned mission launched on 25th May, and included three space walks to repair damage that Skylab suffered during launch.

15 May 1948 – 75 years ago
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War began when the Arab states of Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq invaded Israel in support of the Palestinians.
Saudi Arabia joined the invasion on 18th May.

16 to 17 May 1943 – 80 years ago
World War II – the Dambusters Raid.
Britain’s RAF launched Operation Chastise, deploying bouncing bombs (invented by Barnes Wallace) to bypass anti-torpedo nets and breach dams, causing catastrophic flooding in Germany’s Ruhr Valley.

17 May 1973 – 50 years ago
The Watergate hearings began in the U.S. Senate, and were televised nationally.

18 May 1958 – 65 years ago
Italian racing driver Maria Teresa de Filippis became the first woman to compete in a Formula One Grand Prix.

19 May 1898 – 125 years ago
Death of William Ewart Gladstone, British Prime Minister (1868–74, 1880–85, 1886, 1892–94).

20 May 1873 – 150 years ago
American businessman Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis were granted a U.S. patent for blue jeans.

21 May 1898 – 125 years ago
Birth of Armand Hammer, American business magnate and art collector. Best known as the chairman of Occidental Petroleum (1957–90). He was also known for his close ties with the Soviet Union and for advocating citizen diplomacy.

22 May 1923 – 100 years ago
Stanley Baldwin became British Prime Minister after Bonar Law was diagnosed with terminal cancer and immediately retired.

23 May 1873 – 150 years ago
The North-West Mounted Police was founded in Canada. It became the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1920.

24 May 1948 – 75 years ago
Benjamin Britten’s The Beggar’s Opera was performed for the first time, in Cambridge, England.

25 May 1973 – 50 years ago
The album Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield was released. It was the first album released by Virgin Records.

26 to 27 May 1923 – 100 years ago
The first Le Mans 24 hours endurance motor race was held.

27 May 2003 – 20 years ago
WordPress, the blogging/content management system, was released.

28 May 1993 – 30 years ago
British nurse Beverley Allitt was convicted of killing four children and attacking nine others between February and April 1991 in the children’s ward at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital, Lincolnshire. She was sentenced to 13 concurrent life sentences in a secure hospital and is unlikely to be released.

29 May 1953 – 70 years ago
New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

30 May 1848 – 175 years ago
The Mexican–American War officially ended when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo came into effect.

31 May 1898 – 125 years ago
Birth of Norman Vincent Peale, American clergyman, writer, speaker, and advocate of positive thinking.
Best known for his book The Power of Positive Thinking.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2023. The 2024, 2025 and 2026 and 2027 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The 2028 edition will be available from April 2023. Find out more at ideas4writers.com.

How to use the anniversaries:

If you’d like to know more about how to turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, take a look at our free 68-page guide, Ditch Your Day Job: the easiest way to make a living (or earn some extra cash) as a writer.

It has some terrific bonuses too, including a complete month of anniversaries from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, 301 article-writing ideas and tips, plus a 25 percent discount when you buy two or more editions of The Date-A-Base Book.

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How We Create The Date-A-Base Book

How We Create The Date-A-Base Book

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You might be wondering how we create The Date-A-Base Book series. It’s a heck of a lot of work, as you’ll see below. But it’s great fun, we learn a lot, and we’ve been doing it for twenty years now, so we’ve got the process pretty well nailed down. But, as you’ll also see, there’s still plenty of room for improvement – when the technology allows.

Step 1: Data collection

We create the books in a five-year cycle, as we’ll explain below.

Every five years we visit fifteen or so websites that list historical anniversaries, including Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, History.com, and several more. None of them are as accurate as we would like, but we deal with that later. We copy the information we need from each site and paste it into a massive text file.

Processing time: about a month.

Step 2: Data processing

The anniversaries are in different date formats, and they all need to be the same. So we do lots of searching, replacing, sorting and manual corrections to fix it.

We then run the file through a piece of software (written by Dave) that:

  • splits the dates into day, month, and year
  • sorts them into years ending 0 and 5, 1 and 6, 2 and 7, 3 and 8, and 4 and 9
  • puts these years into five separate text files

This gives us the raw data for the next five editions of The Date-A-Base Book.

We import the five text files into Microsoft Excel and insert two new columns: the year we’re interested in (for example 2024) and the anniversary (2024 minus the year of the event). We then sort the spreadsheet by anniversary, month, and day of the month.

At this stage we usually have around 36,000 entries for each month.

Processing time: another month.

Step 3: Delete if not a significant year

We now delete the anniversaries we aren’t interested in. For example, we keep the 70th, 75th and 80th anniversaries, but delete the 71st – 74th and the 76th – 79th.

Processing time: one day.

Step 4: Delete the duplicates

Many of the websites we harvested the anniversaries from list the same anniversaries, and we only need them once. So we go through them one by one and delete the duplicates.

Processing time: one week for each of the five files, or about a month in total.

Step 5. Delete if not notable

This is where we put our general knowledge and memories to good use. We have to decide whether each anniversary is newsworthy and notable enough to be included in the book. We go through them several times, using the following criteria, gradually whittling them down:

  • Have we heard of the person or event?
  • Is there an entry in Encyclopaedia Britannica, or an image and a comprehensive entry in Wikipedia?
  • Do we think the person or event is important enough to include in the book?

By the end, around 4,000 anniversaries will remain, but we’ll lose several hundred of them in the next stage.

Processing time: one month for each edition.

Step 6: Cross-checking

After importing the file into Microsoft Word, we go through each anniversary in detail. We check it in Encyclopaedia Britannica again, and on any official websites we can find. We also follow the references in Wikipedia, and make heavy use of Google.

Where there is any disagreement (which there frequently is) we search for obituaries, photos of graves, birth certificates, patent applications, official plaques, and so on.

Quite often, we find that the date given for an anniversary is wrong. Sometimes we can simply correct it or move it to a different month. But hundreds of them will be so completely wrong that they have to be removed.

If we can’t find any official confirmation of the dates or facts, we have to decide whether to include it in the book with a question mark or footnote, or delete it.

As each anniversary is confirmed, we rewrite the description to make it as clear as possible and to conform to our style guide.

We’ll end up with around 3,000 anniversaries that will appear in the book.

Processing time: two to three months for each edition.

Step 7: Layout 1

The Date-A-Base Book is laid out in a grid format, with columns for the anniversary, the date, and the description.

The grid is created in Serif PagePlus X9 (which has been discontinued). We’re hoping to migrate to Affinity Publisher soon, but it doesn’t yet have the Book Plus feature we need.

This stage simply involves lots of copying and pasting.

We also update the title pages and Introduction in each edition, and check that the Table of Contents shows the correct page numbers.

Processing time: about a week.

Step 8: Proofreading

We print a copy of the book and go through it with a red pen, checking date formats, spellings, hyphenation, line breaks, superscripts, and so on. We then make the corrections in PagePlus.

Processing time: about a week.

Step 9: Layout 2

We surveyed readers of The Date-A-Base Book a few years ago and asked which format they preferred – chronological or sorted by date. Half said they wanted chronological and half said they wanted sorted by date. So we publish both versions every year.

For this stage, we go through the chronological version and pick out all the anniversaries dated 1st January and move them to Page 1. Then we go through the anniversaries again, pick out the 2nd January anniversaries and put them after the 1st January entries. And so on for every day of the year. We haven’t found an automated way of doing it (yet).

After a quick proofread to check the line breaks, word wrapping and hyphenation, the British edition is finished.

Processing time: about a week.

Step 10: The USA edition

We surveyed our American readers a few years ago, asking if they were happy to receive the British version. No, they were not. So we create versions for them too.

First, we take the British chronological version, change the Page Size from A4 to Letter, and alter the margins and headers.

We haven’t found any shortcut way of changing the date format from British to American (and believe me we’ve tried) so we have to change them all manually.

Then we change the spellings and punctuation in the descriptions, update the Table of Contents, and give it a brief proofread. The U.S. chronological version is now complete.

We create the U.S. sorted by date version in exactly the same way that we created the British version.

Processing time: two weeks for each edition.

Step 11: The cover

We have a standard cover template, created in Adobe Photoshop, that we use every year.

We change:

  • the year
  • the edition number
  • the number of anniversaries in the book
  • the three images at the bottom of the front cover
  • the spine width – depending on the number of pages

The images illustrate anniversaries from 150, 100, and 50 years ago. We choose anniversaries that are known worldwide, and images that are instantly recognisable (and free to use).

Processing time: about half a day.

Step 12: Publishing

The final step. We create PDF versions of the covers and contents and upload them to Amazon, which prints copies one at a time as customers order them.

We upload the same files to our e-book distributor, Payhip.

Once Amazon has approved the book and given us a link we can send buyers to, we add it to the ideas4writers website.

And then we announce it to the world via our blog, Facebook, Twitter, our mailing list of previous buyers, and so on.

Processing time: two days.

Summary

It takes around seven months to create the first edition in a five-year cycle, and about five months for the following four editions.

We work five years ahead, and as I write this at the end of 2022, we’re about to start work on the 2028 edition, which will be released in the spring of 2023. This will be the fifth and last edition in the current five-year cycle. The 2029 edition will be the first in the next cycle, so we’ll need to start work two months earlier next year.

Although it takes us five to seven months to create each edition, you can buy it for just £12.95 (about $14.99 in the USA).

Here are our current editions.

Ditch Your Day Job in 2023

Ditch Your Day Job in 2023

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Long-time followers might remember this little gem of a book from 2016.

Well, we’ve updated it and brought it back. It’s free too!

It shows you how to write paid articles for newspapers, magazines and websites – and how to sell everything you write.

It gives you everything you need, including:

• the best way to begin your writing career,

• an endless source of great ideas for articles

• how to write them

• how to find publications that want them

• the best way to contact them

• how to graduate to writing books – without doing any more writing

• and much more.

There are some really useful free bonuses too.

Ditch Your Day Job, 2023 Edition is currently only available as a downloadable (and printable) PDF file, but we’ll see if we can get it into the Kindle Store and on other ebook sites soon.

Find out more and download your free copy here.

Feel free to share it – it’s free!

30 newsworthy historical anniversaries in April 2023 (U.S. Edition)

30 newsworthy historical anniversaries in April 2023 (U.S. Edition)

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Here are 30 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in April 2023 (so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for “On This Day in History” features, biographies and anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with readers and viewers, and editors and producers love them. They’re easy to research too. And you can easily turn them into newspaper and magazine articles, TV/radio features, films, documentaries, and more.

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, which features more than 3,000 anniversaries. . The 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2027 editions are also available if you work further ahead.

Apr 1, 1948 – 75 years ago
The Big Bang theory was first proposed in a paper by the Russian-born American theoretical physicist and cosmologist George Gamow and his associates. It was published in the magazine Physical Review.

Apr 2, 1963 – 60 years ago
The Soviet Union launched its Luna 4 spacecraft on a mission to the Moon. It missed the Moon by over 5,000 miles after failing to make a mid-course correction.

Apr 3, 1948 – 75 years ago
The USA’s Marshall Plan for European recovery after WWII went into effect.

Apr 4, 1923 – 100 years ago
Death of John Venn, British logician and philosopher. Best known for inventing the Venn diagram.

Apr 5, 1923 – 100 years ago
Death of George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, British aristocrat and Egyptologist who financed the search/excavation of Tutankhamen’s Tomb.

Apr 6, 1993 – 30 years ago
Tomsk-7 nuclear accident, Seversk, Russia. A tank at a nuclear waste reprocessing facility exploded while being cleaned, releasing a cloud of highly radioactive gas. Several villages became permanently uninhabitable as a result.

Apr 7, 1933 – 90 years ago
Prohibition in the USA: the Cullen–Harrison Act came into effect, legalizing the sale of low alcohol beer and wine (up to 3.2% alcohol by weight) for the first time since 1920.

Apr 8, 1973 – 50 years ago
Death of Pablo Picasso, Spanish artist. Co-founder of the Cubism movement. One of the greatest artists of the 20th century.

Apr 9, 1963 – 60 years ago
Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was proclaimed the first Honorary Citizen of the United States.

Apr 10, 1998 – 25 years ago
The Good Friday Agreement was signed in Northern Ireland.

Apr 11, 1958 – 65 years ago
Birth of Stuart Adamson, Scottish punk/rock/new wave singer, guitarist and songwriter (Skids, Big Country). (Died 2001.)

Apr 12, 1898 – 125 years ago
Birth of Lily Pons, French-born American operatic soprano.

Apr 13, 1873 – 150 years ago
The Colfax Massacre, Louisiana, USA. More than 60 black men (some sources say 150) were killed by a white Southern militia in a racially motivated attack.

Apr 14, 2003 – 20 years ago
The Human Genome Project was successfully completed, with over 99% of the human genome sequenced and mapped, including all of the genes.

Apr 15, 1923 – 100 years ago
Insulin became generally available for the treatment of diabetes.

Apr 16, 1943 – 80 years ago
Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann first discovered the hallucinogenic effects of LSD after accidentally absorbing some through his fingertips during an experiment at the Sandoz pharmaceutical research laboratory. On April 19th he deliberately took the drug to determine its true effects, but underestimated its potency and experienced an intense psychotic reaction.

Apr 17, 1973 – 50 years ago
FedEx, the courier service, began operating (as Federal Express).

Apr 18, 1973 – 50 years ago
The premiere of the dystopian thriller movie Soylent Green in Los Angeles, California, USA. (New York premiere: April 19th, released: May 9th. UK: June 1973.)

Apr 19 to May 16, 1943 – 80 years ago
Holocaust: the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Poland. The Jewish resistance revolted against Nazi Germany’s efforts to transport those who remained in the ghetto to Treblinka extermination camp.

Apr 20, 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Tito Puente, American Latin jazz/mambo musician, songwriter and record producer. He helped popularize Latin dance music and jazz in the USA.

Apr 21, 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Sir John Mortimer, British barrister, playwright, novelist, screenwriter and short story writer. Best known for creating Rumpole of the Bailey, and for the stage play A Voyage Round My Father. (Died 2009.)

Apr 22, 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Aaron Spelling, American television and film producer (Charlie’s Angels, T. J. Hooker, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Hart to Hart, Beverly Hills 90210 and many more). (Died 2006.)

Apr 23, 1998 – 25 years ago
Death of James Earl Ray, American criminal convicted of assassinating the civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Apr 24, 1993 – 30 years ago
An IRA truck bomb exploded in the Bishopsgate financial district in London. One person was killed (a press photographer) and 44 injured. It was the last major IRA bombing in England. Reconstruction cost over $400 million.

Apr 25, 1873 – 150 years ago
Birth of Walter de la Mare, British poet, children’s writer, short story writer and novelist.

Apr 26, 1933 – 90 years ago
The Gestapo, Nazi Germany’s secret police force, was established.

Apr 27, 1848 – 175 years ago
Slavery was abolished in the French colonies.

Apr 28, 1923 – 100 years ago
Wembley Stadium in London opened (as the British Empire Exhibition Stadium, commonly known as the Empire Stadium). It was demolished in 2003. The new Wembley Stadium opened on the same site in March 2007.

Apr 29, 1993 – 30 years ago
Queen Elizabeth II announced that Buckingham Palace would open to the public for the first time, to raise funds to repair fire damage at Windsor Castle.

Apr 30, 1948 – 75 years ago
The Land Rover, a British all-terrain vehicle, was officially launched at the Amsterdam Motor Show in the Netherlands.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2023. The 2024, 2025 and 2026 and 2027 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The 2028 edition will be available from April 2023. Find out more at ideas4writers.com.

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30 newsworthy historical anniversaries in April 2023

30 newsworthy historical anniversaries in April 2023

Posted on by admin

Here are 30 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in April 2023 (so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for “On This Day in History” features, biographies and anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with readers and viewers, and editors and producers love them. They’re easy to research too. And you can easily turn them into newspaper and magazine articles, TV/radio features, films, documentaries, and more.

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, which features more than 3,000 anniversaries. . The 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2027 editions are also available if you work further ahead.

1 Apr 1948 – 75 years ago
The Big Bang theory was first proposed in a paper by the Russian-born American theoretical physicist and cosmologist George Gamow and his associates. It was published in the magazine Physical Review.

2 Apr 1963 – 60 years ago
The Soviet Union launched its Luna 4 spacecraft on a mission to the Moon. It missed the Moon by over 5,000 miles after failing to make a mid-course correction.

3 Apr 1948 – 75 years ago
The USA’s Marshall Plan for European recovery after WWII went into effect.

4 Apr 1923 – 100 years ago
Death of John Venn, British logician and philosopher. Best known for inventing the Venn diagram.

5 Apr 1923 – 100 years ago
Death of George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, British aristocrat and Egyptologist who financed the search/excavation of Tutankhamen’s Tomb.

6 Apr 1993 – 30 years ago
Tomsk-7 nuclear accident, Seversk, Russia. A tank at a nuclear waste reprocessing facility exploded while being cleaned, releasing a cloud of highly radioactive gas. Several villages became permanently uninhabitable as a result.

7 Apr 1933 – 90 years ago
Prohibition in the USA: the Cullen–Harrison Act came into effect, legalising the sale of low alcohol beer and wine (up to 3.2% alcohol by weight) for the first time since 1920.

8 Apr 1973 – 50 years ago
Death of Pablo Picasso, Spanish artist. Co-founder of the Cubism movement. One of the greatest artists of the 20th century.

9 Apr 1963 – 60 years ago
Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was proclaimed the first Honorary Citizen of the United States.

10 Apr 1998 – 25 years ago
The Good Friday Agreement was signed in Northern Ireland.

11 Apr 1958 – 65 years ago
Birth of Stuart Adamson, Scottish punk/rock/new wave singer, guitarist and songwriter (Skids, Big Country). (Died 2001.)

12 Apr 1898 – 125 years ago
Birth of Lily Pons, French-born American operatic soprano.

13 Apr 1873 – 150 years ago
The Colfax Massacre, Louisiana, USA. More than 60 black men (some sources say 150) were killed by a white Southern militia in a racially motivated attack.

14 Apr 2003 – 20 years ago
The Human Genome Project was successfully completed, with over 99% of the human genome sequenced and mapped, including all of the genes.

15 Apr 1923 – 100 years ago
Insulin became generally available for the treatment of diabetes.

16 Apr 1943 – 80 years ago
Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann first discovered the hallucinogenic effects of LSD after accidentally absorbing some through his fingertips during an experiment at the Sandoz pharmaceutical research laboratory. On 19th April he deliberately took the drug to determine its true effects, but underestimated its potency and experienced an intense psychotic reaction.

17 Apr 1973 – 50 years ago
FedEx, the courier service, began operating (as Federal Express).

18 Apr 1973 – 50 years ago
The première of the dystopian thriller film Soylent Green in Los Angeles, California, USA. (New York première: 19th April, released: 9th May. UK: June 1973.)

19 Apr 1943 to 16 May – 80 years ago
Holocaust: the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Poland. The Jewish resistance revolted against Nazi Germany’s efforts to transport those who remained in the ghetto to Treblinka extermination camp.

20 Apr 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Tito Puente, American Latin jazz/mambo musician, songwriter and record producer. He helped popularise Latin dance music and jazz in the USA.

21 Apr 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Sir John Mortimer, British barrister, playwright, novelist, screenwriter and short story writer. Best known for creating Rumpole of the Bailey, and for the stage play A Voyage Round My Father. (Died 2009.)

22 Apr 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Aaron Spelling, American television and film producer (Charlie’s Angels, T. J. Hooker, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Hart to Hart, Beverly Hills 90210 and many more). (Died 2006.)

23 Apr 1998 – 25 years ago
Death of James Earl Ray, American criminal convicted of assassinating the civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.

24 Apr 1993 – 30 years ago
An IRA truck bomb exploded in the Bishopsgate financial district in London. One person was killed (a press photographer) and 44 injured. It was the last major IRA bombing in England. Reconstruction cost £350 million.

25 Apr 1873 – 150 years ago
Birth of Walter de la Mare, British poet, children’s writer, short story writer and novelist.

26 Apr 1933 – 90 years ago
The Gestapo, Nazi Germany’s secret police force, was established.

27 Apr 1848 – 175 years ago
Slavery was abolished in the French colonies.

28 Apr 1923 – 100 years ago
Wembley Stadium in London opened (as the British Empire Exhibition Stadium, commonly known as the Empire Stadium). It was demolished in 2003. The new Wembley Stadium opened on the same site in March 2007.

29 Apr 1993 – 30 years ago
Queen Elizabeth II announced that Buckingham Palace would open to the public for the first time, to raise funds to repair fire damage at Windsor Castle.

30 Apr 1948 – 75 years ago
The Land Rover, a British all-terrain vehicle, was officially launched at the Amsterdam Motor Show in the Netherlands.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2023. The 2024, 2025 and 2026 and 2027 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The 2028 edition will be available from April 2023. Find out more at ideas4writers.com.

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31 newsworthy historical anniversaries in March 2023 (U.S. edition)

31 newsworthy historical anniversaries in March 2023 (U.S. edition)

Posted on by admin

Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in March 2023 (so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for “On This Day in History” features, biographies and anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with readers and viewers, and editors and producers love them. They’re easy to research too. And you can easily turn them into newspaper and magazine articles, TV/radio features, films, documentaries, and more.

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, which features more than 3,000 anniversaries. . The 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2027 editions are also available if you work further ahead.

Mar 1, 1873 – 150 years ago
Remington began producing the first practical typewriter – the Sholes and Glidden typewriter, also known as the Remington No. 1. It went on sale on July 1, 1874.

Mar 2, 1933 – 90 years ago
The premiere of the movie King Kong, in New York City, USA. (Released April 7th.)

Mar 3, 1923 – 100 years ago
The first issue of Time magazine was published in the USA.

Mar 4, 1933 – 90 years ago
Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 32nd President of the United States.

Mar 5, 1623 – 400 years ago
The first American temperance law came into effect in the Colony of Virginia in an effort to control the consumption of alcohol.

Mar 6, 1973 – 50 years ago
Death of Pearl S. Buck, American writer. The first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1938).

Mar 7, 1848 – 175 years ago
The Great Mahele, Hawaii. The land of Hawaii was divided to protect it from foreign ownership. 1/3 was given to the Crown, 1/3 to the chiefs and managers, and 1/3 to the common people. The law required people to claim their land within two years. Many did not make a claim and the land was sold.

Mar 8, 1723 – 300 years ago
Death of Sir Christopher Wren, English architect. Best known for designing St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

Mar 9, 1993 – 30 years ago
Death of C. Northcote Parkinson, British historian and writer. Noted for his books on naval history and for formulating Parkinson’s Law (work expands to fill the time available for its completion).

Mar 10, 1933 – 90 years ago
The Long Beach earthquake, California, USA. 120 people were killed.

Mar 11, 1948 – 75 years ago
Reginald Weir became the first African American to play in an official United States Lawn Tennis Association event, after several years of lobbying to be accepted. His acceptance paved the way for Althea Gibson to take part the following year.

Mar 12, 1933 – 90 years ago
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the first of his “fireside chats” – a radio address to the nation. His first chat was about the banking crisis.

Mar 13, 1933 – 90 years ago
Joseph Goebbels became the German Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.

Mar 14, 1983 – 40 years ago
OPEC agreed to cut oil prices for first time since it was founded in 1961.

Mar 15, 1998 – 25 years ago
Death of Dr Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician and writer. Known for his best-selling book Baby and Child Care.

Mar 16, 1898 – 125 years ago
Death of Aubrey Beardsley, British illustrator. His black ink drawings, influenced by Japanese woodcuts, contributed to the development of Art Nouveau.

Mar 17, 1973 – 50 years ago
The new London Bridge opened in the UK.

Mar 18, 1963 – 60 years ago
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Miranda decision: states must provide defendants in criminal cases with a lawyer if they are unable to afford their own. This led to the creation of the public defender system.

Mar 19, 1848 – 175 years ago
Birth of Wyatt Earp, legendary American lawman, gambler and gunfighter of the Old West. Noted for his role in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in 1881.

Mar 20, 1993 – 30 years ago
An IRA bomb exploded at a shopping mall in Warrington, England. Two children were killed and more than 50 people were injured.

Mar 21, 1963 – 60 years ago
The U.S. Federal Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, California, closed.

Mar 22, 1933 – 90 years ago
The first Nazi concentration camp opened in Dachau, Germany. The Nazis eventually established over 1,000 concentration camps throughout occupied Europe.

Mar 23, 1983 – 40 years ago
U.S. President Ronald Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”) system, which would use satellites to detect and destroy enemy missiles.

Mar 24, 1953 – 70 years ago
Death of Queen Mary of the United Kingdom, (Mary of Teck), Queen Consort of King George V. Mother of King Edward VIII and King George VI. Grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II.

Mar 25, 1948 – 75 years ago
The first official tornado forecast/warning. U.S. Air Force Captain Robert C. Miller and Major Ernest Fawbush predicted a high risk of a tornado strike at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. Two large tornadoes struck the base that evening, damaging or destroying aircraft and buildings.

Mar 26, 1923 – 100 years ago
BBC radio began broadcasting a daily weather forecast.

Mar 27, 1963 – 60 years ago
Dr. Richard Beeching, the chairman of British Railways, issued a report (The Reshaping of British Railways) which led to the closure of thousands of miles of railroad lines and stations across the country – about a third of the railroad network.

Mar 28, 1963 – 60 years ago
The premiere of Alfred Hitchcock’s horror-thriller movie The Birds, in New York City, USA. (Released: March 29th. UK premiere: September 10th, released September 12th.)

Mar 29, 1948 – 75 years ago
Death of Harry Price, British psychic investigator. Best known for his investigation of the supposedly haunted Borley Rectory in Essex.

Mar 30, 1953 – 70 years ago
Albert Einstein’s equations for a revised Unified Field Theory were published. They represented the relationship between the forces of gravity and electromagnetism, and their relationship to space, time and physical forces.

Mar 31, 1973 – 50 years ago
The racehorse Red Rum won Britain’s Grand National steeplechase for the first time. The tightly fought battle for the finish is considered one of the greatest sporting moments. It was also a record-breaking time.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2023. The 2024, 2025 and 2026 and 2027 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The 2028 edition will be available from April 2023. Find out more at ideas4writers.com.

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