Dan Curtis ~ Professional Personal Historian

Tribute in Lights Memorial, New York 2005

Looking back on our lives or the lives of our family we can see that we’ve been an eyewitness to many of the world’s great events. For example, during The Great Depression my father rode the rails looking for work. My mother flew in some of the first regularly scheduled airline flights. I knew exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard of President John Kennedy’s assassination. And we can all remember vividly our gut reaction on seeing the collapse of The World Trade Center on 9/11.

One of the invaluable legacies that our personal stories provide is not only a record of our lives but also an oral history of our times. Don’t forget to weave into your personal narrative the important historical events of your time and how you reacted to them. I would give anything to hear my grandfather’s firsthand account of the battle for Vimy Ridge during the First World War. It was a defining moment in that war and a defining moment in Canada’s coming of age as a nation.

There are several websites that offer some excellent “Today in History” information. If you want to find out what was happening on the day you were born or what world events occurred on your marriage day, then check out these sites:

• Ambit’s Today in History
• MSN Encarta’s On This Day
• BBC’s On This Day
• The New York Times On This Day
• History.com This Day In History

Photo by Jackie