What Happened the Day You Were Born

• Use the New York Times ProQuest/Historical (also available on microfilm on the 2nd floor of the NHC library) to see what was happening from 1851 to the present.
  TO NARROW YOUR SEARCH: Leaving the top three search fields blank (empty), enter your date in the Date range "On this date" box below the main search area. Then, further down the page, click on the down arrow of the search box labeled Article Type and select "front page." Your search will be limited to stories on the front page from that date.
  
• Also look in books that compile newspaper front pages or list timelines by specific date
  • Front Pages: 100 Years of the Los Angeles Times [REF D358 .F763 1981]
  • Page One: Major Events, 1920-1993, as presented in the New York Times [REF D411 .P25 1993]
  • American Decades [REF E169.12 .A419]
  • Day by Day: the Eighties [REF D848 .M45 1995]
  • Day by Day: the Seventies [REF D848 .L4 1988]
  • Day by Day: the Sixties [REF D840 .P27 1983]
  • Day by Day: the Fifties [REF D842.5 .M47 1979]
• Find a compilation of news from around the world, arranged by the week, use Facts On File, call number REF D410 .F3 (reference collection, third floor of the NHC library). If you were born 1940 to the present: search online in Facts.com
• Search on the Web for key events that happened near your birthday (a few recommended search engines are: Google or Yahoo! or AltaVista) using phrases like "day in history" or "modern history timeline" or "+asia +historical +timeline," then look for a list or a timeline that might include your birth date.
• Find Houston area events for those students born locally, you can use the Houston Post, available on microfilm, for information from 1980 to 1995 on the 2nd floor of the library
• Don't forget to interview your relatives!

• Use the New York Times Index, the Houston Post Index, Readers Guide to Periodical Literature, and other periodical indices on the 2nd floor to find more information about specific events and trends.
• Find an issue of a news magazine (e.g., Time, Newsweek, Macleans, etc.) the week after your birthday in the 2nd floor microform cabinets. Put the microfiche or microfilm in the reader/printers and scan the table of contents or sections to find major news events.
• Use the Library Catalog to search for books on selected topics.

• Review your research results using tips from the Lone Star College-North Harris Library's Steps to Finding Information: Organize Results.
• Get writing help from:
  • The Writer's Handbook, from the University of Wisconsin
  • Bartleby.com: Great Books Online, where you will find Strunk's Elements of Style, the American Heritage Book of English Usage, and Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, among other writing tools
• Give credit where it's due: cite your sources.
  • NHC Library's Citing Sources page
  • For citing information from personal interviews, letters, and other sources, see the Writer's Workshop at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

If you need additional help, please feel free to contact a librarian during open hours.

Or call us at: 281-618-5707. Our email is nhc.libweb@LoneStar.edu