What are the stories that history tells us? I decided to look back at just one date at various websites and see what came up.

According to 440 International Those Were The Days, “Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born (prematurely) on this day in 1874. He became a British statesman, soldier, and author — and the first man to be made an honorary citizen of the United States (by an act of Congress on April 9, 1963).” It is Mark Twain’s birthday too.

You can watch a video or peruse the list of things that happened on this day at History.com. I found it unnerving that the categories are mostly about war. That was one of the problems that I had with history in high school. And why is the TV show Pawn Stars on the History Channel?

On This Day seems to have a broader scope with categories such as Today’s Famous Birthdays, Today in Music History, President Ronald Reagan History, and oh, yah, war.

You can go a bit upscale at On This Day at the New York Times.  For instance the entry for today, November 30, is “In 1995, President Clinton because the first U.S. chief executive to visit Northern Ireland.

Remarkably, Scopes Systems Worldwide Industrial Electronics Repair & Services  has one of the most comprehensive listings on their Anyday page, boasting more than 11 million hits. I was visitor number 14188881.

Historyorb.com seems pretty serious about Today in History. They say that their archives are “comprised of over 200,000 important events, famous and celebrity birthdays and famous deaths from the past six thousand years. The archive is fully searchable, both by date and by keyword” After searching around I now know that  Roman Catholics were banned from the English parliament in 1678.

Go surf the web, learn some history and come up with some interesting stories.

The organizationTechnology, Entertainment, Design, known popularly as TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. They began as a national conference and have evolved to include international conferences, the award-winning TEDTalks video site (riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world) TEDx programs (we had one in Tucson at the Fox Theatre in November) and much more.

It’s always fascinating listening. My sister in Australia even sends me links to stories she thinks I might enjoy. One I especially liked was a playlist called “The truth about stories” posted on the TED blog that features three amazing storytellers, Elif Shafak,  Chimamanda Adichie, and  Jonathan Harris. Take a listen and then cruise around the website.

You can search by speaker, theme, or by the talks themselves. Be prepared to spend lots of time because there is truly something for everyone. I just found the highly entertaining Joe Sabia telling the story of the technology of storytelling and I’m going back for more.

It is day seventeen of National Novel Writing Month, aka nanowrimo, and if you know anyone who is taking this challenge then you know better than to invite them out for dinner or try to make small talk. They are focused on the goal: 50,000 words in a month. My friend Denise DeSio, author of ebook, Rose’s Will, took the challenge and posted this on Facebook 2 days ago, “I can’t believe it. I have reached 25,320 words in 15 days.” It boggles the mind, all those words, so little time.

November is also National Lifewriting Month and the Nina Amir offers these tips on the National Association of Memoir Writers website if you’d like to attempt this art form

Write fast, let ‘er rip.

Feed your imagination with photos and research when you’re not writing.

Don’t worry about grammar, punctuation or details. Get the basics down.

No time for that inner critic either. Blow on by it!

Denis Ledoux has this to say about Lifewriting:

“When you write your stories down, you’re doing more than recording the who, what, where, and when. You are also affirming and celebrating your hopes and dreams by rediscovering the why and how of your life. Writing can lead to insight and self-understanding that bring peace and even healing.”

For those of you who would rather read then write, you can check out A Story Every Day, where you can find, “a new story posted every day. fiction, non-fiction, whatever.” The website states

“A Story Every Day” was born from my belief that everyone has a story to share. Stories that should be heard. Some people believe that they can’t write well enough to tell their story, their story isn’t important enough, or they are too shy to share in public. This space is meant for those stories.