A Printable Version of "Today" is available. Simply use your browser's "File... Print..." functions to put "Today In History" onto paper. It makes a great birthday gift.

"Today In History" is an HTML document generated "on-the-fly" using PERL scripts and a database of information. "Today" has its origins from the time before home computers existed. It was a mainframe computer program originally written by Mike Butler in PL/1 on a VM/CMS system. He should receive all the credit for the basic data file format and for thinking of the TODAY concept.

In the 1980's, Chuck Grimsby took on the task of "porting" the program to the Atari ST home computer. He added so many features and improvements, in both function and flexibility, that the program was truly his code and no one else's. There were (and are), however, many versions of "TODAY" out in the world, each with their own database files. Chuck Grimsby collected these files, and reams of other information (some is being used here), into a single large store of formatted data. He deserves primary credit for advancing TODAY into the modern world of desktop computing.

In the early 1990's, I began using the TODAY program for the Atari and became involved to the point that I assisted in the creation of the user's manual. That manual, and Chuck Grimsby's data files, are still available online in some European Atari software archives. I was involved in the evolution of, and using, TODAY for nearly two years. Then PC computers and the Internet postponed my work with TODAY for a number of years.

With Ambit well-established by late 1999, I wanted to add TODAY to the Web site. After some scouring of the Web, I discovered that, in the late 1990's, The Puppet Master wrote a PERL script for UNIX servers that would generate an HTML version of the TODAY information. He used a subroutine from Craig Patchett and Matt Wright (Matt's Script Archive). All of them should be credited for their contributions to bringing Ambit's TODAY page to you.

The PERL scripts used here has been heavily modified, both in function and format, from the originals, enabling Ambit's unique presentation of TODAY information. Originally only capable of displaying data for the current day, a search function recently has been added that enables the data to be displayed for any month and day.

Ambit's TODAY database is being constantly modified & updated as well. The database now contains approximately 3.2 million characters of information (about 1,200 printed pages.) And that number grows with every passing day. BUT over the decades that this data accumulated, it also amassed numerous duplicates, misspellings, ASCII translation errors, and even erroneous information (Example: Robert Louis Stevenson began constructing Treasure Island in 1936!!) Despite my own (seemingly endless) man-months of proofing and correcting, the data is still far from perfect.

HELP!!

I am asking for your help in perfecting the information you see displayed in Ambit's "Today In History." If you spot inaccurate dates, misspellings or information, I'd appreciate your taking the time to email me with the correction(s.) Just click on this link:

Thanks!

Ambit's Webmaster

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