A devastating earthquake occurred on 28 December 1908 in Sicily and Calabria, southern Italy, with a moment magnitude of 7.1 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI. The epicentre was in the Strait of Messina which separates Sicily from the Italian mainland.
This powerful tremor and subsequent tsunami caused widespread destruction in southern Italy, resulting in one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters.
Born 1932. Indian businessman who rose from humble beginnings to found Reliance Industries, India's largest private company, and popularise share ownership
2025. The 2025–2026 Iranian protests were a series of nationwide demonstrations against the government of Iran that began on 28 December 2025 amid a deepening economic crisis.
2014. Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Indonesia AirAsia from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore.
Your day in numbers
Star sign
♑︎ Capricorn
Earth sign, ruled by Saturn
Birthstone
Turquoise
The birthstone for December
UK Number 1 single
Before the charts
The UK singles chart began on 14 November 1952
World population
About 2.1 billion
People on Earth in 1932
The cost of living in Britain, 1932
Average house
£582
Typical UK home
Pint of beer
6d
In a UK pub
Loaf of bread
8d
Large white loaf
Average salary
£160
UK full-time, per year
Approximate UK averages at the time, in the money of the day.
How your birthday newspaper is made
Enter your date of birth and we will print a one-off newspaper front page for the day you were born. The headline is a real historical event from our archive, chosen from your exact birth date where we have one, then from the same week, then from the same date in an earlier year. The page also shows famous people born on your birthday, your star sign and birthstone, the UK number one single, the world population and the cost of living in Britain at the time.
The layout, typefaces and colours follow the newspaper style of your birth decade: dense broadsheets before 1940, classic bold headlines in the 1940s and 1950s, tabloid energy in the 1960s and 1970s, colour accents in the 1980s and 1990s, and clean full-colour pages from 2000 onwards.
Headlines and summaries come from our archive of historical events, built from Wikidata and reviewed by our editorial team. When a famous person linked to the story has a profile on our site, their Wikimedia Commons portrait appears with the photographer's credit; otherwise you see an original woodcut or halftone illustration.
Add your town or country of birth to name the masthead, for example The Manchester Birthday Chronicle. Your birthplace is stored only on your device.
Every front page has its own link, so you can send it to friends and family, and you can download it as a high-resolution image to print or frame.
Questions people ask
Frequently asked questions
How do I get a newspaper front page from the day I was born?
Enter your day, month and year of birth above and press the button. Your personalised front page appears instantly, with its own link you can share and a download button for a print-quality image.
Are the headlines real?
Yes. Every headline is a real historical event from our archive. If nothing in our archive happened on your exact birth date, we use an event from the same week, or the most recent event on the same date in an earlier year, and the label above the headline says which.
Why does my front page look different from a friend's?
The design changes with the decade you were born in, from ornate pre-war broadsheets to modern full-colour layouts, so each page looks like a newspaper from its own era.
Is the birthday newspaper free?
Yes. Creating, sharing and downloading your personalised birthday front page costs nothing.