Today, I am going to share a tip to learn something useful when you feel bored at work. You can view significant events in world history from command line in Unix-like systems using Calendar command. To use Calendar command, you need to install bsdmainutils package that contains a collection of FreeBSD utilities such as banner, calendar, col, colcrt, colrm, column, from, hexdump, look, lorder, ncal, ul, and write.
Install bsdmainutils
Most Linux distributions comes preinstalled with bsdmainutils. If it is not installed already, you can install it from your distribution's default package manager. For example, on Debian based systems, run the following command to install bsdmainutils package.
$ sudo apt-get install bsdmainutils
On RPM based systems:
$ sudo yum install bsdmainutils
View Significant Events In World History From Command line
All history events will be stored in separate Calendar files in /usr/share/Calendar directory. To view all Calendar files, run:
$ ls /usr/share/calendar/
Sample output:
calendar.all calendar.debian calendar.holiday calendar.kazakhstan calendar.ubuntu hr_HR calendar.argentina calendar.discordian calendar.hungarian calendar.lotr calendar.ukrainian hu_HU calendar.australia calendar.dutch calendar.judaic calendar.music calendar.unitedkingdom ru_RU calendar.belgium calendar.eu calendar.judaic.2016 calendar.newzealand calendar.usholiday uk_UA calendar.birthday calendar.freebsd calendar.judaic.2017 calendar.pagan calendar.world calendar.christian calendar.french calendar.judaic.2018 calendar.russian de_AT calendar.computer calendar.german calendar.judaic.2019 calendar.southafrica de_DE calendar.croatian calendar.history calendar.judaic.2020 calendar.thai fr_FR
Just type the following command to know the important and significant events happened today in World history.
$ calendar
This calendar utility checks the current directory or the directory specified by the CALENDAR_DIR environment variable for a file named calendar and displays lines that begin with either today's date or tomorrow's. On Fridays, events on Friday through Monday are displayed.
Sample output:
Apr 11 National Heroes Day in Costa Rica Apr 11 Es asesinado Justo J. de Urquiza en el Palacio San José, 1870 Apr 11 Bruce A. Mah <bmah@FreeBSD.org> born in Fresno, California, United States, 1969 Apr 11 N'oubliez pas les Stanislas ! Apr 11 Bonne fête aux Gemma ! Apr 11 Aujourd'hui, c'est la St(e) Léon. Apr 11 Attentat auf Dutschke, Studentenunruhen, 1968 Apr 11 Leó, Szaniszló Apr 12 Confederate troops fire first shots of Civil War at Ft Sumter, 1861 Apr 12 Space Shuttle Columbia launched, 1981 Apr 12 Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space, 1961 Apr 12 Patrick Gardella <patrick@FreeBSD.org> born in Columbus, Ohio, United States, 1967 Apr 12 Ed Schouten <ed@FreeBSD.org> born in Oss, the Netherlands, 1986 Apr 12 N'oubliez pas les Jules ! Apr 12 Bonne fête aux Sabas ! Apr 12 Gyula Apr 12 День космонавтики
Just in case if you encountered with an error "calendar: /usr/bin/cpp: No such file or directory", you need to install cpp package.
In Ubuntu, run the following command to install it.
$ sudo apt-get install cpp
You can also use 'cat' command to display the events like below.
To view all history events, run:
$ cat /usr/share/calendar/calendar.history
It shows mostly US-related events, yet it is useful and very interesting to read.
To list all important events related to Computer, run:
$ cat /usr/share/calendar/calendar.computer
Also, you can narrow down the search results using search terms like below.
$ cat /usr/share/calendar/calendar.computer | grep "Unix"
Want to know the the history events of Ubuntu? Just run:
$ calendar -f /usr/share/calendar/calendar.ubuntu -A 365
Here, The -f flag indicates which calendar you want to access, and the calendar.ubuntu is the file that has important events of Ubuntu.
Sample output:
Apr 17 Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) released, 2014 Apr 19 Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) released, 2007 Apr 23 Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) released, 2009 Apr 24 Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) released, 2008 Apr 25 Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) released, 2013 Apr 26 Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) released, 2012 Apr 28 Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) released, 2011 Apr 29 Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) released, 2010 Jun 01 Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake) released, 2006 Oct 10 Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) released, 2010 Oct 13 Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger) released, 2005 Oct 13 Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) released, 2011 Oct 17 Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) released, 2013 Oct 18 Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) released, 2007 Oct 18 Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) released, 2012 Oct 20 Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog) released, 2004 Oct 23 Ubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn) released, 2014 Oct 26 Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft) released, 2006 Oct 29 Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) released, 2009 Oct 30 Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) released, 2008 Apr 08 Ubuntu 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog) released, 2005
Want to see the birth or death dates of famous people? run this command:
$ calendar -f /usr/share/calendar/calendar.birthday -A 365
You can also search what's happened on a particular year using grep command like below.
$ grep '1984$' /usr/share/calendar/calendar.*
This command will display all events which are happened in 1984.
Sample output:
/usr/share/calendar/calendar.argentina:Oct 15 Se es concedido el Nobel de Medicina a César Milstein, 1984 /usr/share/calendar/calendar.computer:01/01 AT&T officially divests its local Bell companies, 1984 /usr/share/calendar/calendar.computer:Apr 01 Usenet site kremvax announced as an April Fool's joke, 1984 /usr/share/calendar/calendar.computer:Jan 24 Introduction of the first Mac, 1984 /usr/share/calendar/calendar.freebsd:02/26 Pietro Cerutti <gahr@FreeBSD.org> born in Faido, Switzerland, 1984 /usr/share/calendar/calendar.freebsd:05/19 Sofian Brabez <sbz@FreeBSD.org> born in Toulouse, France, 1984 /usr/share/calendar/calendar.freebsd:06/18 Li-Wen Hsu <lwhsu@FreeBSD.org> born in Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China, 1984 /usr/share/calendar/calendar.freebsd:10/20 Dmitry Marakasov <amdmi3@FreeBSD.org> born in Moscow, Russian Federation, 1984
How about Lord of The Rings timeline?
Yes, you can also view the major dates related to Lord of the Rings(LOTR) events. To do so, just run the following command from the Terminal:
$ cat /usr/share/calendar/calendar.lotr
Sample output would be:
/* * Lord Of The Rings * * $FreeBSD$ */ #ifndef _calendar_lotr_ #define _calendar_lotr_ LANG=UTF-8 01/05 Fellowship enters Moria 01/09 Fellowship reaches Lorien 01/17 Passing of Gandalf 02/07 Fellowship leaves Lorien 02/17 Death of Boromir 02/20 Meriadoc & Pippin meet Treebeard 02/22 Passing of King Ellesar 02/24 Ents destroy Isengard 02/26 Aragorn takes the Paths of the Dead 03/05 Frodo & Samwise encounter Shelob 03/08 Deaths of Denethor & Theoden 03/18 Destruction of the Ring 03/29 Flowering of the Mallorn 04/04 Gandalf visits Bilbo 04/17 An unexpected party 04/23 Crowning of King Ellesar 05/19 Arwen leaves Lorian to wed King Ellesar 06/11 Sauron attacks Osgilliath 06/13 Bilbo returns to Bag End 06/23 Wedding of Ellesar & Arwen 07/04 Gandalf imprisoned by Saruman 07/24 The ring comes to Bilbo 07/26 Bilbo rescued from Wargs by Eagles 08/03 Funeral of King Theoden 08/29 Saruman enters the Shire 09/10 Gandalf escapes from Orthanc 09/14 Frodo & Bilbo's birthday 09/15 Black riders enter the Shire 09/18 Frodo and company rescued by Bombadil 09/28 Frodo wounded at Weathertop 10/05 Frodo crosses bridge of Mitheithel 10/16 Boromir reaches Rivendell 10/17 Council of Elrond 10/25 End of War of the Ring 11/16 Bilbo reaches the Lonely Mountain 12/05 Death of Smaug 12/16 Fellowship begins Quest #endif /* !_calendar_lotr_ */
Can I view only a particular character's events in Lord of the Rings? Of course, you can! The following command displays the events related to Bilbo baggins in LOTR.
$ cat /usr/share/calendar/calendar.lotr | grep "Bilbo"
Sample output:
04/04 Gandalf visits Bilbo 06/13 Bilbo returns to Bag End 07/24 The ring comes to Bilbo 07/26 Bilbo rescued from Wargs by Eagles 09/14 Frodo & Bilbo's birthday 11/16 Bilbo reaches the Lonely Mountain
For more details, check the man pages.
$ man calendar
I am not sure that these facts are accurate. Please cross check them on any legitimate offline/online sources. Knowing important events in World history from command line is really fun, and productive instead of passing time by merely playing games or watching movies.
That's all for now. I will be soon here with another interesting guide. If you find this guide useful, please share it on your social and professional networks.
Cheers!
Thanks for stopping by!
Help us to help you:
- Subscribe to our Email Newsletter : Sign Up Now
- Support OSTechNix : Donate Via PayPal
- Download free E-Books and Videos : OSTechNix on TradePub
- Connect with us: Facebook | Twitter | Google Plus | LinkedIn | RSS feeds
Have a Good day!!