History::Alert is a free service which notifies people about upcoming history-related events in the Fredericksburg, Virginia area. It uses email messages, this website, and social media services to accomplish this. Anyone can use the website and the Facebook and Twitter feeds, but the email messages are by subscription and are intended for people in the local geographic area.
This website offers monthly calendars and provides various other ways of viewing information about events. It includes an archive of recently-sent History::Alert email messages.
For each day of the month, the calendar shows the events, if any, occurring on that day. The titles of the events are shown. If you click on a title, a small event window opens up, showing more information for that event.
The titles have a red background if any change has been made to the event (cancelled, rescheduled, etc.). If you have “highlighted” an event (see the next topic below), then the title is prefixed by a checkmark, and the day’s background is colored light green.
If a day has more than one event, their titles are separated with a red stripe. The events in a day might not be in chronological order.
The event window may include a map icon 
which should display
a map of the event’s location when you click on it. Click anywhere on the calendar
page (except on an icon), and the event window will disappear. You can move an event window
to a different location on the page if you put the mouse cursor on the top margin of the event
window and drag (this does not work on mobile devices).
If any change has been made to the event, its event window contains an explanation of the change; this has a red background.
To go to the next month, or to the previous month, click on the corresponding arrow next to the month name at the top of the calendar.
Events can be given checkmarks so that they are highlighted on this website’s monthly calendars and on the pages showing All Events and Events in the Next Two Weeks. The History::Alert homepage also shows when your next highlighted event will occur.
To add or remove a checkmark from an event, look for the checkmark icon
in an event’s description. Click once to
highlight the event; click again to un-highlight it.
See the next section for information on how to add your highlighted sessions to your personal calendar.
This feature does not use browser cookies (it uses “HTML localStorage”), but if you disable cookies, your highlights will not be remembered.
Highlights will be remembered only on that computer where you add the checkmark (and only on that browser, if you use more than one browser).
If you want to remove all of your current highlights, click HERE ( WARNING—you cannot undo this ).
You can create an iCalendar file containing information about all of your future highlighted (checked) events. Click HERE for the webpage which does this; it is new and complex, so please report any problems.
You can also click on the word iCalendar on the main History::Alert page.
When you click the Download Calendar button, it will download an iCalendar file to your device. The destination folder on your device depends on the browser that you are using and your browser settings. The downloaded file will be named HistoryAlert.ics unless you already have a file with this name in your download folder; in that case, the name will be slightly different.
You can use this file to load information into the calendar utility on your smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop, Google calendar, etc. The procedure for doing this is different for each case; I’m sorry, but I can’t give you any assistance on this (ask your grandchild or the kid next door). Note that this will NOT stay synchronized; when you add new events to your list of checked events, you will need to download and process the file anew.
Please use only the address when emailing me. I use a different address when I send History::Alert messages. The other address is on Gmail; please do not use that address.
Any time you want to be removed from the History::Alert mailing list, please let me know.
If you change your email address, please give me your new address, and make sure that you identify yourself in that message. If I get an error reply from sending you a message, I will need to remove you from the mailing list.
If you would like to be added to the History::Alert mailing list, send me an email with your full name and email address in the body of the message. Please indicate how you heard about History::Alert. A phone number would be helpful. I will not share your information with anyone else.
The decision whether to add a name to the list, and to retain a name on the list, is solely at my discretion.
This service can be cancelled or interrupted at any time due to problems with email providers who assume that I am sending spam. Such interruptions have occurred before.
If you get History::Alert email messages, you will also get occasional Space::Alert messages about upcoming sky-related events such as highly-visible passes of the International Space Station (ISS). It is NOW POSSIBLE to get only one type of message and not the other; email Alan Zirkle and let him know which type you want to see. Say ONLY HISTORY or ONLY SPACE.
The ISS orbits the earth approximately once every ninety minutes. It is often visible as it passes overhead. Most of the time these passes are not very luminous, but occasionally the ISS is the brightest thing in the sky besides the moon. What you see is sunlight reflected off the structure of the Space Station.
I try to keep track of these bright passes, and send out Space::Alert email messages a few days before they are predicted to occur. I get the information from the website www.heavens-above.com. My messages are valid only for the Fredericksburg/Washington D.C. area; other locations can use that website to get observations for their area.
If the sky is overcast, you won’t see the ISS. The ISS orbit constantly decays, so the times in my messages will be a few seconds off. Sometimes NASA will change the orbit of the Station after I send my message, and the visible pass will not occur; I cannot predict these changes.
The Space Station will be a white point of light, which does not blink, moving across the sky. It will be dimmer near the horizon, and very bright (up to minus 4.0 magnitude) at its highest point.
If you want to get the correct current time to the second, you can use your cellphone or www.time.gov.
Information about a history-related event can be provided to me for consideration to be posted on this website and/or sent as a History::Alert email message. The decision whether to use your information rests solely on my discretion.
Decisions on editing your information are also solely mine, but I will try to correct errors that I introduce.
The less that I need to edit your information, the better. Plain text that I can easily cut and paste is greatly appreciated; poster-like compositions (JPEG attachments, etc.) are hard to work with.
Please include the day of the week when specifying dates.
Please give good location information for your event. If I can’t figure out how to get to your event, then neither will many others.
The farther away that your event is from Fredericksburg, or the less that it is directly history-related, the less likely it is that I will publicize it. For example, a wine tasting at a historical site in Winchester might be outside of the envelope.
I can put your event on the calendar as soon as you have a date and title. Information can be added when it becomes available.
As of April 2018, I have about 395 addresses in my History::Alert mailing list. Some of the recipients forward my messages to their organizations, so the total outreach is unknown.
From August 2008 to April 2018, I sent out 1000 History::Alert messages. This works out to about 100 per year.
History::Alert messages are available on Facebook; click the icon to the left, or search for
“History::Alert,” and enter that you “like” the page, then messages
will be posted on your Facebook news feed as they are created. Posts are deleted
from Facebook after the related events occur.
History::Alert messages are available on Twitter; click the icon to the left, or search for
“HistoryAlert.” Click “follow” to get notifications in your
Twitter feed. Posts are deleted from Twitter after the related events occur.
There is a website that tests your handheld device’s pixel characteristics. Click HERE to visit the site. I may ask you to do this to help improve the appearance of the website on smartphones and tablets. The following lines are debugging information: