Help
Searching more than 75 years of world history
How to use Help
Choose the topic on which you want help from the list above. You may also be interested in our blog, where we discuss site development and offer in-depth articles on features and functions, or in the contact us.
About the site
Keesing's have produced a comprehensive world news archive since 1931. This website offers the full access 76-year archive in electronic format, with 95,000 fully searchable articles. The site allows users to build up portfolios of articles useful to their research, to tag interesting information for themselves or to share with others, and to filter results according to the names of persons or countries referenced in the text.
The site also hosts Breaking History, a feature section providing historical analysis and context on today's headlines. Each Breaking History article uses the Keesing's archive to generate a full time-line with links to contemporary articles on the events dominating today's news.
You can also use the site to find out more about Keesing's, to read our blog, or to contact us.
Related information
- About Us: The company and our editorial policy
- Keesing's Record of World Events: Our contemporary print publication
- Sign Up: Create an account to access articles in the database
About Articles
The articles in our database are accessible through the search page.
Each result on the search page represents one article from Keesing's archive. The results page lists the headline and subheadings, the country which the article concerns, and the month and year in which the article first appeared in Keesing's. You can read articles by clicking on the headline in blue.
Longer articles may be spread over a number of pages. You can see at the bottom of the article pane how many pages an article includes; clicking on one of the numbers in blue will take you to a particular page. Clicking 'previous' or 'next' will take you to the previous or next page in the article.
If you wish to return to the search results page from an article, click the 'Results' tab at the top right of the article panel.
In print form, Keesing's used cross-references to refer readers to earlier coverage of any topic. In the electronic archive, these page-number cross-references have been converted into hyperlinks, which appear in blue throughout the text. Clicking on them will take you directly to the earlier article referenced.
Also at the bottom of each page in the article pane, you will find a link to 'Report a problem with this page'. Clicking here will take you to a form on which you can notify us of any problems with the article.
Related information
- About Us: Our coverage and editorial policies
- Keesing's Record of World Events: Our contemporary print publication, from which the online articles are derived
- Search help: How to find the articles you want
About Clusters
What are clusters?
At the bottom of the left-hand side-bar when you search the archive, you will see a list of clusters. Clusters are groups of references linked together because they cover the same topic. Currently, three types of cluster are available: countries, persons, and user-created tags. For example, the Benin cluster links together all references to Benin from throughout the archive. You can use clusters to filter your search results: if you have searched for 'budget', for example, clicking on the 'Benin' cluster will show you only those results containing the word 'budget' and a reference to Benin.
Why use clusters?
Why is this better than a full text search? Why not simply type 'budget' and 'Benin' into the search box? Because Keesing's is written in natural language, so references to a country or person may vary in form. For example, an article may mention the Beninese budget, or the budget of Dahomey - Benin's former name until 1975. Searching just for the word 'Benin' would overlook these other forms of the country's name; searching for all three would be time-consuming. Using clusters thus lets you obtain faster, more comprehensive results.
This can be especially useful when you are researching a particular person. It is common for person names to appear in various formats, or for individuals to change their names or use aliases. Clusters link together all instances of a person's name, irrespective of form.
Cluster types
- Countries
If you are interested in a particular country, you can select its name under the "Countries" cluster tab. This will sort your search results according to how many times each hit mentions the selected country. Different forms of words that refer to the same country have been linked to form the clusters - for example French, France, and Franco. This is intended to give you a very full set of results, as an article that mentions the Franco-Prussian war, or the French government, does not have to include the word France itself in order to appear in the search results.
Click here to view the full list of country tags used in the Keesing's archive (Opens in new window).
Where possible, countries that have changed their names have been linked so that the cluster will include all references to that country (for example Benin and Dahomey). However, where a new country has been created out of an existing one - for example Eritrea from Ethiopia - or where a country has been divided - for example Czechoslovakia, which became the Czech Republic, and Slovakia - these have been coded separately. So, if you want to follow the history of the Czech Republic you may need to look at the cluster for Czechoslovakia as well as the Czech Republic.The list includes suggestions for alternative countries to consider when using the nations Clusters.
- People
If you are researching a particular person, you can select his or her name from the list beneath the "People" cluster tab. Articles in which any form of that person's name appears will be listed in the search results pane. We have tried to link all references under the fullest or most familiar form of a person's name. This means references to e.g. The number to the right of the name shows how many times that person is refernced within the results.
- User-added tags
Subscribers to Keesing's can add their own custom content tags to articles. These appear under the tags tab in the clusters menu. More on creating and using custom tags.
Date range
To reduce the number of results and form a more targeted search you can limit the date range of articles searched.
Limit from/ Limit to
You can enter the start and end of your date range in the search boxes. Keesing's was first published in July 1931; the latest set of articles are added monthly.
Date type
You can limit results by two types of date: publication date, or date within article. You can choose whether you are interested in articles published in a particular time period, or articles that refer to a particular time period. The first Keesing's article is dated July 1, 1931, but dates earlier than July 1, 1931, appear in articles where events before 1931 are mentioned (e.g. The 1860 Treaty of Teutan; The Treaty of Madrid of 1912).
Dates found in article
By using the Dates found in article option, you could search for articles containing that date. Using 1972 as an example, this would produce not only articles published in 1972, but also articles published later that discuss events that happened in 1972 - reports and court cases often refer back to dates in the past - as well as articles published before 1972 that looked forward to events due to happen in 1972, for example a meeting scheduled to be held in 1972 that was discussed in 1971, or an election that was planned. You can choose to sort either by newest, most recently published articles first, or by oldest first. You can use the "Dates found in article" option to search for references to events that occurred before 1931, when Keesing's was first published.
Article publication date
You can sort your results according to the date when each article was published (the first Keesing's article is dated July 1, 1931). You can choose to sort either by newest (most recently published) articles first, or by oldest first.
About My Notes
The My Notes section is a "virtual notebook". You can add Notes by typing in the box provided in the My Notes section and clicking the UPDATE button. In order to find your Notes again, be sure to add the article concerned to your Portfolio. You can do this by clicking on the (+) to the right of the article.
These Notes will be available to you whenever you log in using your personal account, from any computer anywhere you like. They are completely private, stored with your account, and cannot be accessed by anybody else. Although they are intended as an aid for researchers, you can use them for other notes too.1
If your user account expires, your notes will be saved in case you decide to reactivate it.
About My Tags
All registered users of the Keesing's archive can add their own tags to articles. Tags allow you to identify and mark themes or subjects of interest to you, making the tagging system completely personal--you don't have to rely on the editors second-guessing and tagging the themes that most interest you. You can then sort your Portfolio according to your own tags. Additionally, you can view tags other users have added, and add tags that may be useful to others.1
When to use Tags
Tags allow you to denote the articles within a set of search results that are relevant to your interests, saving you from having to work through long lists of results more than once. Tags are saved so you can find them whenever you use the site; they are also visible to other users, so you can benefit from others' research and contribute your own1. Whenever you think you may wish to return to an article in future, adding a tag lets you keep track of it and identify the content in it that interests you. You might want to add tags if you are researching more than one topic, so you can easily identify articles in which those topics converge. You could also use tags to highlight relevant articles across a number of years of archive coverage. Tags are also invaluable in organising your Portfolio - you can use them to filter your view of your Portfolio by topic.
How to add Tags
When you find an article you wish to tag, scroll to the end until you see the 'My Tags' field at the bottom of the page. You can enter your own tag words into this box. Tags are separated by spaces; if you wish to create a tag of more than one word - e.g. "Berlin wall" - you should replace spaces with underscores - e.g. Berlin_wall . If you wanted to tag an article with the three tags "Berlin wall", "defections", and "Checkpoint Charlie", for example, you should enter Berlin_wall defections Checkpoint_Charlie into the tag box.
All Tags
Any tag you add will be visible to other registered users; similarly, you can view all tags any other user has added.1 Other users will not be able to see who created any tag. To view all tags, click 'Tags' under the Clusters heading to the bottom lefthand corner of the sidebar. To view only the tags that you yourself have added, click 'My Tags'.
How to view tags
When you use the search page, 'My Tags' is one of the sets of clusters available at the bottom of the sidebar on the left. Clicking on 'My Tags' will show a list of all the tags you have added to articles. Clicking on one of these tags will filter your search results and return only those articles that include the selected tag.
You can also sort your Portfolio using tags. Click on the Portfolio tab at the top right alongside the main screen, then choose 'My Tags' from the Clusters menu in the lefthand sidebar.
Tags will also appear when you open the article you have tagged. They are shown in the 'My Tags' field, which you can edit, and in the 'All Tags' list, which you cannot (though any tags you add, or created and delete, will be added to or removed from the list accordingly).
How to delete tags
A tag can be removed from an article by deleting it in the 'My Tags' field at the bottom of that article and pressing 'Update.' They will no longer be visible to you or any other user. It is not possible to delete other users' tags.
If your user account expires, your notes will be saved in case you decide to reactivate it.
1Disclaimer
Keesing's Worldwide LLC and its affiliates take no responsibility for the content of virtual notes or tags. Notes and Tags may not be used to store any illegal, obscene, or defamatory material. Any such material will be removed without notice. By adding Tags the user authorises Keesing's Worldwide LLC and its authorised subcontractors to use, display, store, copy, sell, and exert copyright over the Tags themselves without reference to the user who inserted the Tags. Keesing's Worldwide LLC will not sell or exert copyright over the contents of My Notes. However, content in My Notes may be stored, copied, duplicated, or transmitted by Keesing's Worldwide LLC and its authorised subcontractors without reference to the user who added the Notes for the purposes of maintaining the Keesing's business and services and the integrity of the archive. The contents of My Notes will not be transferred to any unaffiliated third party except in the event of sale or licensing of the archive, or any part thereof, and in that case only for the purposes of continuing the Keesing's business and maintaining the integrity of the archive or the service provided.
My view
Subscribers with restricted access can see only a subset of the articles in the database. Subscribers to Keesing's print publication may access articles from 1987 to the present, and users at institutions with a trial subscription may access articles from 1960 onward.
The My View filter forces the search results page to show only those articles that your subscription level allows you to access. For print subscribers this means articles published since 1987; for institutional trialists, since 1960. Visit our sign-up page to acquire access to the full database.
About Portfolio
Portfolio
The portfolio allows you to select and store articles so that when you return to Keesing's online you can find them again quickly, without having to re-perform a search.
In your Portfolio, the date and first heading of the articles appear in blue as a clickable link to open the article.
To the right of the blue title the date that the article was added to the portfolio appears in black in brackets.
To the right of the date is a blue [-] minus sign symbol. If you want to remove an article from the Portfolio, click on this minus sign.
There are "previous" and "next" links at the bottom of the list of links. If you have more than one page of links you can use these to move from one portfolio page to another.
The articles appear in the Portfolio in the order in which they were added. The date each article was added to the Portfolio appears on the left of the article heading.
About Results
The results of the search are displayed as headings, showing just the headings of the articles concerned.
The first heading gives the title of the section of the article, in blue. After it in brackets is the country under which the article has been filed. The date of the article is given in orange underneath.
By clicking on the title you can access the article. You can return to the results page using the "RESULTS" tab on the right hand side of the results panel. Clicking on the "ARTICLE" tab returns you to the selected article.
You can access more results by clicking on Next at the bottom of the results panel, and you can return by clicking on Previous.
There is a "Back to Top" button at the bottom of the page. You can click on this to jump back to the top of the page without having to scroll up through the results.
About Search
Basic searching
The simplest way to search the archive is to type a word into the search box and click the arrow or hit "return".The results page will then display summary headlines of all the articles containing that word. You can specify the sort order using the options in the lefthand panel - oldest first, newest first, or closest match. Each results page shows ten results. The numbers at the top of the page allow you to access more pages of results.
You can also search for more than one word. If you simply key two words into the search box, all the articles that contain both words will appear on the results page. To search for an exact phrase, type it into the search box in quote marks - e.g. "provisional budget".
If you want to exclude a word from the search you can key - to mean NOT. So if you search for "budget" - "provisional" you will find all the articles that contain the word "budget" but do not contain the word "provisional". This example might be used by someone who was interested specifically in final forms of budgets, and definitely not interested in provisional budgets.
You can use the character * (asterisk) as a wildcard to represent any letters in the search. This is particularly useful when you are not sure about a spelling of a word. If you are not sure which spelling of - for example "Tajikistan" - is used in Keesing's you could search for "Ta*kistan". A search for "Ta*kistan" will find Tajikistan, Tadzhikistan, and Tadjikistan, as well as any other words that start with "Ta" and end with "kistan". You can also use the * character at the beginning or end of a word to find all forms of that word, so "swim*" will find swims, swimming, swimmingly, swimsuit, etc.
Noise words
In order to speed up the search process "noise words" - very common words like "the" "and" "an" "but" or words unlikely to affect the meaning of a search like "indeed" "sometimes" "between"- are automatically ignored when searching.If you need to include such words in a search, enclose them in inverted commas eg "the state of the union".
Search tips and tricks
You can restrict or widen your search by using the date range features, topics, and search Clusters.
If you don't find the results you want or expect, it could be because of the way you have constructed your search.The best way to find out is to experiment and there are a number of easy ways to improve your results.
- Try different spellings
The editors and writers are consistent in their use of names, but this can mean that an historical spelling is used, rather than a modern spelling.For example, KRWE was one of the first publications to begin reporting on the Talibaan in Afghanistan, and has continued to use the spelling Talibaan, even though many newspapers now use the spellings Taliban or Taleban.Another example is that KRWE uses the spelling al-Qaida not al Qaeda. The wildcard character * can be very useful if you are unsure of a spelling. If you substitute the * for the letter or letters you are unsure of, the search will find words with ANY letters in place of the wildcard. So, a search for "Qaeda" will only find precisely that form of the word, but a search for "Qa*da" will find all instances of "Qaeda" and "Qaida" in the files, while a seach for "Q*da" will find every word that begins with a "Q" and ends with "da". This can mean that searches with wildcards generate very large numbers of results.
If you do not know which spelling KRWE uses, try searching in a different way, for example by searching for the keyword attacks" and then using the country Clusters "Afghanistan".This should lead you to at least one article mentioning the Talibaan, so you can see how it is spelled in KRWE. This also works if you cannot remember a name--for example if you want to find out the name of the Prime Minister of Poland, you can start off by searching for the terms "Prime Minister" and then select the Poland Clusters.
Because there are lots of variant spellings of names, these have been linked together so that finding one spelling of a name should also provide you with other results where the person's name was spelled differently.
Accented characters like é, š, ø, and characters like the Arabic hamza ( ' ) can sometimes affect the search, so it may be worth only searching for non-accented parts of the word at first. If you are not getting the results you expect and you are searching for a word with accent characters in it, try searching for a part of the word that doesn't contain any accents or try searching for the whole word spelled without any accents at all. If you are unsure about an accented or special character, try using the wildcard character * in place of the accented character, as this will find words with any letters in that place. For example, if you search for "Helene" you will only find unaccented forms of the word, but if you search for "H*l*ne", you will find all instances of Héléne, Hélène, Hèlène, and even Hąlũne (if any exist), as well as Helene.
Hyphenation can also make a difference, as searching for 'reelection' will produce no results, but searching for 're-election' will produce many.If you are not sure whether or not a word might be hyphenated, try both options.
- Try different forms of the word
As KRWE is written in natural language, the way ideas are expressed can vary.A search will produce fuller results if you allow for all the different grammatical forms of the word in the search.
For example, if you are try to find an article about the death of a soldier, you will get more results by searching for "soldier" as this will find occurrences of the word soldier, as well as soldiers.This is because the article may have been phrased either "The soldier, one of ten who were killed..." or "The ten soldiers who were killed..."
KRWE abbreviates the months Jan. Feb. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec., but only when these are followed by a specific day, for example the election took place on Oct. 15, 2002, but fighting continued throughout October 2002.If you are looking for a particular date, it is worth trying the abbreviated as well as the full form of the month, to produce the most results.For example, searching for "Jan" will bring up instances of Jan. and January.
- Try a broader search
If you are not getting enough results, your search may be too narrow.It may be worth trying a simpler search with fewer terms.
For example, searching for "UN weapon inspector Blix" will produce no results, but searching for Blix will produce many results.If you do not know the particular name, searching around the name may lead you to it.So searching for "weapons" and "inspectors" and "UN" will lead you to the names of the UN weapons inspectors, or searching for "Cabinet" and "Spain" will lead you to a list of the members of the Cabinet of Spain.
- Try alternative terms
As KRWE is written in natural English, the authors may have expressed the same idea in many different ways.If you are not getting the results you expect, try to think of other ways to describe the same concept.For example, searching for the word "feminism" will not necessarily locate articles that discuss women's rights, rights for women, rights of women, a woman's right, women's liberation, women's groups, equal rights, equality of opportunity, gender equality, anti-discrimination, anti-sexism.
- Try acronyms or abbreviations instead of the full name
Some international organisations are always referred to by their acronym or abbreviation, for example UN, EU, NATO, IMF, so searching for their full names will not bring up the expected results.Conversely, although abbreviations are given for names of political parties, it may be easier to search for the full name, because so many parties have the same initials.
About topics
Each article has been given Topic keywords, which indicate what subjects the article covers.
By choosing a particular Topic, you can select from your search results only the articles that have been given that Topic keyword.You can do this by clicking on that Topic word.So, if you are interested in Elections, you could click on the Elections Topic keyword to select from your search results just the articles with the Elections keyword.The number to the right of the Topic word tells you how many articles in your search results have that Topic keyword.
The Topic words are usually displayed as a list.
The Topic words can also be displayed as a cloud. This shows you quickly and easily which topics occur most often in your search results, as the topic word that occurs the most is the largest. You can still click on it to select just those results.
When you look at results sorted by Topic, they remain in the date order that you selected previously - in other words oldest or newest first.
Guide to topic criteria
Appointments
This covers:
government appointments; appointments to Cabinet, Council of State, Security Council, etc; military, judicial, civil service appointments; appointments within political parties; composition of new governments, Cabinet lists, Politburo lists; resignations, reshuffles, dismissals; collapse or overthrow of governments; political scandals
leading to personnel changes; Ministerial changes;
Constitution and governance
This covers:
Changes to state constitutions and structures; changes to state names and constituent components; constitutional conventions and referendums; election systems; changes in forms of government; suspension of constitution; imposition of emergency legislation; democratisation; coups; achievement of independence; overthrow of governments; royal family; presidency; premiership; democracy; communism; fascism; national socialism; dictatorship; political autonomy; public inquiry; local government; Cabinet, Council of State, Security Council, etc; colonies; dominions
Disarmament and rearmament
This covers:
rearmament programmes; disarmament treaties and agreements; unilateral disarmament initiatives; arms trade; arms trafficking; transfer of nuclear technology; military dispositions and exercises; development of weapons; issues concerning weapons of mass destruction; nuclear tests; chemical weapons; biological weapons; arms race; arms reduction
Disasters
This covers:
natural disasters (earthquakes, extreme weather, flooding, drought, volcanic eruption, etc); diseases/epidemics; relief efforts; designation of disaster areas; manmade accidents (mining disasters, building collapses, fires, transport crashes, etc.) pollution, famine; species extinctions, global warming; explosions; toxic waste; hazardous waste; chemical leaks; oil spill; AIDS; HIV; TB; malaria; polio; influenza; stampede; BSE; mad cow disease; avian influenza; SARS
Economy
This covers:
budgets; currency devaluation/revaluations; company news; corruption issues, trade agreements and disputes; production and trade statistics; foreign aid; economic planning; banking; reparations; industrial policy; economic growth; recession; interest rates; fiscal policy; labour regulations; strikes and industrial disputes; trades unions; exchange rates; stability and growth pact; unemployment; general strike; labour movement; workers' rights; IMF; GDP; inflation; exports; imports; quotas; World Trade Organisation; budget deficit; debt; IMF; credit; World Bank, reconstruction, Marshall Plan; stock market; acquisitions, mergers
Elections
This covers:
national, regional and local elections; presidential elections; internal elections for political parties; election disputes and resolutions; boundary changes; election laws and regulations; election campaigns; election supervision; election systems; coalition; gubernatorial elections; provincial elections; turnout; election results; International Foundation of Election Systems; Central Electoral Commission; electoral fraud; rigged elections, ballot, polling, opinion poll, distribution of seats, constituency
Environment
This covers:
environmental issues; climate change, oil exploration, pollution, environmental conventions and treaties; extinctions, endangered species; whaling, drought, floods, global warming, environmental policies of governments and organisation; nuclear policy and testing; agriculture; inoculation programmes; GM crops; animal rights
Foreign relations
This covers:
bilateral treaties and relations between states; bilateral diplomatic issues; foreign visits; summit meeting; sovereignty issues and territorial disputes; treaties; border clashes; border demarcations; annexations, occupations; ultimatum; Cold War; International law;
Human rights
This covers:
arrest and release of political prisoners; human rights reports on countries by agencies and organisations; human rights abuses; dissidents; disappearances; political trials; pro-democracy campaigns; genocide; racism; racial attacks; homosexuality; gay rights; gay marriage; same-sex marriage; women's rights; women's representation; feminism; children; child abuse; child soldiers; forced labour; rape; torture; detention without trial; freedom of speech; press freedom; censorship; Amnesty International; UNICEF; Reporters Without Borders; religious freedom; abuse; racism; anti-Semitism; refugees; deportations; expulsions; Human Rights Watch
International organisations
This covers:
International Organisations (such as UN, World Bank; IMF, etc.); NGOs; international treaties, agreements and protocols; International Court of Justice; summits; meetings; regional organisations (African Union, Americas, OAS, CARICOM, CAFTA, NAFTA, Mercosur, ASEAN, SCO, APEC, Arab League, EU, etc)
Legal issues
This covers:
legal systems; court cases; judiciary; judicial appointments; judicial decisions; courts; penal policies and prisons; death penalty; international courts and international law; war crimes; Supreme Court decisions; International Court of Justice; war crimes tribunals; Geneva Conventions; European Court of Human Rights; International Criminal Court
Legislation
This covers:
drafting of legislation; legislative approval of bills; defeat of bills in legislature; forthcoming legislation; Queen's speech; vetoing of legislation; overturning of executive veto; striking down of legislation by judiciary; Cabinet approval of draft legislation; legislation promised by political parties; legislation advocated by pressure groups
Political parties
This covers:
developments concerning creation, formation, merger, split, or dissolution of individual political parties; party conferences; manifestos; changes in personnel; name changes; prohibition of parties; religious parties; paramilitary groups with political wing; Islamist groups; Islamic fundamentalism
Science and technology
This covers:
scientific research and discoveries; astronomy; Space exploration; technology; aviation; DNA; Nobel prizes; genetic research; cloning; Internet; medical research
Social issues
This covers:
immigration and asylum issues; economic migrants; refugees; deportations; expulsions; abortion; religious and racial issues; discrimination; affirmative action; positive discrimination; reverse discrimination; smoking; homosexuality; gay rights; gay marriage; same-sex marriage; women's rights; women's representation; feminism; children; child abuse; racism, poverty
Terrorism
This covers: bombings, car bombings, suicide attacks, hijackings; assassinations; taking of hostages, military operations against terrorists; emergence of terrorist organisations; demands and objectives of terrorist and guerrilla groups; separatist struggles; guerrilla wars; piracy; anti-terrorism; anti-terror laws; prevention of terrorism; security services; freedom fighters; Islamist; Islamic fundamentalist; security operations
War
This covers:
declarations of war; acts of war; conduct of war; genocide; wartime production; development of wartime weapons and munitions; peace treaties; terms of surrender; war crimes issues and trials; reparations; invasions; wartime regulations; separatist struggles; guerrilla wars; conflict; military operations; army; airforce; navy; marines; munitions; tactics; military strategy; Cold War
Disclaimer
Keesing's Worldwide LLC and its affiliates take no responsibility for the content of virtual notes or tags. Notes and tags may not be used to store any illegal, obscene, or defamatory material.
*Disclaimer
Keesing's Worldwide LLC and its affiliates take no responsibility for the content of virtual notes or tags. Notes and Tags may not be used to store any illegal, obscene, or defamatory material. Any such material will be removed without notice. By adding Tags the user authorises Keesing's Worldwide LLC and its authorised subcontractors to use, display, store, copy, sell, and exert copyright over the Tags themselves without reference to the user who inserted the Tags. Keesing's Worldwide LLC will not sell or exert copyright over the contents of My Notes. However, content in My Notes may be stored, copied, duplicated, or transmitted by Keesing's Worldwide LLC and its authorised subcontractors without reference to the user who added the Notes for the purposes of maintaining the Keesing's business and services and the integrity of the archive. The contents of My Notes will not be transferred to any unaffiliated third party except in the event of sale or licensing of the archive, or any part thereof, and in that case only for the purposes of continuing the Keesing's business and maintaining the integrity of the archive or the service provided.
