diff --git a/goodnews/api.py b/goodnews/api.py
index fabf298..6ee1af8 100644
--- a/goodnews/api.py
+++ b/goodnews/api.py
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ from fastapi.responses import FileResponse, HTMLResponse, RedirectResponse
 from fastapi.staticfiles import StaticFiles
 from pydantic import BaseModel
 
-from . import art, auth, bloom, email_send, feeds, games, oauth_google, publishing, queries, share, sources, summarize
+from . import art, auth, bloom, email_send, feeds, games, oauth_google, onthisday, publishing, queries, share, sources, summarize
 from .localtime import local_today
 from .markup import reply_html_to_text, sanitize_reply_html
 from .db import connect
@@ -2290,6 +2290,20 @@ def create_app() -> FastAPI:
         # Cached museum image: immutable for a given object id.
         return FileResponse(str(matches[0]), headers={"Cache-Control": "public, max-age=31536000, immutable"})
 
+    @app.get("/api/onthisday/today")
+    def onthisday_today(response: Response) -> dict:
+        with get_conn() as conn:
+            a = onthisday.get_today(conn)
+        if not a:
+            response.headers["Cache-Control"] = _PRIVATE
+            raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="No fact yet.")
+        response.headers["Cache-Control"] = _EDGE_FEED   # one fact a day, same for everyone
+        return {
+            "date": a["feature_date"], "year": a["year"], "text": a["text"],
+            "summary": a["summary"], "image_url": a["image_url"], "source_url": a["page_url"],
+            "source": a["source"],
+        }
+
     @app.get("/api/replacement", response_model=Article | None)
     def replacement(
         exclude: str = Query("", description="comma-separated article ids already shown"),
diff --git a/goodnews/cli.py b/goodnews/cli.py
index 0b2d303..47e512e 100644
--- a/goodnews/cli.py
+++ b/goodnews/cli.py
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ from .games import generate_daily_puzzles
 from .localtime import local_today
 from .dedup import DEFAULT_THRESHOLD, DEFAULT_WINDOW_DAYS, cluster_duplicates, dedup as run_dedup
 from .geo import tag_articles as tag_geo
-from . import art
+from . import art, onthisday
 from .enrich import enrich_brief_images, enrich_recent_images, enrich_summarized_images
 from .summarize import generate_summary, get_summary
 from .feeds import (
@@ -137,6 +137,7 @@ def main() -> None:
     cycle_parser.add_argument("--no-geo", action="store_true", help="Skip tagging article subject-geography")
     cycle_parser.add_argument("--geo-limit", type=int, default=60, help="Max articles to geo-tag per cycle")
     cycle_parser.add_argument("--no-art", action="store_true", help="Skip the Daily Art pick")
+    cycle_parser.add_argument("--no-joys", action="store_true", help="Skip the small-joys picks (On This Day, etc.)")
     cycle_parser.add_argument("--no-brief", action="store_true", help="Skip rebuilding today's brief")
     cycle_parser.add_argument("--no-review", action="store_true", help="Skip recomputing source review flags")
     cycle_parser.add_argument("--no-digest", action="store_true", help="Skip sending due daily digests")
@@ -560,6 +561,14 @@ def _run_cycle_locked(conn: sqlite3.Connection, args: argparse.Namespace) -> Non
         except Exception as exc:
             print(f"art: skipped ({exc})")
 
+    # On This Day: harvest + tone-filter today's date in history, then pick one good fact.
+    if not args.no_joys:
+        try:
+            o = onthisday.run_daily(conn, client=LocalModelClient.from_env())
+            print(f"onthisday: md={o['md']} picked={'yes' if o['picked'] else 'no'}")
+        except Exception as exc:
+            print(f"onthisday: skipped ({exc})")
+
     if not args.no_brief:
         today = local_today()
         try:
diff --git a/goodnews/daily.py b/goodnews/daily.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ddcbcb8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/goodnews/daily.py
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+"""Shared helpers for the daily "small joys" features — On This Day, Word of the Day,
+Quote of the Day (and whatever calm little delights come next).
+
+Each joy keeps its own pool + daily table, but they all share this skeleton:
+  harvest -> pool  →  deterministic daily pick (date-seeded, least-recently-shown)  →
+  cache row in a daily_* table  →  API  →  page.
+
+This module holds only the genuinely shared bits (network + the deterministic pick), so a
+new joy is a small self-contained module, not a copy-paste of plumbing. Network calls go
+through http_json so tests can monkeypatch them.
+"""
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import hashlib
+import json
+import urllib.request
+
+_UA = {"User-Agent": "upbeatBytes/1.0 (+https://upbeatbytes.com)"}
+
+
+def http_json(url: str, timeout: int = 20) -> dict:
+    req = urllib.request.Request(url, headers=_UA)
+    with urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=timeout) as r:
+        return json.loads(r.read().decode("utf-8"))
+
+
+def seeded_order(ids: list, date_str: str) -> list:
+    """Rotate a list deterministically by the date, so the day's pick is the same for
+    everyone and varies day to day (the same trick Daily Art uses)."""
+    if not ids:
+        return ids
+    seed = int(hashlib.sha256(date_str.encode()).hexdigest(), 16) % len(ids)
+    return ids[seed:] + ids[:seed]
+
+
+def content_key(*parts) -> str:
+    """A stable dedup key for a pool item (so re-harvesting never duplicates a row)."""
+    raw = "|".join("" if p is None else str(p) for p in parts)
+    return hashlib.sha256(raw.encode()).hexdigest()[:24]
diff --git a/goodnews/db.py b/goodnews/db.py
index bb779f8..100f0d7 100644
--- a/goodnews/db.py
+++ b/goodnews/db.py
@@ -274,6 +274,36 @@ CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS daily_art (
     created_at TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
 );
 
+-- "Small joys" daily features. On This Day: a good/neutral thing that happened on
+-- today's calendar date, harvested + tone-filtered into a pool, then one picked per day.
+CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS onthisday_pool (
+    id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
+    source TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT 'wikimedia',   -- multi-source ready (wikimedia | admin | ...)
+    md TEXT NOT NULL,                           -- 'MM-DD'
+    year INTEGER,
+    ckey TEXT NOT NULL UNIQUE,                  -- dedup hash so re-harvest never duplicates
+    text TEXT NOT NULL,
+    summary TEXT,
+    image_url TEXT,
+    page_url TEXT,
+    shown_at TEXT,                              -- last date this was the pick (no-soon-repeat)
+    blocked INTEGER NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,         -- admin lever: never pick this
+    featured INTEGER NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,        -- admin lever: prefer this for its date
+    added_at TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
+);
+CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS daily_onthisday (
+    feature_date TEXT PRIMARY KEY,              -- 'YYYY-MM-DD'
+    pool_id INTEGER NOT NULL,
+    source TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT 'wikimedia',
+    md TEXT NOT NULL,
+    year INTEGER,
+    text TEXT,
+    summary TEXT,
+    image_url TEXT,
+    page_url TEXT,
+    created_at TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
+);
+
 -- Privacy-respecting, first-party analytics. NO IP / user-agent / referrer / raw
 -- URL. visitor_hash is a hash of a random localStorage token (never email/IP).
 -- The UNIQUE key dedups to one row per (kind, article, visitor, day) — that both
diff --git a/goodnews/onthisday.py b/goodnews/onthisday.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..41c2b05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/goodnews/onthisday.py
@@ -0,0 +1,179 @@
+"""On This Day — a good thing that happened on today's date in history.
+
+Source: Wikimedia's "On this day" feed (free, CC) — comprehensive, and it carries a
+summary extract + thumbnail per event, which makes for a rich page. Multi-source ready
+(a `source` column), so admin-curated entries and any future source slot in cleanly.
+
+Pipeline (mirrors Daily Art): harvest today's MM-DD events → tone-filter to good/neutral
+(keyword floor + optional LLM refine) → pool → deterministic daily pick → cached row.
+All network/LLM work happens before any DB write, so the write txn is brief.
+"""
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import json
+import re
+import sqlite3
+
+from . import daily
+from .localtime import local_today
+
+WIKI_BASE = "https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/feed/onthisday/events"
+_NO_REPEAT_POOL = 40          # pick from the N least-recently-shown for today's date
+
+# Keyword floor: drop the obviously grim before the LLM ever sees it (and a safety net
+# for when the LLM is unavailable). Substring match on a lowercased event text.
+_NEG = (
+    "war", "kill", "died", "dies", "death", "deaths", "dead", "massacre", "genocide",
+    "disaster", "earthquake", "hurricane", "tsunami", "flood", "famine", "plague",
+    "bomb", "attack", "assassinat", "murder", "shooting", "shot dead", "riot", "crash",
+    "invad", "slaughter", "execut", "tragedy", "terror", "nuclear", "explosion",
+    "sank", "sink", "wreck", "epidemic", "pandemic", "outbreak", "hostage", "coup",
+)
+
+
+def _fetch_events(md: str) -> list[dict]:
+    """All events for a MM-DD from Wikimedia, normalized to our candidate shape."""
+    mm, dd = md.split("-")
+    data = daily.http_json(f"{WIKI_BASE}/{mm}/{dd}")
+    out = []
+    for e in (data.get("events") or []):
+        text = (e.get("text") or "").strip()
+        if not text:
+            continue
+        page = (e.get("pages") or [{}])[0] or {}
+        out.append({
+            "md": md,
+            "year": e.get("year"),
+            "text": text,
+            "summary": (page.get("extract") or "").strip() or None,
+            "image_url": ((page.get("thumbnail") or {}).get("source")) or None,
+            "page_url": (((page.get("content_urls") or {}).get("desktop") or {}).get("page")) or None,
+        })
+    return out
+
+
+def _keyword_ok(text: str) -> bool:
+    t = text.lower()
+    return not any(neg in t for neg in _NEG)
+
+
+def _llm_keep(client, candidates: list[dict]) -> list[dict]:
+    """Ask the LLM which candidates are genuinely positive/neutral. On any trouble,
+    keep the keyword-passed set (never lose the day to a model hiccup)."""
+    lines = [f"{i}: {c['text']}" for i, c in enumerate(candidates)]
+    user = (
+        "These are 'on this day' history events. Return the indices of the ones with a "
+        "POSITIVE or NEUTRAL, uplifting tone — discoveries, inventions, firsts, achievements, "
+        "peace, the arts, science, exploration, culture, milestones. EXCLUDE anything about "
+        "war, violence, disasters, death, or tragedy.\n\n" + "\n".join(lines) +
+        '\n\nReply with JSON only, exactly: {"keep": [<indices>]}'
+    )
+    txt = client.chat_text([{"role": "user", "content": user}])
+    m = re.search(r"\{.*\}", txt, re.S)
+    if not m:
+        return candidates
+    keep = json.loads(m.group(0)).get("keep", [])
+    idx = {int(i) for i in keep if str(i).lstrip("-").isdigit()}
+    sub = [c for i, c in enumerate(candidates) if i in idx]
+    return sub or candidates
+
+
+def _tone_filter(candidates: list[dict], client=None) -> list[dict]:
+    kept = [c for c in candidates if _keyword_ok(c["text"])]
+    if client and kept:
+        try:
+            kept = _llm_keep(client, kept)
+        except Exception:  # noqa: BLE001 — LLM is best-effort; keyword floor stands
+            pass
+    return kept
+
+
+def _pool_count(conn: sqlite3.Connection, md: str) -> int:
+    return conn.execute(
+        "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM onthisday_pool WHERE md=? AND blocked=0", (md,)
+    ).fetchone()[0]
+
+
+def harvest(conn: sqlite3.Connection, md: str | None = None, client=None) -> dict:
+    """Fetch + tone-filter today's MM-DD events into the pool. Per-day, idempotent
+    (dedup by content key). Non-fatal on network failure."""
+    md = md or local_today()[5:]
+    try:
+        events = _fetch_events(md)
+    except Exception:  # noqa: BLE001
+        return {"md": md, "fetched": 0, "kept": 0, "added": 0, "pool": _pool_count(conn, md)}
+    kept = _tone_filter(events, client)              # all network/LLM done before the write
+    before = _pool_count(conn, md)
+    conn.executemany(
+        "INSERT OR IGNORE INTO onthisday_pool (source, md, year, ckey, text, summary, image_url, page_url) "
+        "VALUES ('wikimedia', ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)",
+        [(c["md"], c["year"], daily.content_key(c["md"], c["year"], c["text"]),
+          c["text"], c["summary"], c["image_url"], c["page_url"]) for c in kept],
+    )
+    conn.commit()
+    after = _pool_count(conn, md)
+    return {"md": md, "fetched": len(events), "kept": len(kept), "added": after - before, "pool": after}
+
+
+def _candidates(conn: sqlite3.Connection, md: str) -> list[int]:
+    """The pick pool for a date: if admin has featured any, pick only among those;
+    otherwise the N least-recently-shown."""
+    featured = conn.execute(
+        "SELECT id FROM onthisday_pool WHERE md=? AND blocked=0 AND featured=1 ORDER BY id", (md,)
+    ).fetchall()
+    if featured:
+        return [r[0] for r in featured]
+    rows = conn.execute(
+        "SELECT id FROM onthisday_pool WHERE md=? AND blocked=0 "
+        "ORDER BY shown_at IS NOT NULL, shown_at, id LIMIT ?",
+        (md, _NO_REPEAT_POOL),
+    ).fetchall()
+    return [r[0] for r in rows]
+
+
+def pick_daily(conn: sqlite3.Connection, feature_date: str | None = None, force: bool = False) -> dict | None:
+    """Pick + cache today's fact. Idempotent (skips if today's done unless force).
+    Returns the stored row, or None if the pool has nothing for today's date."""
+    feature_date = feature_date or local_today()
+    md = feature_date[5:]
+    existing = conn.execute("SELECT * FROM daily_onthisday WHERE feature_date=?", (feature_date,)).fetchone()
+    if existing and not force:
+        return dict(existing)
+    ids = _candidates(conn, md)
+    if not ids:
+        return None
+    pick_id = daily.seeded_order(ids, feature_date)[0]
+    row = conn.execute("SELECT * FROM onthisday_pool WHERE id=?", (pick_id,)).fetchone()
+    conn.execute(
+        "INSERT INTO daily_onthisday (feature_date, pool_id, source, md, year, text, summary, image_url, page_url) "
+        "VALUES (?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?) "
+        "ON CONFLICT(feature_date) DO UPDATE SET pool_id=excluded.pool_id, source=excluded.source, "
+        "year=excluded.year, text=excluded.text, summary=excluded.summary, image_url=excluded.image_url, "
+        "page_url=excluded.page_url",
+        (feature_date, row["id"], row["source"], row["md"], row["year"], row["text"],
+         row["summary"], row["image_url"], row["page_url"]),
+    )
+    conn.execute("UPDATE onthisday_pool SET shown_at=? WHERE id=?", (feature_date, pick_id))
+    conn.commit()
+    return dict(conn.execute("SELECT * FROM daily_onthisday WHERE feature_date=?", (feature_date,)).fetchone())
+
+
+def get_today(conn: sqlite3.Connection, feature_date: str | None = None) -> dict | None:
+    """Today's fact if present, else the most recent (the room is never empty)."""
+    if feature_date:
+        row = conn.execute("SELECT * FROM daily_onthisday WHERE feature_date=?", (feature_date,)).fetchone()
+        if row:
+            return dict(row)
+    row = conn.execute("SELECT * FROM daily_onthisday ORDER BY feature_date DESC LIMIT 1").fetchone()
+    return dict(row) if row else None
+
+
+def run_daily(conn: sqlite3.Connection, client=None) -> dict:
+    """Cycle entry point: ensure today's date has a pool, then ensure it has a pick.
+    Bounded + non-fatal — safe to call every cycle (no-ops once the day is picked)."""
+    md = local_today()[5:]
+    harvested = None
+    if _pool_count(conn, md) == 0:
+        harvested = harvest(conn, md, client)
+    picked = pick_daily(conn)
+    return {"md": md, "harvested": harvested, "picked": picked["text"] if picked else None}
diff --git a/tests/test_onthisday.py b/tests/test_onthisday.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ed98f9d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_onthisday.py
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+"""On This Day: harvest tone-filters + dedupes, deterministic daily pick (idempotent,
+respects blocked/featured), never-empty get_today, run_daily bootstraps."""
+import pytest
+
+from goodnews import onthisday
+from goodnews.db import connect, init_db
+
+# md '06-22': three good/neutral + one clearly negative (dropped by the keyword floor).
+FAKE = [
+    {"md": "06-22", "year": 1611, "text": "The first public art museum opens its doors.",
+     "summary": "A milestone for public culture.", "image_url": "i1", "page_url": "u1"},
+    {"md": "06-22", "year": 1990, "text": "A new species of butterfly is discovered.",
+     "summary": None, "image_url": None, "page_url": "u2"},
+    {"md": "06-22", "year": 1941, "text": "An army invades a neighbour, killing thousands.",
+     "summary": None, "image_url": None, "page_url": "u3"},   # 'invad' + 'kill' -> dropped
+    {"md": "06-22", "year": 1868, "text": "An inventor patents a joyful new musical instrument.",
+     "summary": "s", "image_url": None, "page_url": "u4"},
+]
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def conn(monkeypatch):
+    monkeypatch.setattr(onthisday, "_fetch_events", lambda md: [dict(e) for e in FAKE if e["md"] == md])
+    c = connect(":memory:"); init_db(c)
+    yield c
+    c.close()
+
+
+def test_harvest_filters_negatives_and_dedupes(conn):
+    r = onthisday.harvest(conn, "06-22")
+    assert r["fetched"] == 4 and r["kept"] == 3 and r["added"] == 3   # the invasion dropped
+    assert onthisday.harvest(conn, "06-22")["added"] == 0             # idempotent (content key)
+    texts = [row[0] for row in conn.execute("SELECT text FROM onthisday_pool").fetchall()]
+    assert not any("invades" in t for t in texts)
+
+
+def test_pick_caches_marks_shown_and_idempotent(conn):
+    onthisday.harvest(conn, "06-22")
+    a = onthisday.pick_daily(conn, feature_date="2026-06-22")
+    assert a and a["md"] == "06-22" and a["year"] in (1611, 1990, 1868)
+    shown = conn.execute("SELECT shown_at FROM onthisday_pool WHERE id=?", (a["pool_id"],)).fetchone()[0]
+    assert shown == "2026-06-22"
+    assert onthisday.pick_daily(conn, feature_date="2026-06-22")["pool_id"] == a["pool_id"]   # unchanged
+
+
+def test_blocked_never_picked(conn):
+    onthisday.harvest(conn, "06-22")
+    conn.execute("UPDATE onthisday_pool SET blocked=1 WHERE year!=1990")  # only the butterfly left
+    conn.commit()
+    a = onthisday.pick_daily(conn, feature_date="2026-06-22")
+    assert a["year"] == 1990
+
+
+def test_featured_is_pinned(conn):
+    onthisday.harvest(conn, "06-22")
+    conn.execute("UPDATE onthisday_pool SET featured=1 WHERE year=1868")
+    conn.commit()
+    # featured wins regardless of the date seed
+    assert onthisday.pick_daily(conn, feature_date="2026-06-22", force=True)["year"] == 1868
+
+
+def test_get_today_never_empty(conn):
+    onthisday.harvest(conn, "06-22")
+    a = onthisday.pick_daily(conn, feature_date="2026-06-22")
+    assert onthisday.get_today(conn, "2099-01-01")["pool_id"] == a["pool_id"]   # falls back to latest
+
+
+def test_pick_returns_none_when_pool_empty(conn):
+    assert onthisday.pick_daily(conn, feature_date="2026-03-03") is None       # nothing harvested
+
+
+def test_tone_filter_llm_narrows(conn):
+    class FakeClient:
+        def chat_text(self, messages):
+            return 'sure: {"keep": [0]}'      # keep only the first of whatever it's given
+    kept = onthisday._tone_filter([dict(e) for e in FAKE], client=FakeClient())
+    # keyword floor drops the invasion (3 remain), then the LLM narrows to 1
+    assert len(kept) == 1 and kept[0]["year"] == 1611