Ideas for random years
History quizzes
Draw a year and ask players to name an event, invention or famous person from it.
Music and film nights
Pick a random year from 1960 to today and only play songs or films released in it.
Writing prompts
Set your next story in a random year and research what everyday life looked like.
Decade parties
Pick a random year to decide the decade theme for a party.
How leap years work
A year is a leap year if it's divisible by 4, except century years, which must also be divisible by 400. So 2000 was a leap year, but 1900 wasn't. Turn on Leap years only to draw just those years from your range.
Frequently asked questions
Can I pick years before 1 AD?
Yes. Negative numbers count backward: −500 means 501 BC in this simple scale. There is no year 0 in historical dating, so treat negative results as approximate.
Are both ends of the range included?
Yes. Both the From year and the To year can be picked.
What does the century label mean?
The 21st century runs from 2001 to 2100, so 2000 belongs to the 20th century.
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