h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Is there anywhere online that you can see what major events are scheduled for the near future? So far I've only got St Patrick's Day and Mother's Day for the next week.

Like a calendar?

Slightly seriously, I've started using a Google scheduler for joint/ family events planning, and it tends to auto-fill with public holidays and such.

Beatrice, I'm interested in any future events which are newsworthy, so things like Royal Visits, or flights of solar powered aircraft, in addition to calendar events.

http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/uk/ might help

Also
http://www.wherecanwego.com/?gclid=Cj0KEQjwrPqnBRD56dGe1o_WlZsBEiQAb5ugtwKbOAojH1rCLWwkTR3yx_HF9EpObkmUQIPqAJcc9YsaAi8A8P8HAQ

I hear divination in chicken guts works well.

It's all bit nebulous what you want - how is someone else supposed to know what you consider major or not?

Orcus, the things I want to know about are the same ones which turn up in the newspapers. They knew William would go to the Far East, and that Solar Impulse 2 would take off when it did; how do I find out about such things?

Still sounds nebulous to me - those are all subject to news editors whims on what's 'important'

Saying they were in the news is retrospective. I genuinely have no idea what you consider important - British royals visiting anywhere is completely unimportant to me. It wouldn't surprise me if much of his visiting was confidential and only released publicly at the last minute. Assassins would love to know his schedule I'm sure.

The dates can also change, Solar Impulse was meant to have taken off a while ago.

Funnily enough I was wondering about this a while back - how to find out what's going to be topical or have some kind of topical tie-in.

I've managed to get myself on a media monitoring mailing list through work, but to be honest it's not proved that useful so far.

Basically you want tomorrow's newspaper today.

Seriously, though, you'd probably have to keep tabs on several different websites. Astronomy is one of the most predictable areas, but lots of others, as has been pointed out, are moveable.

In case you're interested, we have a solar eclipse coming up on 20 March in this part of the world.

Otto, isn't media monitoring more of a marketing thing?
TC, thanks, that's something at least, I'll look up what's happening in the skies.
Orcus, FYI, the time of the royal visit to the Far East was announced last November.

The papers know where and when things are due to happen, around the world (and across the universe), so I'd have thought the internet would also be able to supply the information they have access to. Otto uses the key word; topical. I earn some pocket-money writing gags about topical subjects, so it would be useful to be able to prepare material in advance.

You might just have stumbled on an u filled niche in the market

Doh! 'unfilled'.

*** predictive text

This may be of some use for recurring events A3332233

Probably needs updating for the new Entries that have been added to the Guide, but I find it useful for the h2g2 Front Page topicals (your question is one the Eds ask ourselves often when trying to find interesting information to promote)

Now, if someone could send me a forward schedule of winning lottery numbers...

"The papers know where and when things are due to happen" [Quotes]

That might be your answer, then. Find a newspaper that regularly highlights events that you want to know about, and scrutinize its features. Most papers seem to have websites, so you might visit them regularly.

>>(your question is one the Eds ask ourselves often when trying to find interesting information to promote)

SashaQ, well I suppose that while I'm disappointed not to get a full solution to my question, at least it is heartening that I'm not the only one who's searching.