On This Day in Whisky

On This Day in Whisky is a calendar for exploring recorded events in whisky and whiskey history. Once built, the calendar will let readers select a date to find sourced entries that distinguish event dates from announcement dates.

The calendar is planned as a reference tool, not a claim that every day has a whisky anniversary. Dates without verified entries remain empty.

[TOOL TO BUILD]

How to use the calendar

Select a day and month, then read the available entries in chronological order. Each entry should identify the event, its year, the relevant distillery, brand or organisation, and the source supporting the date.

Open the source to check the underlying record rather than relying on the anniversary summary alone. An entry should explain what happened on that date without implying that a later announcement happened at the same time.

An empty result means that no verified entry has been included for that date. It does not establish that nothing happened.

What belongs in an entry

Eligible entries include documented first distillations, openings, closures, changes of ownership and other events with a reliably established calendar date. Inclusion records an event; it is not an endorsement of a company or a judgement about a whisky's quality.

Each published entry must contain:

• Date and year of the event.
• A concise description of what the evidence establishes.
• The named subject, distinguishing a distillery from a brand or owner.
• A numbered source reference and a direct source URL.
• The date the evidence was last checked.

How dates are checked

The planned calendar will use verified event records as its inputs once supplied. Every entry must be matched to its source before publication, with records from the time preferred where available.

An announcement, an agreement, a completed transfer, first spirit, first cask and first release are separate events. The entry must name the particular event its evidence supports, rather than treating these dates as interchangeable.

Where only a year or month is established, the record cannot be assigned an invented day. Conflicting dates require editorial resolution before an anniversary entry is published.

Stories and traditions

A company's account of its own past must be identified as that company's account. Repetition of a story does not by itself establish the event or its date.

Where an entry includes a traditional story, any verdict must follow the verified record: Documented, Disputed or Legend. If the evidence does not support a classification, no verdict badge should appear.

Coverage and corrections

The calendar is selective, not a complete chronology of whisky. An anniversary entry also does not establish a distillery's present operating status, current ownership or visitor access.

Corrections must identify the entry concerned and the evidence supporting the change. A named human editor has final authority over publication and any substantive correction.

Sources

No historical entries or supporting historical sources were supplied for this draft. Published calendar entries must carry their own numbered references and full source URLs.

This page was prepared as a tool specification from the supplied editorial requirements, without adding historical events or implying first-hand research.

Last checked: November 2026