HistoricalBot

A Twitter bot that automatically collects and tweets interesting historical events that happened on this day throughout history.

Overview

HistoricalBot fetches historical events from multiple sources including Wikipedia, History.com, and the Calendarific API. It then formats these events into engaging tweets and posts them on a schedule throughout the day.

Features

• Multi-source Data Collection: Gathers historical events from Wikipedia, History.com, and Calendarific
• Automated Tweeting: Posts historical events on a customizable schedule
• Intelligent Filtering: Prioritizes interesting historical events using keyword filtering
• Duplicate Detection: Avoids posting similar events from different sources
• Engaging Formatting: Creates varied and appealing tweet formats
• Environment Variables: Uses .env file for secure API key storage
• Tweet Tracking: Provides direct links to tweets in the console output

Requirements

• Python 3.7+
• Twitter Developer Account with API keys
• Internet connection for data collection

Installation

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/HistoricalBot.git
   cd HistoricalBot
   

2. Install the required dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt
   

3. Create a .env file in the project root with your API credentials:

   # Twitter API credentials
   TWITTER_API_KEY=your_api_key
   TWITTER_API_SECRET=your_api_secret
   TWITTER_ACCESS_TOKEN=your_access_token
   TWITTER_ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET=your_access_token_secret
   TWITTER_BEARER_TOKEN=your_bearer_token
   TWITTER_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id
   TWITTER_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret
   
   # Calendarific API key
   CALENDARIFIC_API_KEY=your_calendarific_api_key
   
   # Bot configuration
   POSTING_INTERVAL=24
   TIME_ZONE=UTC
   

Usage

Running the Bot

To start the bot, simply run:

python bot.py

The bot will automatically:

1. Collect historical events for the current date
2. Create a daily schedule of tweets
3. Post tweets throughout the day
4. Wait until the next day to repeat the process

Testing Data Sources

To test the data collection without posting to Twitter:

python test_sources.py

This will collect historical events for the specified number of days and save them to text files in the historical_events directory.

Customization

Bot Configuration

Edit config.py to customize the bot's behavior:

# Bot configuration
POSTING_INTERVAL = 24  # Hours between posts
TIME_ZONE = "UTC"      # Your preferred timezone

Event Filtering

The bot filters events based on interesting keywords. You can modify these in the get_wikipedia_events method in data_sources.py:

interesting_keywords = [
    "war", "battle", "revolution", "discovered", "invented",
    # Add more keywords here
]

Project Structure

• bot.py: Main bot implementation
• config.py: Configuration settings
• data_sources.py: Code for collecting historical events
• events_database.py: Storage and retrieval of events
• test_sources.py: Script for testing data collection
• historical_events/: Directory where collected events are stored

Troubleshooting

• No events being found: Check your internet connection and ensure the data sources are accessible
• Twitter API errors: Verify your API credentials in config.py
• Rate limiting: If experiencing rate limiting, adjust the frequency of tweets in create_daily_schedule method

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Disclaimer

This bot uses data from various sources. Please ensure your usage complies with their terms of service.