FANCY going down in history? Then join what should turn out to be the biggest blog of all time - along with celebrities like Stephen Fry, Derek Jacobi, Tony Benn and former Daily Echo sub-editor Bill Bryson.

Next Tuesday, October 17, has been chosen because it's a perfectly ordinary day, with no special national significance whatsoever.

The idea is that (hopefully) hundreds of thousands of people across the UK will record how history affected them on that particular day, whether it was travelling past an historic landmark, discussing family history at home, watching yet another repeat of Only Fools and Horses or listening to Dad's '60s music, again!

Every school in the country - all 29,000 of them - has been invited to take part as part of the History Matters - Pass It On campaign, launched earlier this year by organisations including the National Trust, English Heritage and the Civic Trust to raise awareness of the importance of history and heritage to our quality of life.

By logging on to www.historymatters.org.uk and taking part in the mass blog (from the words "web" and "log"), participants will be taking part in the compilation of a permanent record of the ordinary lives of the nation.

The result will be a massive electronic snapshot of everyday life at the beginning of the 21st century, to be stored in perpetuity as a social history archive.

David Cannadine, of the Institute for Historical Research, said: "The wonderful thing about these records is that we don't yet know what it is about them that will be interesting in the future.

"It may be that historians in the future will be amazed that, on October 17, 2006, we were still eating meat, or driving privately-owned cars."

HOW TO TAKE PART

  • Record a diary of your day on October 17. It can be between 100 and 1,000 words long.
  • Log on to www.historymatters.org.uk and follow the instructions on how to upload your (blog) diary.
  • Diaries can be uploaded from October 17 to 31.
  • Urge family, friends and colleagues to do the same.
  • Watch the website for details of how the archive can be accessed in the future.