When historians talk about the past, they are referring to events that: happened before the present day.
Historians' prime task is to research, analyze, interpret, and write about the past, whether it refers to events that happened last year or events that happened millions of years ago (any event that occurred before the present day). Historians are able to do this by studying primary sources such as documents, artifacts, photographs, audio recordings, video recordings, films, journals and sculptures from a specific period of time.