If you are looking for a “time capsule” (no, not the kind you bury various items in, and the promptly forget about, causing headaches for archaelogists centuries from now), basically ways to put people’s lives in context during the course of your genealogy work, then check out dMarie Time Capsule. Simply put in a date, and it’ll return prices of various items for that date, famous birthdays, various politicians in office, and newspaper headlines.
A lot of people doing genealogy create timelines to help put certain people, places, or events in context (and a lot of genealogy software is starting to do this automatically as well).
Found via Ancestry.com’s “Quick Tips”.