<ul>
<li><a href="#" onclick="setBackgroundColor('p1','#ff3333');">Click to make "red"</a></li>
<li><a href="#" onclick="setBackgroundColor('p1','#3333ff');">Click to make "blue"</a></li>
<li><a href="#" ondblclick="setBackgroundColor('p1','#33ff33');">Double Click to make "green"</a></li>
<li><a href="#" onmouseover="setBackgroundColor('p1','#ffff33');" onmouseout="setBackgroundColor('p1','#cccccc');">Mouseover to make "yellow" and mouseout to make "gray"</a></li>
<li><a href="#" onkeypress="setBackgroundColor('p1','#ff33ff');">Keypress to make "magenta"</a></li>
</ul><p id="p1">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc lobortis orci a odio. Donec cursus, felis eu pulvinar ornare, sem turpis dapibus elit, eget laoreet eros quam vel dolor. Ut ante mauris, ullamcorper quis, posuere quis, lacinia a, felis. In tincidunt malesuada pede. Donec varius lacus sed nisi. Donec rhoncus est ac erat. Duis lobortis fringilla eros. Donec volutpat ligula eu neque. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Donec in massa. Aenean lectus ante, gravida et, luctus id, posuere at, pede. Nam risus orci, rhoncus eu, aliquam ut, interdum ut, orci. Suspendisse rutrum, turpis sed molestie gravida, libero risus iaculis ligula, quis tempor ligula enim vel sem.</p>
  

In style element (<style type="text/css">) within head element:

body {font-family: Calibri,Tahoma,Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif;}
#p1 { 
  padding: 1em; 
  border: medium solid black;
  width: 75%;
}

In script element within head element (<script type="text/javascript">):

function setBackgroundColor(myid,mycolor) {
    mynode = document.getElementById(myid);
    mynode.style.backgroundColor = mycolor;
    return false;
}