I think the simplest way to answer your question is to answer "How does jQuery do it?" and for that, I'd recommend looking as the source code. The most relevant part of the code is at
https://github.com/jquery/jquery/blob/master/src/core.js#L423
Here's a snippet:
// Catch cases where $(document).ready() is called after the
// browser event has already occurred.
if ( document.readyState === "complete" ) {
// Handle it asynchronously to allow scripts the opportunity to delay ready
return setTimeout( jQuery.ready, 1 );
}
// Mozilla, Opera and webkit nightlies currently support this event
if ( document.addEventListener ) {
// Use the handy event callback
document.addEventListener( "DOMContentLoaded", DOMContentLoaded, false );
// A fallback to window.onload, that will always work
window.addEventListener( "load", jQuery.ready, false );
// If IE event model is used
} else if ( document.attachEvent ) {
// ensure firing before onload,
// maybe late but safe also for iframes
document.attachEvent( "onreadystatechange", DOMContentLoaded );
// A fallback to window.onload, that will always work
window.attachEvent( "onload", jQuery.ready );
// If IE and not a frame
// continually check to see if the document is ready
var toplevel = false;
try {
toplevel = window.frameElement == null;
} catch(e) {}
if ( document.documentElement.doScroll && toplevel ) {
doScrollCheck();
}
}