Fact: It would take about fourteen and half million notes of currency to build a mile high stack
Fact: The Kodiak, which is native to Alaska, is the largest bear and can measure up to eight feet and weigh as much as 1,700 pounds
On this day: 07/01/-49
The Senate of Rome says that Caesar will be declared a public enemy unless he disbands his army. This prompts the tribunes who support him to flee to Ravenna, where Caesar is waiting.
On this day: 07/01/1325
Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal.
On this day: 07/01/1558
French troops, led by Francis, Duke of Guise, take Calais, the last continental possession of England.
On this day: 07/01/1608
Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia.
On this day: 07/01/1610
Galileo Galilei makes his first observation of the four Galilean moons: Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa, although he is not able to distinguish the last two until the following day.
On this day: 07/01/1738
A peace treaty is signed between Peshwa Bajirao and Jai Singh II following Maratha victory in the Battle of Bhopal.
On this day: 07/01/1782
The first American commercial bank, the Bank of North America, opens.
On this day: 07/01/1785
Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in a gas balloon.
On this day: 07/01/1835
HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin on board, drops anchor off the Chonos Archipelago.
On this day: 07/01/1894
Thomas Edison makes a kinetoscopic film of someone sneezing. On the same day, his employee, William Kennedy Dickson, receives a patent for motion picture film.
Fact: Five thousandths of a millimeter is the tolerance of accuracy at the LEGO mould factories
Fact: Herbert Hoover, who was the 31st president of the United Stated, turned over all the Federal salary checks he received to charity during the 47 years he was in government
Fact: Five thousandths of a millimeter is the tolerance of accuracy at the LEGO mould factories
Fact: A chicken with red earlobes will produce brown eggs, and a chicken with white earlobes will produce white eggs
On this day: 06/01/1066
Following the death of Edward the Confessor on the previous day, the Witan meets to confirm Harold Godwinson as the new King of England; Harold is crowned the same day, sparking a succession crisis that will eventually lead to the Norman conquest of England.
On this day: 06/01/1205
Philip of Swabia undergoes a second coronation as King of the Romans.
On this day: 06/01/1322
Stephen Uroš III is crowned King of Serbia, having defeated his half-brother Stefan Konstantin in battle. His son is crowned "young king" in the same ceremony.
On this day: 06/01/1355
Charles IV of Bohemia is crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy as King of Italy in Milan.
On this day: 06/01/1449
Constantine XI is crowned Byzantine Emperor at Mystras.
On this day: 06/01/1492
The Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella enter Granada at the conclusion of the Granada War.
On this day: 06/01/1536
The first European school of higher learning in the Americas, Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, is founded by Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza and Bishop Juan de Zumárraga in Mexico City.
On this day: 06/01/1540
King Henry VIII of England marries Anne of Cleves.
On this day: 06/01/1579
The Union of Arras unites the southern Netherlands under the Duke of Parma (Ottavio Farnese), governor in the name of King Philip II of Spain.
On this day: 06/01/1641
Arauco War: The first Parliament of Quillín is celebrated, putting a temporary hold on hostilities between Mapuches and Spanish in Chile.
Fact: The Ancient Greek women made a type of cheek blush by painting their cheeks with herbal pastes which was made out of crushed berries and seeds
Fact: The Tonle Sap River in Cambodia flows north for almost half the year and then south for the rest of the year
Fact: The hydra, which is related to the jellyfish, can grow its body back in a couple of days if it is cut in half
On this day: 05/01/1477
Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is defeated and killed in a conflict with René II, Duke of Lorraine; Burgundy subsequently becomes part of France.
On this day: 05/01/1675
Battle of Colmar: The French army beats Brandenburg.
On this day: 05/01/1757
Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France by drawing and quartering, the traditional form of capital punishment used for regicides.
On this day: 05/01/1781
American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.
On this day: 05/01/1875
The Palais Garnier, one of the most famous opera houses in the world, is inaugurated in Paris.
On this day: 05/01/1895
Dreyfus affair: French army officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
On this day: 05/01/1900
Irish nationalist leader John Edward Redmond calls for revolt against British rule.
On this day: 05/01/1911
Kappa Alpha Psi, the world's third oldest and largest black fraternity, is founded at Indiana University.
On this day: 05/01/1912
The sixth All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Prague Party Conference) opens. In the course of the conference, Vladimir Lenin and his supporters break from the rest of the party to form the Bolshevik movement.
On this day: 05/01/1913
First Balkan War: The Battle of Lemnos begins; Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it did not venture for the rest of the war.
Fact: The only South East Asian country that has never been colonized by a Western Power is Thailand
Fact: Throughout the South, peanuts were known as "Monkey Nuts," and "Goober peas," before the civil war