Fact: Cinderella is known as Rashin Coatie in Scotland, Zezolla in Italy, and Yeh-hsien in China
Fact: The second best selling game of all time is Jenga. Jenga is a Swahili word, meaning "to build."
Fact: The Tonle Sap River in Cambodia flows north for almost half the year and then south for the rest of the year
On this day: 15/01/69
Otho seizes power in Rome, proclaiming himself Emperor of Rome, beginning a reign of only three months.
On this day: 15/01/1541
King Francis I of France gives Jean-François Roberval a commission to settle the province of New France (Canada) and provide for the spread of the "Holy Catholic faith".
On this day: 15/01/1559
Elizabeth I is crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey, London.
On this day: 15/01/1582
Truce of Yam-Zapolsky: Russia cedes Livonia to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
On this day: 15/01/1759
The British Museum opens to the public.
On this day: 15/01/1777
American Revolutionary War: New Connecticut (present-day Vermont) declares its independence.
On this day: 15/01/1782
Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris addresses the U.S. Congress to recommend establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage.
On this day: 15/01/1815
War of 1812: American frigate USS President, commanded by Commodore Stephen Decatur, is captured by a squadron of four British frigates.
On this day: 15/01/1818
A paper by David Brewster is read to the Royal Society, belatedly announcing his discovery of what we now call the biaxial class of doubly-refracting crystals. On the same day, Augustin-Jean Fresnel signs a "supplement" (submitted four days later) on reflection of polarized light.
On this day: 15/01/1822
Greek War of Independence: Demetrios Ypsilantis is elected president of the legislative assembly.
Fact: Paul Hunn holds the record for the loudest burp, which was 118.1 decibels, which is as loud as a chainsaw
Fact: The largest employer in the world is the Indian railway system in India, employing over 1.6 million people
Fact: The Koala bear is not really a bear, but is really related to the kangaroo and the wombat.
On this day: 14/01/1236
King Henry III of England marries Eleanor of Provence.
On this day: 14/01/1301
Andrew III of Hungary dies, ending the Árpád dynasty in Hungary.
On this day: 14/01/1639
The "Fundamental Orders", the first written constitution that created a government, is adopted in Connecticut.
On this day: 14/01/1761
The Third Battle of Panipat is fought in India between the Afghans under Ahmad Shah Durrani and the Marathas.
On this day: 14/01/1784
American Revolutionary War: Ratification Day, United States - Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain.
On this day: 14/01/1814
Treaty of Kiel: Frederick VI of Denmark cedes the Kingdom of Norway to Charles XIII of Sweden in return for Pomerania.
On this day: 14/01/1858
Napoleon III of France escapes an assassination attempt made by Felice Orsini and his accomplices in Paris.
On this day: 14/01/1900
Giacomo Puccini's Tosca opens in Rome.
On this day: 14/01/1907
An earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica kills more than 1,000 people.
On this day: 14/01/1911
Roald Amundsen's South Pole expedition makes landfall on the eastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf.
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
Fact: The Flintstones cartoon was the first thirty-minute cartoon to be aired during prime time
Fact: The first couple to be shown on a sitcom sleeping in the same bed was "Mary Kay and Johnny."
On this day: 13/01/-27
Octavian transfers the state to the free disposal of the Roman Senate and the people. He receives Spain, Gaul, and Syria as his province for ten years.
On this day: 13/01/532
The Nika riots break out, during the racing season at the Hippodrome in Constantinople, as a result of discontent with the rule of the Emperor Justinian I.
On this day: 13/01/1435
Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands by the Spanish, is promulgated by Pope Eugene IV.
On this day: 13/01/1547
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, is sentenced to death for treason, on the grounds of having quartered his arms to make them similar to those of the King, Henry VIII of England.
On this day: 13/01/1793
Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, representative of Revolutionary France, is lynched by a mob in Rome.
On this day: 13/01/1797
French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany ends with the French vessel running aground, resulting in over 900 deaths.
On this day: 13/01/1815
War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state.
On this day: 13/01/1822
The design of the Greek flag is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus.
On this day: 13/01/1833
United States President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis.
On this day: 13/01/1840
The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.