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On 16 January 1547, a sixteen-year-old was crowned the first Tsar of all Russia. He reformed the law, conquered the Volga, and built Saint Basil's Cathedral. He also destroyed his dynasty and left his country on the brink of ruin.

On 15 January 1759, the British Museum opened its doors to the public — tickets by written application only. It holds eight million objects today, charges nothing to enter, and argues with half the world about giving things back.

On 14 January 1784, Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris and the United States became legally real. Britain's terms were so generous that the French foreign minister called it buying peace rather than making it. That generosity launched the world's next superpower.

On 13th January 532, chariot fans burned half of Constantinople and nearly toppled the Byzantine emperor Justinian. He survived because his wife refused to run. The Hagia Sophia we visit today was built on those ashes.

On 12 January 1903, Igor Kurchatov was born in the Urals. Forty-six years later, under his direction, the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb and ended America's nuclear monopoly four years after Hiroshima.

On 11 January 1879, Lord Chelmsford crossed the Buffalo River and the Anglo-Zulu War began. The British are easy villains in this story - and mostly deserve to be. But the story starts sixty years earlier, when the Zulu were doing the crushing themselves.

On 10 January 1778, Carl Linnaeus died in Uppsala after a series of strokes had already taken most of his memory. He left behind a two-word naming system that every biologist on Earth still uses.

On 9 January 1127, Jin forces took Bianjing, the Song capital, and seized both Emperor Qinzong and his retired father Huizong - China's greatest painter and its worst tactician. The Northern Song dynasty ended. The humiliation never did.

On 8 January 1297, François Grimaldi dressed as a Franciscan friar, knocked on the gates of the fortress atop the Rock of Monaco, and stabbed the garrison once they let him in. His family has ruled the place ever since. Monaco's coat of arms celebrates the trick to this day.

On 7 January 1558, Thomas Wentworth handed the keys of Calais to Francis, Duke of Guise. England had held the town since 1347. When the gates opened, two centuries of English France ended in a week.