Roxelana

 I read about a woman named Roxelana (Hurrem Sultan). She was born in Ukraine in about 1502 but she was kidnapped and made a slave. She was forced to be a concubine but later became the wife of the Ottoman Emperor Suleyman the Magnificent. She was a highly influential woman.

Hortensia

 Today's useless info: Hortensia was a famous Roman orator of the 1st century BC. She once gave a speech against a proposed tax. The rulers of Rome proposed to tax the property of 1,400 rich women (as a wartime measure). Hortensia gave a public speech saying women should not be taxed without representation. The rulers of Rome partly backed down and agreed to tax only 400 women.

Perihelion Day

 3 January 2024 is Perihelion Day. On this day the Earth is closer to the Sun than on any other day in the year. The Earth orbits the Sun in an ellipse, not a circle so sometimes it is slightly closer to the Sun than at others. The point when the Sun is farthest away from the Sun is called the Aphelion. It is usually on 4 July.

Iron Bridge

 On 1 January 1781, the world's first iron bridge opened to the public. When John Wesley saw it he compared it to the seven wonders of the Ancient World. Today we take it for granted that large structures are made of metal but before the Industrial Revolution, it would have been unthinkable.

Frankenstein

 The famous story Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was published on 1 January 1818.

Women in Anglo-Saxon England

 In Anglo-Saxon England, women had considerable rights and freedom (unless they were slaves! Both men and women were slaves). Married women could own and inherit property. Some women were landowners. If a man married a woman he had to give her either money or land. After they married it was her property to what she liked. She could sell it or leave it in her will to anyone she wished. 

The Bog

 In Britain, a cesspit was once called a bog. The toilet was the bog room. When people stopped using cesspits and had flushing toilets they kept calling the toilet room the bog room. Soon it shortened to bog. Apparently the Australian word dunny comes from an old English word meaning a store of dung. There is a lot more to the history of toilets than you might think.