Ivan IV's nickname Grozny meant 'formidable' or 'awe-inspiring' rather than 'terrible' in the modern sense; the English word 'terrible' once meant the same, but its sense has drifted.

1547

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The event

• Ivan IV crowned Tsar1547 · Dormition Cathedral, Moscow. On 16 January 1547 Grand Prince Ivan IV was crowned in the Kremlin's Dormition Cathedral, the first to take the title of tsar. This created the Tsardom of Russia, which lasted until the empire was proclaimed in 1721.

16th century

More amazing facts

• 1543 · 1547 Ivan IV was crowned tsar in 1547, four years after Copernicus published that the Earth goes round the Sun.
• 1543 Japanese tempura came from Portugal.
• 1543 Legend says Copernicus saw his great book on the day he died.
• 1543 1543 overturned ideas about both the heavens and the body.
• 1545 · 1571 Silver from Potosí (1545) made the Spanish peso the first truly global currency: from 1571, Manila galleons carried it across the Pacific to China.
• 1545 · 1615 Spanish still says "worth a Potosí" for something priceless.

All amazing facts (1058) →