The Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities is a yearbook of obscure and long-forgotten words. Unlike other such books, however, this cabinet uniquely opens up each word—from quaaltagh to handsel—alongside a connected event from history that took place on that day.

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So you can celebrate JRR Tolkien’s birthday on 3 January with eucatastrophe, a word he invented. The date on which a brand new top hat supposedly caused a riot in central London is marked with the story behind the word alamodic, a seventeenth-century word for something that is the height of fashion. And the date on which the entirely ice-bound Battle of Texel was fought in 1795 is commemorated with the story behind the word ice-legs, the ability to keep one’s balance on frozen ground.