Short answers, pulled from the story.
In September 1666, Francisco Castel Rodrigo, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, renamed the hamlet of Charnoy as Charle-roi, meaning King Charles, in honour of Charles II of Spain, who was five years old at the time. The chronogram FVNDATVR CAROLOREGIVM appears in the register of the parish of Charnoy.
By the 1st of January 2008, the city of Charleroi had a total population of 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covered 1,462 km2 with a population of 522,522, ranking it fifth in Belgium after Brussels, Antwerp, Liège, and Ghent.
Brussels South Charleroi Airport opened in 1919 as a flight school. Passenger numbers grew from 210,000 in 1998 to 8.3 million in 2023, making it the second busiest airport in Belgium for passenger transport.
The magazine Spirou was launched in 1938 by the publishing company Éditions Dupuis, based in Marcinelle. It featured popular cartoon characters including Lucky Luke and the Smurfs.
Notable people born in Charleroi include astronomer and priest Georges Lemaître (1894-1966), jeweller Jeanne Toussaint (1887-1976), Olympic épée fencer Gaston Salmon (1878-1917), and painter François-Joseph Navez. René Magritte and the poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine also lived in the city.
The six slag heaps in the Pays Noir area around Charleroi act as reservoirs of biodiversity, sheltering rare animal and plant species that depend on this type of disturbed industrial ground. Sites such as the Viviers former mining site in Gilly host populations of the natterjack toad, the red warbler, and the blue-winged grasshopper.