1659 – 1st known cheque (£400) (on display at Westminster Abbey). 1840 – American Charles Wilkes discovers Shackleton Ice Shelf, Antarctica. 1918 – The 20-member Taryba (council) of Lithuanian delegates proclaimed their country an independent state. 1923 – Howard Carter opens the inner burial chamber of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb and finds the sarcophagus. 1937 – DuPont chemist Wallace Hume Carothers patented nylon. 1938 – Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg admitted an Austrian Nazi to his cabinet, believed to be the first step in the German overthrow of his government. 1945 – American paratroopers landed on Corregidor Island in the Philippines during World War II, and within two weeks they recaptured it from the Japanese. 1949 – The first Knesset (Hebrew: “Assembly”), the unicameral parliament of Israel and supreme authority of that state, opened in Jerusalem. 1959 – Fidel Castro becomes the 16th Prime Minister of Cuba after overthrowing Fulgencio Batista. 2005 – The Kyoto Protocol comes into force following its ratification by Russia.
Births & Deaths:1959 – American tennis player John McEnroe was born in West Germany. 2016 – Egyptian scholar and statesman Boutros Boutros-Ghali—who, as UN secretary-general (1992–96), vigorously supported UN mediation in post-Cold War strife and oversaw lengthy and difficult peacekeeping operations in several war-torn countries—died at age 93.
Sport: 1926 – Suzanne Lenglen defeats US champion Helen Wills in influential tennis match in Cannes, France.
Music:1963 – Beatles top British rock charts with “Please, Please Me”. 1968 – Beatles George Harrison, John Lennon and their wives fly to India for transcendental meditation study with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
TV & Film: 1938 – “Bringing Up Baby” film directed by Howard Hawks, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, is released.
