1659 – 1st known cheque (£400) (on display at Westminster Abbey)
1840 – American Charles Wilkes discovers Shackleton Ice Shelf, Antarctica
1923 – Howard Carter opens the inner burial chamber of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb and finds the sarcophagus
1959 – Fidel Castro becomes the 16th Prime Minister of Cuba after overthrowing Fulgencio Batista
1968 – Beatles George Harrison, John Lennon and their wives fly to India for transcendental meditation study with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
1986 – Mário Soares from the Socialist Party is elected the 1st civilian President of Portugal
1992 – Ethiopia finds the remains of former Emperor Haile Selassie on the grounds of the Imperial Palace, under the private lavatory of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, who overthrew the Emperor
1994 – 6.5 earthquake strikes South East Sumatra, kills 200
2005 – The Kyoto Protocol comes into force following its ratification by Russia.
2016 – Former French President Nicholas Sarkozy is placed under investigation for campaign funds
2017 – Suicide attack on shrine of Sufi saint Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, Sehwan, Pakistan kills 72, Islamic State claims responsibility
2018 – More than 100,00 orangutans killed in Borneo since 1999 according to study published in “Current Biology”
2019 – India’s new high-speed train the Vande Bharat Express breaks down on its first return trip on Delhi to Varanasi route
2019 – Pope Francis defrocks ex-cardinal and archbishop of Washington Theodore McCarrick for sexually abusing minors and adults. First Cardinal to be removed for sexual abuse.
2020 – America evacuates 400 citizens from COVID-19-infected cruise ship Diamond Princess quarantined in Yokohama port, Japan
2020 – ‘Ghost ship’ cargo vessel MV Alta washed up on the Irish coast near Ballycotton by Storm Dennis, after drifting across the Atlantic from Bermuda
Film & TV:
1938 – “Bringing Up Baby” film directed by Howard Hawks, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, is released
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
Sport:
1926 – Suzanne Lenglen defeats US champion Helen Wills in influential tennis match in Cannes, France
