🌟 Editor's Note
Good morning — it’s Monday, February 16. Today, we cover "God bless you" response, the first handwritten check, the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, the Kyoto Protocol, and much more — packed with clean sources and fascinating insights you'll want more.
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🚀 Time Machine
-600
Pope Gregory I decreed that saying "God bless you" is the proper response to a sneeze.
-1659
The first known handwritten check still in existence was issued for £400.
-1840
American Charles Wilkes discovered the Shackleton Ice Shelf in Antarctica.
-1923
Howard Carter opens the inner burial chamber of Tutankhamun's tomb and finds the sarcophagus.
-1959
Fidel Castro became Cuba's 16th Prime Minister after overthrowing Fulgencio Batista.
-1984
Bill Johnson won the first Olympic gold medal for the US in downhill skiing, a sport long dominated by European athletes.
-2005
The Kyoto Protocol went into effect after Russia ratified it, committing industrialized nations to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
-2024
Alexei Navalny, a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in prison at the age of 47.
📸 Snapshot
Howard Carter and an excavation foreman with Tutankhamun's coffin, 1922
🗨️ Last Words
“Do open the shutter in the bedroom, in order that more light may enter.”