Today:
600 – Pope Gregory I decreed that “God bless you” should be the correct response to a sneeze.
1659 – The first known check (cheque) in England was written, a precursor to modern banking transactions.
1742 – Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, became the British Prime Minister after the resignation of Sir Robert Walpole.
1804 – U.S. Navy Lieutenant Stephen Decatur led a daring raid in Tripoli Harbor to destroy the captured USS Philadelphia during the First Barbary War.
1852 – The Studebaker Brothers Wagon Company, a predecessor of the automobile manufacturer, was founded in South Bend, Indiana.
1918 – Lithuania declared independence from Germany and Russia, establishing the independent State of Lithuania.
1923 – British archaeologist Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, revealing one of the greatest discoveries in Egyptology.
1937 – Wallace H. Carothers received a U.S. patent for nylon, a synthetic polymer that revolutionized textiles and manufacturing.
1959 – Fidel Castro became the premier of Cuba after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.
2005 – The Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, came into effect after being ratified by sufficient nations.