TODAY IN HISTORY: King Tut’s tomb unsealed in 1923
On this date in 1923, the burial chamber of King Tutankhamen’s recently unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt by English archaeologist Howard Carter.
In 1944, Major Charles Hoey of Duncan, B.C., won the Victoria Cross while serving with the British Army in Burma during the Second World War. Hoey was fatally wounded while capturing a Japanese position.
In 1968, John Lennon, George Harrison and their wives travelled to India to study transcendental meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Joining them three days later were fellow beatles Ringo Starr and his wife Maureen and Paul McCartney and his then-fiancee, Jane Asher.
In 1984, Quebec speedskater Gaetan Boucher completed the greatest individual Canadian showing in an Olympic Games. Boucher added the 1,500-metre gold medal in Sarajevo to his gold in the 1,000-metre and his bronze in the 500. Boucher also won the silver in the 1,000 at the 1980 Games in Lake Placid, N.Y.
In 1998, a China Airlines Airbus A300-600R, trying to land in fog near Taipei, Taiwan, crashed, killing all 196 people on board.
In 1999, Kurds stormed diplomatic missions in Canada and across Europe after Abdullah Ocalan, the Kurdish fugitive rebel chief, was taken to Turkey for trial on terrorism charges. Ocalan was later convicted.
In 2005, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced the cancellation of the 20042005 hockey season on the 154th day of a lockout. It was the first time a major sports league had lost an entire season and playoffs to labour trouble. The dispute lasted 310 days but ended in July 2005 when a new six-year collective bargaining agreement was ratified. The agreement allowed the NHL to hold a regular 2005-06 season.
In 2010, 19 people were injured when a surge of Olympic party-goers caused a barricade to collapse during a free concert at Vancouver’s David Lam Park during a set by Canadian punk band Alexisonfire. The rest of the concert was cancelled along with a planned fireworks display.
In 2011, Watson, IBM’s supercomputer, defeated “Jeopardy’s” all-time greatest champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in a two-match contest that aired over three consecutive days. Watson accumulated $77,147 overall, while Jennings notched $24,000 and Rutter $21,600.
In 2012, Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was given a mandatory life sentence for trying to blow up a packed jetliner with a bomb sewn into his underwear on Christmas Day 2009. He had pleaded guilty to all charges in October.
In 2020, Tony Fernandez, former shortstop for the Toronto Blue Jays, died at 57. Fernandez, a five-time all-star and winner of the 1993 World Series, battled kidney problems for several years.
In 2022, Charles Hamelin became Canada’s most decorated male Winter Olympian after the short-track speedskating team won the gold medal in the men’s 5,000-metre relay. It was Hamelin’s sixth career medal – tying him with Cindy Klassen.