On this date in 1922, archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen.

Here are some things you may not have known about King Tut.

Tutankhamen’s gene pool didn’t exactly have a deep end. He was born around 1341 BC , his father was the pharaoh Akhenaten and his mother was one of Akhenaten’s sisters.

His original name was Tutankhaten, which means living image of Aten, the god worshipped by his father.

King Tut ascended to the throne in 1333 BC at the age of nine or 10. It’s believed he and his advisers ended the worship of the god Aten, and returned the god Amun to supremacy.

It was around this time that he changed his name to Tutankhamen, or living image of Amun.

Possibly because of his lack of genetic diversity, King Tut was a sickly child. It’s believed he used a cane to walk around and that he had a cleft palate.

Examination of his mummified body showed that he suffered a compound fracture of one of his legs shortly before his death. It’s believed that he may have died of a related infection.

Regardless of what killed him, it’s believed it happened quickly. He was buried in a tomb that was unusually small for a king. There is also evidence that the interior paint had yet to dry when the tomb was sealed.

Our question: Which pharaoh was entombed in the Great Pyramid of Giza?

Today is Flag Day in Panama, Armed Forces Day in Italy, and Unity Day in Russia.

It’s unofficially National Candy Day and Use Your Common Sense Day.

It’s the birthday of humorist Will Rogers, who was born in 1879, journalist Walter Cronkite, who was born in 1916; and actor Ralph Macchio, who is 55.

Because our topic happened before 1960, we’ll spin the wheel to pick a year at random.

This week in 1974, the top song in the U.S. was “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” by Bachman Turner Overdrive.

The No. 1 movie was the anachronistically titled “Airport 1975,” while the novel “Centennial” by, you guessed it, James Michener topped the New York Times Bestsellers list.

 

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