How many days and weeks until February 16th?

On February 16th 1923, watched by about twenty invited guests sitting on chairs in the antechamber, Howard Carter dismantled the sealed wall at the end of Tutankhamun’s tomb and stepped into the burial chamber. Three months of cataloguing had preceded it. Almost the whole chamber was filled by a gilded shrine, and inside that, in time, a stone sarcophagus and three nested coffins, the innermost of solid gold. Lord Carnarvon, who had paid for the search, died in Cairo two months later, which is where the talk of a curse began.

Wallace Carothers was granted the patent for nylon, on behalf of DuPont, on February 16th 1937. It reached the public as toothbrush bristles, then as stockings that sold out within hours, then, from 1941, as parachutes.

The oldest surviving English cheque is dated February 16th 1659. It was written for four hundred pounds and drawn on the London banking house of Clayton and Morris, and looks, allowing for the handwriting, much like a cheque.

Four words shouted at an umpire at Wimbledon in 1981 have outlasted most of John McEnroe’s seven Grand Slam singles titles; the tennis player was born on February 16th 1959. Christopher Eccleston, the actor born in 1964, played the ninth Doctor and left after a single series.

Born on February 16th: star sign, birthstone and birth flower

John McEnroe and Christopher Eccleston — both named above — share this star sign with everyone else born in the same window.

None of this is settled fact in the way the history above is — zodiac dates, birthstones and birth flowers are conventions rather than laws, and different sources hedge them slightly differently. The birthstone is the most standardised of the three (set by the trade in 1912 and revised since); the birth flower is the least, resting on Victorian tradition rather than any governing body.

Gift ideas for a February 16th birthday

A small, themed starting point rather than a shopping list — amethyst for the stone, Aquarius for the sign, and the sky itself on the day.

Personalised birth flower & birthstone disc

Engraved with a name, the February birthstone and the violet — both in one pendant, in a gift box.

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Aquarius constellation necklace

Stainless steel, sign selectable at checkout — choose Aquarius for a February 16th birthday.

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Personalised star map print

The actual night sky over a chosen place on February 16th, whichever year — a print rather than jewellery.

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