Nov. 29, 2021

This Day in Halloween: A team opens King Tutankhamun’s tomb setting off what some believe to be a pharoah’s curse. / Illustration by Melissa Kim

A team led by Howard Carter open King Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. The disturbance of the mummy’s resting place sets off what some believe to be a Pharoah’s curse that eventually kills eight members of the group present at the opening of the tomb. The other 50 people live out their lives without incident. Nevertheless, the stories — real or fictional —also set up much of what the public would come to see about Egyptian mummies through horror movies from Universal’s The Mummy in 1932 to the present.