Howard Carter's birthday celebrated in Google Doodle Each letter of the Google logo is immersed in a scene filled with Egyptian iconography and treasures. Carter was born in London on May 9, 1874. Despite having originally trained as an artist, at the age of 17 he was sent to Egypt to help with the excavation of ancient Egyptian tombs. He quickly rose to the top of this new field, being appointed as the first chief inspector of the Egyptian Antiquities Service (EAS) in 1899. However, by 1907 he was coming under pressure to make a big discovery by his then employer Lord Carnarvon - who had been so far disappointed with his findings. Carter's major breakthrough came in November 1922 when he became the first modern-day archaeologist to find the final of resting place of a pharaoh with all of the treasures intact. Prior to Carter's excavation, Tutankhamun's tomb had been undisturbed for more than 3,000 years. He is believed to have made the first breach into the tomb with a chisel that his grandmother had given him for his seventeenth birthday. The rest of his career was spent recording the findings - which included 5,398 items pertaining to most aspects of Egyptian life. Carter died just seven years after the excavation finished in 1939 at the age of 64 from Lymphoma.