On this day, the young King Henry VI banned kissing as a precaution to prevent the spread of the deadly Bubonic plague more commonly known as the Black death which killed millions of people in England. The disease, carried by fleas and rats had been travelling through Asia, North Africa and Europe on and off since about the middle of the 14th century, and at the time of the Great Famine in 1438 when immune systems were at an all-time low, one of the worst outbreaks started. Although little was known at the time about how germs spread, close contact with sick people was noticed to be a high risk factor and since kissing was a typical way of greeting people in that period, the ban was decided. What remained unresolved was how to enforce the ban since the authorities could not be everywhere at once. As a result, few people were actually punished and, after a while, the law was no longer enforced.
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