February 10

February 10 is the 41st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 324 days remaining, 325 in leap years.

Events

• 1258 – Mongols overrun Baghdad, burning it to the ground and killing large numbers of citizens (estimates range from 10,000 to 800,000)..
• 1635 – The Académie française in Paris is expanded to become a national academy for the artistic elite.
• 1763 – French and Indian War: The 1763 Treaty of Paris ends the war and France cedes Canada to Great Britain.
• 1814 – Battle of Champaubert occurs.
• 1840 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
• 1846 – Many Mormons begin their migration west from Nauvoo, Illinois.
• 1863 – The world-famous dwarfs General Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren get married in New York City.
• 1863 – Alanson Crane patents the fire extinguisher.
• 1870 – Anaheim, California is incorporated.
• 1870  – The YWCA is founded (New York City).
• 1920 – Jozef Haller de Hallenburg performs symbolic engagement of Poland with the sea, celebrating restitution of Polish access to open sea.
• 1931 – New Delhi becomes the capital of India.
• 1933 – The New York City-based Postal Telegraph Company introduces the first singing telegram.
• 1933  – In round 13 of a boxing match at New York City's Madison Square Garden, Primo Carnera knocks out Ernie Schaaf, killing him.
• 1947 – Italy cedes most of Venezia Giulia to Yugoslavia.
• 1949 – Death of a Salesman opens (Morocco Theatre in New York City).
• 1954 – President Dwight Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam.
• 1962 – Captured American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
• 1967 – The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.
• 1981 – A fire at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino kills eight and injures 198.
• 1982 – Das Boot opens in United States theaters.
• 1989 – Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party.
• 1990 – South African President F.W. de Klerk announces that Nelson Mandela would be released the next day.
• 1992 – In Indianapolis, Indiana boxer Mike Tyson is convicted of raping a Miss Black America contestant named Desiree Washington.
• 1996 – Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov for the first time.
• 1997 – The United States Army suspends Sgt. Major Gene C. McKinney, its top-ranking enlisted soldier, after hearing allegations of sexual misconduct.
• 1998 – A college dropout becomes the first person to be convicted of a hate crime committed in cyberspace.
• 1998  – Voters in Maine repeal a gay rights law passed in 1997 becoming the first U.S. state to abandon such a law.
• 1999 – Avalanches in the French Alps near Geneva kill at least 10.
• 2005 – North Korea and weapons of mass destruction: North Korea suspends participation in multi-nation talks to discuss its arms program and officially admits to developing nuclear weapons.

Births

• 1609 – Sir John Suckling, English poet (d. 1642)
• 1846 – Charles Beresford, British admiral and member of Parliament (d. 1919)
• 1890 – Boris Pasternak, Russian writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature (d. 1960)
• 1892 – Alan Hale Sr., actor (d. 1950)
• 1893 – Jimmy Durante, actor, singer, and comedian (d. 1980)
• 1893 – Bill Tilden, tennis pro (d. 1953)
• 1894 – Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1986)
• 1897 – John F. Enders, scientist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1985)
• 1897 – Dame Judith Anderson, actress (d. 1992)
• 1898 – Bertolt Brecht, German author (d. 1956)
• 1901 – Stella Adler, acting teacher (d. 1992)
• 1902 – Walter Houser Brattain, scientist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (d. 1987)
• 1904 – John Farrow, film director/father of actress Mia Farrow (d. 1963)
• 1906 – Lon Chaney Jr., actor (d. 1973)
• 1906 – Erik Rhodes, American actor (d. 1990)
• 1914 – Larry Adler, jazz musician (d. 2001)
• 1920 – Alex Comfort, physician, writer (d. 2000)
• 1927 – Leontyne Price, American soprano
• 1929 – Jerry Goldsmith, American composer (d. 2004)
• 1930 – Robert Wagner, actor
• 1931 – Thomas Bernhard, author (d. 1989)
• 1932 – Branko Lustig, Croatian film producer
• 1939 – Roberta Flack, singer
• 1941 – Michael Apted, director
• 1943 – Frank-Patrick Steckel, theater director
• 1944 – Vernor Vinge, novelist
• 1944 – Peter Allen, Australian singer and actor (d. 1992)
• 1944 – Frank Keating, American politician
• 1947 – Louise Arbour, jurist
• 1948 – Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexican politician (d. 1994)
• 1950 – Mark Spitz, American swimmer
• 1951 – Roxanne Pulitzer
• 1955 – Greg Norman, golfer
• 1960 – Lionel Cartwright, American country music singer
• 1961 – George Stephanopoulos, political consultant and commentator
• 1961  – Alexander Payne, film director
• 1962 – Cliff Burton, musician (d. 1986)
• 1962  – Bobby Czyz, boxer
• 1963 – Lenny Dykstra, baseball player
• 1967 – Laura Dern, actress
• 1976 – Lance Berkman, Major League Baseball player
• 1979 – Ross Powers, American snowboarder
• 1980 – César Iztúris, baseball player
• 1991 – Emma Roberts, American actress

Deaths

• 1126 – William IX, Duke of Aquitaine and vernacular poet (b. 1071)
• 1278 – Margaret II, countess of Flanders (b. 1202)
• 1829 – Pope Leo XII (b. 1760)
• 1837 – Aleksandr Pushkin, Russian poet and novelist (b. 1799)
• 1904 – John A. Roche, mayor of Chicago (b. 1844)
• 1917 – John William Waterhouse, artist (b. 1849)
• 1923 – Wilhelm Röntgen, discover of X-Rays (b. 1845)
• 1932 – Edgar Wallace, novelist, screenwriter of King Kong (b. 1875)
• 1939 – Pope Pius XI (b. 1857)
• 1957 – Laura Ingalls Wilder, author (b. 1867)
• 1960 – Aloysius Stepinac, Croatian Cardinal (b. 1898)
• 1964 – Eugen Sänger, Austrian aerospace engineer (b. 1905)
• 1966 – Billy Rose, composer, band leader (b. 1899)
• 1985 – Johnny Mokan, professional baseball player (b. 1895)
• 1992 – Alex Haley, author (b. 1921)
• 1993 – Fred Hollows, ophthalmologist (b. 1929)
• 2000 – Jim Varney, American actor (b. 1949)
• 2001 – Abraham Beame, former mayor of New York City (b. 1906)
• 2002 – Harold Furth, physicist (b. 1939)
• 2003 – Curt Hennig, professional wrestler (b. 1958)
• 2003  – Clark MacGregor, United States Congressman (b. 1922)
• 2003  – Al Ruffo, mayor of San Jose, California (b. 1908)
• 2003  – Ron Ziegler, press secetary to Richard Nixon (b. 1939)
• 2005  – Arthur Miller, playwright (b. 1915)

Holidays and observances

• Catholicism – St. Scholastica Day; World Marriage Day.
• Italy – National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe to commemorate Italian Istrian and Dalmatian exiliee and Foiba massacres.

External links

• BBC: On This Day

February 9 – February 11 – January 10 – March 10 — listing of all days