January 10

January 10 is the 10th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 355 days remaining (356 in leap years).

Events

• 49 BC – Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon which signalled civil war.
• 1072 – Robert Guiscard conquers Palermo.
• 1776 – Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense.
• 1806 – Dutch in Cape Town surrender to the British.
• 1810 – Marriage of Napoleon and Josephine is annulled.
• 1861 – Florida secedes from the United States.
• 1863 – The first section of the London Underground Railway opens (Paddington to Farringdon Street).
• 1870 – John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.
• 1901 – The first great Texas gusher, oil discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas.
• 1920 – League of Nations holds its first meeting and ratifies the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I.
• 1922 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of the Irish Free State.
• 1923 – Lithuania seizes and annexes Memel.
• 1927 – The film Metropolis by Fritz Lang premiers.
• 1929 – Tintin, a comic book character created by Hergé, makes his debut. He went on to be published in over 200 million comic books in 40 languages.
• 1941 – Lend-Lease is introduced into the U.S. Congress.
• 1946 – First General Assembly of the United Nations opens in London. 51 nations are represented.
• 1957 – Harold Macmillan becomes the prime minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1969 – After 147 years, the last issue of the Saturday Evening Post is published.
• 1971 – Masterpiece Theatre debuts on PBS.
• 1984 – The United States and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations.
• 1989 – Cuban troops begin withdrawing from Angola.
• 1990 – Time Warner is formed from the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc.
• 1994 – Lorena Bobbitt goes on trial for severing the penis of her husband John (Manassas, Virginia).
• 2000 – America Online announces an agreement to buy Time Warner for $162 billion, the largest corporate merger in history.
• 2001 – Wikipedia starts as part of Nupedia. It becomes a separate site five days later.

Births

• 1480 – Princess Margaret of Austria (d. 1530)
• 1769 – Michel Ney, French marshal (d. 1815)
• 1797 – Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, German writer (d. 1848)
• 1843 – Frank James, American outlaw (d. 1915)
• 1849 – Francisco Ferrer Guardia, Spanish free-thinker (d. 1909)
• 1858 – Heinrich Zille, German illustrator and photographer (d. 1929)
• 1873 – George Orton, Canadian athlete (d. 1958)
• 1883 – Francis X. Bushman, American actor (d. 1966)
• 1883 – Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoi, writer (d. 1945)
• 1887 – Robinson Jeffers, American poet (d. 1962)
• 1899 – Axel Eggelbrecht, journalist (d. 1991)
• 1904 – Ray Bolger, American actor, singer, dancer (d. 1987)
• 1908 – Bernard Lee, British actor (d. 1981)
• 1908 – Paul Henreid, Austrian actor (d. 1993)
• 1913 – Gustáv Husák, President of Czechoslovakia (d. 1991)
• 1913 – Mehmet Shehu, Albanian politician (d. 1981)
• 1917 – Jerry Wexler, American record producer
• 1917 – Hilde Krahl, actress (d. 1999)
• 1920 – Max Patkin, baseball player (d. 1999)
• 1921 – Rodger Ward, American race car driver (d. 2004)
• 1923 – Benson Skoff, clergyman
• 1923 – Ingeborg Drewitz, writer (d. 1986)
• 1925 – Max Roach, drummer, composer
• 1927 – Gisele MacKenzie, Canadian singer (d. 2003)
• 1927  – Johnnie Ray, American singer (d. 1990)
• 1927  – Otto Stich, Swiss politician
• 1930 – Roy Edward Disney, American film executive
• 1931 – Viktor Liebermann, violinist (d. 1999)
• 1934 – Leonid Kravchuk, Ukrainian politician
• 1935 – Sherrill Milnes, American baritone
• 1935 – Eddy Clearwater, blues musician
• 1936 – Stephen Ambrose, American historian (d. 2002)
• 1936  – Robert Wilson, American physicist and radio astronomer
• 1937 – Thomas Penfield Jackson, American judge
• 1938 – Donald Knuth, American mathematician, computer scientist
• 1938  – Willie McCovey, American Baseball Hall of Famer
• 1939 – Bill Toomey, American athlete
• 1939  – Sal Mineo, American actor (d. 1976)
• 1939  – William Levy, writer
• 1943 – Jim Croce, American singer (d. 1973)
• 1944 – Frank Sinatra, Jr., American singer
• 1945 – Rod Stewart, English singer
• 1945 – Spider Sabich, American skier (d. 1975)
• 1948 – Donald Fagen, American keyboardist
• 1948  – Teresa Graves, American actress and singer (d. 2002)
• 1948 – William Sanderson, American actor
• 1949 – George Foreman, American boxer
• 1949  – James Lapine, American stage director
• 1949  – Linda Lovelace, film actress (d. 2002)
• 1953 – Pat Benatar, American singer
• 1953  – Bobby Rahal, American race car driver
• 1955 – Michael Schenker, German guitar player (UFO) and solo career
• 1956 – Shawn Colvin, singer
• 1961 – Evan Handler, American actor
• 1964 – Brad Roberts, Canadian singer
• 1973 – Ryan Drummond, voice actor and comedian
• 1975 – Jake Delhomme, American football player
• 1982 – Josh Ryan Evans, American actor (d. 2004)

Deaths

• 681 – Pope Agatho
• 1276 – Pope Gregory X
• 1645 – William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1573)
• 1778 – Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist (b. 1707)
• 1811 – Marie-Joseph Chénier, French poet (b. 1764)
• 1862 – Samuel Colt, American inventor (b. 1814)
• 1895 – Benjamin Godard, French composer (b. 1849)
• 1917 – William F. Cody, American frontiersman (b. 1846)
• 1934 – Marinus van der Lubbe, Dutch communist, accused of Reichstag fire (b. 1909)
• 1941 – Frank Bridge, English composer (b. 1879)
• 1941 – Joe Penner, comedian, actor
• 1951 – Sinclair Lewis, American writer (b. 1885)
• 1957 – Gabriela Mistral, Chilean poet (b. 1889)
• 1961 – Dashiell Hammett, American writer (b. 1894)
• 1970 – Pavel Belyayev, cosmonaut (b. 1925)
• 1971 – Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, French fashion designer (b. 1883)
• 1976 – Howlin' Wolf, American musician (b. 1910)
• 1978 – Pedro Chamorro, Nicaraguan journalist
• 1980 – George Meany, American labor leader (b. 1894)
• 1981 – Katherine Alexander, American actress (b. 1898)
• 1981  – Richard Boone, American actor (b. 1917)
• 1981  – Fawn M. Brodie, American historian (b. 1915)
• 1982 – Paul Lynde, comedian
• 1987 – Sir David Robinson, British philanthropist and entrepreneur (b. 1904)
• 1997 – Sheldon Leonard, American producer, actor, director
• 1997  – Elspeth Huxley, journalist, writer
• 2000 – Sam Jaffe, American producer (b. 1901)
• 2004 – Spalding Gray, American actor, screenwriter, and monologue artist (b. 1941)
• 2004  – Alexandra Ripley, author
• 2005 – Gene Baylos, comedian
• 2005  – Margherita Carosio, Italian soprano (b. 1908)
• 2005  – James Forman, American Civil Rights leader (b. 1928)
• 2005  – Erwin Hillier, British cinematographer (b. 1911)
• 2005  – Gordon John "Jack" Horner, sports journalist
• 2005  – Joséphine-Charlotte, Grandduchess of Luxembourg (b. 1927)

Holidays and observances

External links

• BBC: On This Day

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