February 10
is the 41st day of the year in the
Gregorian Calendar. There are 324 days remaining, 325 in
leap years.
*
1258 -
Battle of Baghdad -
Mongols overrun
Baghdad, burning it to the ground and killing large numbers of citizens (estimates range from 10,000 to 800,000).
*
1355 - The
St. Scholastica's Day riot breaks out in
Oxford,
England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days.
*
1542 - Queen
Catherine Howard of
England is confined in the
Tower of London to be
executed three days later for treason (
adultery).
*
1763 -
French and Indian War: The
1763 Treaty of Paris ends the war and
France cedes
Canada to
Great Britain.
*
1814 -
Napoleonic Wars:
Battle of Champaubert*
1840 - Queen
Victoria of the United Kingdom marries
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
*
1846 -
First Anglo-Sikh War:
Battle of Sobraon - British defeat Sikhs in final battle the war
*
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 - The
YWCA is founded (
New York City).
*
1897 - Freedom of religion in
Madagascar*
1920 -
Jozef Haller de Hallenburg performs
symbolic engagement of Poland with the sea, celebrating restitution of
Polish access to open sea.
*
1929 - Msgr.
Stephen Alencastre,
SS.CC., dedicates the beautiful
Romanesque church of
Saint Patrick in
Honolulu.
*
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.
*
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.
*
1964 - The aircraft carrier
HMAS Melbourne collides with the
HMAS Voyager off the south coast of
New South Wales,
Australia.
*
1967 - The
25th Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified.
*
1981 - A fire at the
Las Vegas Hilton hotel-
casino kills eight and injures 198.
*
1989 -
Ron Brown is elected chairman of the
Democratic National Committee becoming the first
African American to lead a major
American political party.
*
1990 -
James "Buster" Douglas KO's Mike Tyson In what perhaps was one of the greatest upsets in sports history .
*
1996 - The
IBM supercomputer
Deep Blue defeats
Garry Kasparov for the first time.
*
1997 - The
United States Army suspends
CSM 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.
*
2003 -
France and
Belgium broke the
NATO procedure of silent approval concerning the timing of protective measures for
Turkey in case of a possible war with
Iraq.
*
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.
*
2006 -
Olympic Games:
Winter Olympic Games - The
XX Olympic Winter Games opened in
Turin,
Italy.
*
1499 -
Thomas Platter, Swiss humanist (d.
1582)
*
1524 -
Albrecht Giese IV, German politician and diplomat (d.
1580)
*
1609 - Sir
John Suckling, English poet (d.
1642)
*
1685 -
Aaron Hill, English writer (d.
1750)
*
1783 -
Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy, Russian painter (d.
1873)
*
1785 -
Claude-Louis Navier, French physicist (d.
1936)
*
1795 -
Ary Scheffer, French painter (d.
1858)
*
1846 -
Charles Beresford, British admiral and politician (d.
1919)
*
1887 -
John Franklin Enders, American scientist,
Nobel Prize Laureate (d.
1985)
*
1890 -
Boris Pasternak, Russian writer,
Nobel Prize Laureate (declined) (d.
1960)
*
1892 -
Alan Hale Sr., American actor (d.
1950)
*
1893 -
Jimmy Durante, American actor, singer, and comedian (d.
1980)
* 1893 -
Bill Tilden, American tennis player (d.
1953)
*
1894 -
Harold Macmillan,
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d.
1986)
*
1897 - Dame
Judith Anderson, Australian actress (d.
1992)
*
1898 -
Bertolt Brecht, German author (d.
1956)
*
1901 -
Stella Adler, American actress (d.
1992)
*
1902 -
Walter Houser Brattain, American physicist,
Nobel Prize Laureate (d.
1987)
*
1904 -
John Farrow, American film director (d.
1963)
*
1906 -
Lon Chaney Jr., American actor (d.
1973)
* 1906 -
Erik Rhodes, American actor (d.
1990)
*
1910 -
Georges Pire, Belgian monk,
Nobel Prize Laureate (d.
1969)
*
1914 -
Larry Adler, American musician (d.
2001)
*
1920 -
Alex Comfort, physician and writer (d.
2000)
*
1926 -
Danny Blanchflower, Northern Irish footballer and football manager (d.
1993)
*
1927 -
Leontyne Price, American soprano
*
1929 -
Jerry Goldsmith, American composer (d.
2004)
*
1930 -
Robert Wagner, American actor
*
1931 -
Thomas Bernhard, Austrian author (d.
1989)
*
1932 -
Branko Lustig, Croatian film producer
*
1933 -
Richard Schickel, American film critic
*
1934 -
Fleur Adcock, New Zealand poet
*
1939 -
Adrienne Clarkson, 26th
Governor General of Canada* 1939 -
Roberta Flack, American singer
*
1941 -
Michael Apted, British director
*
1944 -
Peter Allen, Australian singer and actor (d.
1992)
* 1944 -
Rufus Reid, American Jazz Musician,
Bassist* 1944 -
Frank Keating, American politician
* 1944 -
Vernor Vinge, American novelist
*
1947 -
Louise Arbour, Canadian judge
*
1948 -
Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexican politician (d.
1994)
*
1949 -
Maxime Le Forestier, French singer
* 1949 -
Harold Sylvester, American actor
*
1950 -
Mark Spitz, American swimmer
*
1951 -
Roxanne Pulitzer, American model
* 1951 -
Robert Iger, President and CEO of
The Walt Disney Company*
1954 -
Larry McWilliams, baseball player
*
1955 -
Christopher Adams, British judoka and professional wrestler (d.
2001)
* 1955 -
Greg Norman, Australian golfer
* 1955 -
James Cramer, American Television personality
*
1959 -
Dennis Gentry, American Football Player
*
1960 -
Robert Addie, British actor (d.
2003)
*
1961 -
Alexander Payne, American film director
* 1961 -
George Stephanopoulos, American political consultant and commentator
*
1962 -
Cliff Burton, American musician (d.
1986)
* 1962 -
Bobby Czyz, American boxer
*
1963 -
Lenny Dykstra, baseball player
*
1967 -
Jacky Durand, French cyclist
*
1968 -
Atika Suri, Indonesian television newscaster
* 1969 -
Joe Mangrum, American artist
*
1970 -
Noureddine Naybet, Moroccan footballer
* 1970 -
Alberto Castillo, baseball player
*
1971 -
Lisa Marie Varon, American professional wrestler
* 1971 -
Louie Spicolli, American wrestler
*
1974 -
Ty Law, American football player
*
1976 -
Lance Berkman, baseball player
*
1977 -
Salif Diao, Senegalese footballer
*
1979 -
Daryl Palumbo, American musician
* 1979 -
Ross Powers, American snowboarder
*
1980 -
César Izturis, baseball player
* 1980 -
Steve Tully, English footballer
*
1981 -
Natasha St-Pier, Canadian singer
* 1981 -
The Reverend Tholomew Plague, American musician (
Avenged Sevenfold)
* 1981 -
Andy Johnson, English Footballer
*
1982 -
Justin Gatlin, American sprint athlete
*
1985 -
Anette Sagen, Norwegian ski jumper
*
1991 -
Emma Roberts, American actress
*
1994 -
Makenzie Vega, American actress
*
1997 -
Chloe Moretz, American actress
*
1126 -
William IX, Duke of Aquitaine, poet (b.
1071)
*
1162 - King
Baldwin III of Jerusalem (b.
1130)
*
1242 -
Emperor Shijo of Japan (b.
1231)
*
1278 -
Margaret II of Flanders (b.
1202)
*
1576 -
Guilielmus Xylander, German classical scholar (b.
1532)
*
1686 -
William Dugdale, English antiquarian (b.
1605)
*
1722 -
Bartholomew Roberts, English pirate (b.
1682)
*
1755 -
Montesquieu, French writer (b.
1689)
*
1758 -
Thomas Ripley, English architect
*
1782 -
Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, German theologian (b.
1702)
*
1829 -
Pope Leo XII (b.
1760)
*
1837 -
Aleksandr Pushkin, Russian poet and novelist (b.
1799)
*
1857 -
David Thompson, Canadian explorer (b.
1770)
*
1865 -
Heinrich Lenz, German physicist (b.
1804)
*
1904 -
John A. Roche, Mayor of Chicago (b.
1844)
*
1912 -
Joseph Lister, British surgeon (b.
1827)
*
1917 -
John William Waterhouse, Italian-born artist (b.
1849)
*
1918 -
Abdul Hamid II Ottoman Sultan (b.
1842)
* 1918 -
Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Italian pacifist,
Nobel Prize Laureate (b.
1833)
*
1923 -
Wilhelm Röntgen, German physicist,
Nobel Prize Laureate (b.
1845)
*
1932 -
Edgar Wallace, English novelist and screenwriter (b.
1875)
*
1939 -
Pope Pius XI (b.
1857)
*
1950 -
Marcel Mauss, French sociologist (b.
1872)
*
1957 -
Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author (b.
1867)
*
1960 -
Aloysius Stepinac, Croatian cardinal (b.
1898)
*
1964 -
Eugen Sänger, Austrian aerospace engineer (b.
1905)
*
1966 -
Billy Rose, American composer and band leader (b.
1899)
*
1984 -
David Von Erich, professional wrestler (b.
1958)
*
1985 -
Johnny Mokan, baseball player (b.
1895)
*
1992 -
Alex Haley, American author (b.
1921)
*
1993 -
Fred Hollows, Australian ophthalmologist (b.
1929)
*
2000 -
Jim Varney, American actor (b.
1949)
*
2001 -
Abraham Beame, Mayor of New York City (b.
1906)
*
2002 -
Traudl Junge,
Hitler's secretary (b.
1920)
*
2003 -
Edgar de Evia, American photographer (b.
1910)
* 2003 -
Curt Hennig, American professional wrestler (b.
1958)
* 2003 -
Clark MacGregor,
United States Congressman from Minnesota (b.
1922)
* 2003 -
Al Ruffo, Mayor of San Jose, California (b.
1908)
* 2003 -
Ron Ziegler, American press secretary to
Richard Nixon (b.
1939)
*
2005 -
Arthur Miller, American playwright (b.
1915)
*
2006 -
J Dilla, Rapper/Producer, former member of Slum Village (b.
1974)
*
Italy -
National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe to commemorate
Italian Istrian and
Dalmatian exiliee and
Foibe massacres.
liturgical feasts
*
Catholicism -
Saint Scholastica;
World Marriage Day.
*
Malta -
St. Paul's Shipwreck day. Birth of
Catholicism in Malta.
*
Saint Silvanus*
Saint Charalampe*
Saint Austreberta*
Blessed Arnaud*
Blessed Hugo (d. 1164)
*
On this day in Canada*
NY Times: On this day*
BBC: On This DayFebruary 9 -
February 11 -
January 10 -
March 10 --
listing of all days
