February 10

Events

1258 - Battle of Baghdad (1258) - Mongols overrun Baghdad, burning it to the ground and killing large numbers of citizens (estimates range from 10,000 to 800,000).

1542 - Queen Catherine Howard of England is confined in the Tower of London to be Execution (legal)|executed three days later for treason (adultery).

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 Engagement of Poland with the sea|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 Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia.

1949 - ''Death of a Salesman'' opens at the Morocco Theatre in New York City.

1954 - President of the United States|President Dwight Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam.

1962 - Captured American spy pilot Gary Powers|Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.

1964 - The aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne (1945)|HMAS ''Melbourne'' collides with the HMAS Voyage|HMAS ''Voyager'' off the south coast of New South Wales, Australia.

1967 - The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|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 - The German movie ''Das Boot'' opens in United States theaters.

1989 - Ron Brown (U.S. politician)|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 Contest|Miss Black America contestant named Desiree Washington.

1996 - The IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov for the first time.

1996 - The World Trade Centre (London)|World Trade Centre in London is partially destroyed by an PIRA bomb.

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.

2003 - Hockey star Brett Hull scores his 700th NHL goal.

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

1499 - Thomas Platter, Swiss humanist (d. 1582)

1524 - Albrecht Giese IV, German politician and diplomat (d. 1580)

1609 - Sir John Suckling (poet)|John Suckling, English poet (d. 1642)

1685 - Aaron Hill, English writer (d. 1750)

1846 - Charles Beresford, British admiral and politician (d. 1919)

1887 - John Franklin Enders, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1985)

1890 - Boris Pasternak, Russian writer, Nobel Prize in Literature|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)

1897 - John F. Enders, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1985)

1898 - Bertolt Brecht, German author (d. 1956)

1901 - Stella Adler, American actress (d. 1992)

1902 - Walter Houser Brattain, American physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics|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, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1969)

1914 - Larry Adler, American musician (d. 2001)

1920 - Alex Comfort, physician and writer (d. 2000)

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

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 - 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

1954 - Margaret Anne Davis, American - Credit Union Executive & Leader

1955 - Greg Norman, Australian golfer

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 - Laura Dern, American actress

1968 - Atika Suri, Indonesian television newscaster

1969 - Tim Clark, golfer

1969 - Joe Mangrum, American artist

1971 - Lisa Marie Varon, American professional wrestler

1976 - Lance Berkman, baseball player

1979 - Daryl Palumbo, American musician

1979 - Ross Powers, American snowboarder

1980 - César Izturis, baseball player

1985 - Anette Sagen, Norwegian ski jumper

1991 - Emma Roberts, American actress

1994 - Makenzie Vega, American actres

Deaths

1126 - William IX of Aquitaine|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

1755 - Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu|Montesquieu, French writer (b. 1689)

1758 - Thomas Ripley (architect)|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)

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, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1833)

1923 - Wilhelm Röntgen, German physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics|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)

1985 - Johnny Mokan, baseball player (b. 1895)

1992 - Alex Haley, American author (b. 1921)

1993 - Fred Hollows, New Zealand ophthalmologist (b. 1929)

2000 - Jim Varney, American actor (b. 1949)

2001 - Abraham Beame, Mayor of New York City (b. 1906)

2002 - Harold Furth, Austrian-born physicist (b. 1939)

2003 - Edgar de Evia, American photographer (b. 1910)

2003 - Curt Hennig, American professional wrestler (b. 1958)

2003 - Clark MacGregor, U.S. Congressman (b. 1922)

2003 - Al Ruffo, Mayor of San Jose, California (b. 1908)

2003 - Ron Ziegler, American press secetary to Richard Nixon (b. 1939)

2005 - Arthur Miller, American playwright (b. 1915)

Holidays and observances

Catholicism - Scholastica|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

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/10

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050210.html ---- February 9 - February 11 - January 10 - March 10 -- historical anniversaries|listing of all days