February 10

February 10 is the 41st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 324 days remaining until the end of the year (325 in leap years).

[edit] Events

• 1258 – Baghdad falls to the Mongols, and the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed.
• 1306 – In front of the high altar of Greyfriars Church in Dumfries, Robert the Bruce murders John Comyn, his leading political rival, sparking revolution in the Scottish Wars of Independence
• 1355 – The St. Scholastica's Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days.
• 1567 – An explosion destroys the Kirk o' Field house in Edinburgh, Scotland. The second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, Lord Darnley is found strangled, in what many believe to be an assassination.
• 1763 – French and Indian War: The 1763 Treaty of Paris ends the war and France cedes Quebec to Great Britain.
• 1798 – Louis Alexandre Berthier invades Rome, proclaims a Roman Republic on February 15 and then on February 20 takes Pope Pius VI prisoner.
• 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 of the war
• 1862 – American Civil War: A Union naval flotilla destroys the bulk of the Confederate Mosquito Fleet in the Battle of Elizabeth City on the Pasquotank River in North Carolina.
• 1863 – The fire extinguisher is patented.
• 1870 – The YWCA is founded in New York City.
• 1906 – HMS Dreadnought is launched.
• 1920 – Jozef Haller de Hallenburg performs symbolic wedding of Poland to the sea, celebrating restitution of Polish access to open sea.
• 1923 – Texas Tech University is founded as Texas Technological College in Lubbock, Texas.
• 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.
• 1936 – Second Italo-Abyssinian War: Italian troops launched the Battle of Amba Aradam against Ethiopian defenders.
• 1940 – The Soviet Union begins mass deportations of Polish citizens from occupied eastern Poland to Siberia.
• 1942 – Japanese submarine bombards Midway Atoll.
• 1943 – World War II: Attempting to completely lift the Siege of Leningrad, the Soviet Red Army engages German troops and Spanish volunteers in the Battle of Krasny Bor.
• 1947 – Italy cedes most of Venezia Giulia to Yugoslavia.
• 1954 – President Dwight Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam.
• 1962 – Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
• 1964 – Melbourne-Voyager collision: The aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne collides with the destroyer HMAS Voyager off the south coast of New South Wales, Australia.
• 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.
• 1989 – Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party.
• 1996 – The IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov for the first time.
• 1998 – Voters in Maine repeal a gay rights law passed in 1997 becoming the first U.S. state to abandon such a law.
• 2003 – France and Belgium break 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 announces that it possesses nuclear weapons.
• 2009 – The communication satellites Iridium 33 and Kosmos-2251 collide in orbit, destroying both.

[edit] Births

• 1499 – Thomas Platter, Swiss humanist (d. 1582)
• 1524 – Albrecht Giese, German politician and diplomat (d. 1580)
• 1606 – Christine Marie of France, regent of Savoy (d. 1663)
• 1609 – John Suckling, English poet (d. 1642)
• 1685 – Aaron Hill, English writer (d. 1750)
• 1696 – Johann Melchior Molter, German baroque composer and violinist (d. 1765)
• 1744 – William Cornwallis, Royal Navy admiral (d.1819)
• 1775 – Charles Lamb, English essayist (d. 1834)
• 1783 – Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy, Russian painter (d. 1873)
• 1785 – Claude-Louis Navier, French physicist (d. 1836)
• 1795 – Ary Scheffer, French painter (d. 1858)
• 1824 – Samuel Plimsoll, British politician and social reformer
• 1846 – Charles Beresford, British admiral and politician (d. 1919)
• 1846 – Ira Remsen, American chemist (d. 1927)
• 1847 – Nabinchandra Sen, famous Bengali poet (d. 1909)
• 1859 – Alexandre Millerand, French politician (d. 1943)
• 1868 – Prince Waldemar of Prussia, son of Emperor Frederick III (d. 1879)
• 1884 – Frederick Hawksworth, British railroad mechanical engineer (d. 1976)
• 1890 –Fanny Kaplan, Russian political revolutionary and attempted assassin of Vladimir Lenin (d. 1918)
• 1890 – Boris Pasternak, Russian writer, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1960)
• 1892 – Alan Hale Sr., American actor (d. 1950)
• 1893 – Jimmy Durante, American actor and comedian (d. 1980)
• 1893 – Bill Tilden, American tennis player (d. 1953)
• 1894 – Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1957-1963 (d. 1986)
• 1897 – Dame Judith Anderson, Australian actress (d. 1992)
• 1897 – John Franklin Enders, American scientist, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1985)
• 1898 – Bertolt Brecht, German author (d. 1956)
• 1898 – Joseph Kessel, French journalist and novelist (d. 1979)
• 1901 – Stella Adler, American actress (d. 1992)
• 1902 – Walter Houser Brattain, American physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1987)
• 1903 – Waldemar Hoven, German physician (d. 1948)
• 1903 – Matthias Sindelar, Austrian footballer (d. 1939)
• 1904 – John Farrow, American film director (d. 1963)
• 1905 – Walter A. Brown, American professional sports team owner and executive (d. 1964)
• 1905 – William Henry "Chick" Webb, American drummer and swing band leader (d. 1939)
• 1906 – Lon Chaney Jr., American actor (d. 1973)
• 1906 – Erik Rhodes, American actor (d. 1990)
• 1908 – Jean Coulthard, Canadian composer and music educator (d. 2000)
• 1910 – Dominique Pire, Belgian friar, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (d. 1969)
• 1913 – Douglas Slocombe, British cinematographer
• 1914 – Larry Adler, American harmonica player (d. 2001)
• 1920 – Alex Comfort, British physician and writer (d. 2000)
• 1920 – Neva Patterson, American actress (d. 2010)
• 1920 – Josι Manuel Castaρσn, Spanish writer (d. 2001)
• 1922 – Αrpαd Gφncz, former President of Hungary
• 1924 – Bud Poile, Canadian hockey player and executive (d. 2005)
• 1925 – Pierre Mondy, French actor and director
• 1926 – Danny Blanchflower, Northern Irish footballer (d. 1993)
• 1927 – Leontyne Price, American soprano
• 1927 – Brian Priestman, British conductor
• 1927 – William Tetley, Canadian professor of law and politician
• 1929 – Jerry Goldsmith, American composer (d. 2004)
• 1929 – Jim Whittaker, American mountaineer
• 1929 – Lou Whittaker, American mountaineer
• 1930 – E. L. Konigsburg, American author and illustrator of children's and young adult fiction
• 1930 – Robert Wagner, American actor
• 1931 – Doug Young, American voice actor
• 1933 – Richard Schickel, American film critic
• 1934 – Fleur Adcock, New Zealand poet
• 1935 – John Alcorn, American designer and illustrator (d. 1992)
• 1935 – Theodore Antoniou, Greek composer
• 1937 – Roberta Flack, American singer
• 1939 – Adrienne Clarkson, Canadian politician
• 1939 – Peter Purves, British actor and television presenter
• 1940 – Kenny Rankin, American pop and jazz singer and songwriter (d. 2009)
• 1940 – Mary Rand, British athlete, former world record holder in the long jump
• 1941 – Michael Apted, British director
• 1943 – Ral Donner, American singer (d. 1984)
• 1943 – Bill Laskey, American football player
• 1944 – Peter Allen, Australian singer and actor (d. 1992)
• 1944 – Frank Keating, American politician and 25th Governor of Oklahoma
• 1944 – Frances Moore Lappe, American writer and activist
• 1944 – Rufus Reid, American jazz bassist
• 1944 – Vernor Vinge, American novelist
• 1946 – Eliot Wald, American comedy writer
• 1947 – Louise Arbour, Canadian jurist
• 1947 – Butch Morris, American jazz cornetist and composer
• 1947 – Nicholas Owen, English journalist
• 1948 – Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexican politician (d. 1994)
• 1949 – Jim Corcoran, Canadian singer and songwriter
• 1949 – Maxime Le Forestier, French singer
• 1949 – Nigel Olsson, English drummer
• 1949 – Harold Sylvester, American actor
• 1950 – Mark Spitz, American swimmer
• 1951 – Robert Iger, American entertainment executive
• 1952 – Lee Hsien Loong, Singaporean politician
• 1954 – Larry McWilliams, American baseball player
• 1955 – Christopher Adams, British wrestler and judoka (d. 2001)
• 1955 – Jim Cramer, American television personality
• 1955 – Greg Norman, Australian golfer
• 1956 – Enele Sopoaga, Tuvaluan politician and diplomat
• 1958 – Michael Weiss, American jazz pianist
• 1959 – John Calipari, American basketball coach
• 1959 – Dennis Gentry, American football player
• 1959 – Lisa McPherson, American Scientologist (d. 1995)
• 1960 – Robert Addie, British actor (d. 2003)
• 1961 – Alexander Payne, American film director
• 1961 – George Stephanopoulos, American political commentator
• 1962 – Cliff Burton, American bass player (Metallica) (d. 1986)
• 1962 – Bobby Czyz, American boxer
• 1962 – Piero Pelω, Italian singer and songwriter (Litfiba)
• 1962 – Randy Velischek, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1963 – Lenny Dykstra, American baseball player
• 1963 – Philip Glenister, English actor
• 1964 – Glenn Beck, American author, radio and television host
• 1964 – Victor Davis, Canadian swimmer (d. 1989)
• 1964 – Arthur Lenk, Israeli diplomat
• 1964 – Francesca Neri, Italian actress
• 1965 – Mario Jean, Quebec comedian and television actor
• 1966 – Daryl Johnston, American football player
• 1966 – Ioannis Kalitzakis, Greek footballer
• 1967 – Laura Dern, American actress
• 1967 – Jacky Durand, French cyclist
• 1967 – Ivan Francescato, Italian rugby player (d. 1999)
• 1967 – Armand Serrano, Filipino animator
• 1968 – Matthias Hamann, German footballer
• 1968 – Peter Popovic, Swedish ice hockey player
• 1968 – Garrett Reisman, American astronaut
• 1968 – Atika Suri, Indonesian television newscaster
• 1969 – Laurie Dhue, American television personality
• 1969 – Joe Mangrum, American artist
• 1970 – Alberto Castillo, Dominican baseball player
• 1970 – Melissa Doyle, Australian TV personality
• 1970 – Nobushige Kumakubo, Japanese racing driver
• 1970 – Noureddine Naybet, Moroccan footballer
• 1970 – Εsne Seierstad, Norwegian journalist
• 1971 – Louie Spicolli, American wrestler (d. 1998)
• 1971 – Lisa Marie Varon, American wrestler
• 1974 – Elizabeth Banks, American actress
• 1974 – Ty Law, American football player
• 1974 – Ivri Lider, Israeli singer
• 1974 – Tanoai Reed, American stunt performer
• 1975 – Hiroki Kuroda, Japanese baseball player
• 1975 – Kool Savas, German rapper
• 1976 – Lance Berkman, American baseball player
• 1976 – Keeley Hawes, English actress
• 1976 – Vedran Runje, Croatian footballer
• 1977 – Salif Diao, Senegalese footballer
• 1978 – Lorna Bailey, English ceramic designer
• 1978 – Don Omar, Puerto Rican singer
• 1979 – Joey Hand, American race car driver
• 1979 – Jumaine Jones, American basketball player
• 1979 – Daryl Palumbo, American musician
• 1979 – Ross Powers, American snowboarder
• 1980 – Cιsar Izturis, Venezuelan baseball player
• 1980 – Enzo Maresca, Italian footballer
• 1980 – Mike Ribeiro, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1980 – Bruno Sundov, Croatian basketball player
• 1981 – Andrew Johnson, English footballer
• 1981 – Natasha St-Pier, Canadian singer
• 1981 – Holly Willoughby, British TV presenter
• 1982 – Keith Dunne, Irish footballer
• 1982 – Justin Gatlin, American sprinter
• 1982 – Iafeta Paleaaesina, New Zealand rugby league player
• 1983 – Bless, Canadian rapper
• 1983 – Daiane dos Santos, Brazilian gymnast
• 1983 – James Ryan, New Zealand rugby player
• 1984 – Alex Gordon, American baseball player
• 1984 – Kim Hyo-jin, South Korean actress
• 1986 – Jeff Adrien, American basketball player
• 1986 – Viktor Troicki, Serbian tennis player
• 1986 – Roberto Jimιnez Gago, Spanish footballer
• 1986 – Yui Ichikawa, Japanese actress and model
• 1986 – Radamel Falcao, Colombian footballer
• 1987 – Choi Siwon, South Korean singer (Super Junior)
• 1987 – Erin Burger, South African netballer
• 1989 – Bunmi Mojekwu, British actress
• 1990 – Sooyoung (Choi Soo-young), South Korean singer (Girls' Generation)
• 1991 – Emma Roberts, American actress
• 1992 – Reinhold Yabo, German footballer
• 1994 – Makenzie Vega, American actress
• 1995 – Haruna Kawaguchi, Japanese model and actress
• 1996 – Christina Parie, Australian singer/songwriter
• 1997 – Chloλ Moretz, American actress

[edit] Deaths

• 1126 – William IX, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 1071)
• 1162 – King Baldwin III of Jerusalem (b. 1130)
• 1242 – Emperor Shijō of Japan (b. 1231)
• 1278 – Margaret II of Flanders (b. 1202)
• 1576 – Guilielmus Xylander, German classical scholar (b. 1532)
• 1645 – Dorothea Sophia, Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg (b. 1587)
• 1686 – William Dugdale, English antiquarian (b. 1605)
• 1722 – Bartholomew Roberts, Welsh pirate (b. 1682)
• 1755 – Montesquieu, French writer (b. 1689)
• 1758 – Thomas Ripley, English architect (b. 1682)
• 1782 – Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, German theologian (b. 1702)
• 1829 – Pope Leo XII (b. 1760)
• 1837 – Alexander Pushkin, Russian poet and novelist (b. 1799)
• 1857 – David Thompson, Canadian explorer (b. 1770)
• 1865 – Heinrich Lenz, German physicist (b. 1804)
• 1891 – Sofia Kovalevskaya, Russian mathematician (b. 1850)
• 1904 – John A. Roche, American politician (b. 1844)
• 1906 – Ezra Butler Eddy, Canadian businessman and politician (b. 1827)
• 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 Rφntgen, German physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1845)
• 1932 – Edgar Wallace, English novelist and screenwriter (b. 1875)
• 1939 – Pope Pius XI (b. 1857)
• 1944 – Eugθne Michel Antoniadi, Greek astronomer (b. 1870)
• 1945 – Anacleto Diaz, Filipino jurist (b. 1878)
• 1950 – Marcel Mauss, French sociologist (b. 1872)
• 1952 – Henry Drysdale Dakin, British-American biochemist (b. 1880)
• 1956 – Wilbert Coffin, Canadian prospector convicted of murder of 3 American hunters (b. 1915)
• 1957 – Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author (b. 1867)
• 1960 – Aloysius Stepinac, Croatian cardinal (b. 1898)
• 1964 – Eugen Sδnger, Austrian aerospace engineer (b. 1905)
• 1966 – Billy Rose, American composer and band leader (b. 1899)
• 1975 – Nikos Kavvadias, Greek poet and writer (b. 1910)
• 1979 – Edvard Kardelj, Yugoslav communist leader (b. 1910)
• 1984 – David Von Erich, American professional wrestler (b. 1958)
• 1985 – Johnny Mokan, baseball player (b. 1895)
• 1987 – Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi, Pakistani calligrapher and artist (b. 1930)
• 1990 – Bill Sherwood, American filmmaker/composer (b. 1952)
• 1992 – Alex Haley, American author (b. 1921)
• 1993 – Fred Hollows, New Zealand ophthalmologist (b. 1929)
• 1995 – Paul Monette, American author and gay rights activist (b. 1945)
• 1997 – Matthew Eappen of Newton Massachusetts (b. 1996)
• 2000 – Jim Varney, American actor (b. 1949)
• 2001 – Abraham Beame, American politician (b. 1906)
• 2001 – George Holmes "Buddy" Tate, American jazz saxophonist and clarinetist (b. 1913)
• 2002 – Traudl Junge, Adolf Hitler's secretary (b. 1920)
• 2002 – Dave Van Ronk, American folk singer/songwriter (b. 1936)
• 2003 – Edgar de Evia, American photographer (b. 1910)
• 2003 – Curt Hennig, American professional wrestler (b. 1959)
• 2003 – Clark MacGregor, American politician (b. 1922)
• 2003 – Al Ruffo, American politician (b. 1908)
• 2003 – Ron Ziegler, American press secretary to Richard Nixon (b. 1939)
• 2004 – Guy Provost, Quebec actor (b. 1925)
• 2005 – Arthur Miller, American playwright (b. 1915)
• 2006 – J Dilla, American rapper/producer (b. 1974)
• 2006 – Dick Harmon, American golf instructor (b. 1947)
• 2006 – Beko Ransome-Kuti, Nigerian doctor and activist (b. 1940)
• 2007 – Ned Austin, American character actor (b. 1925)
• 2007 – Jeong Da-bin, South Korean actress (b. 1980)
• 2008 – Roy Scheider, American actor (b. 1932)
• 2008 – Steve Gerber, American comics writer (b. 1947)
• 2008 – Adeline Jay Geo-Karis, American politician (b. 1918)
• 2009 – Leila Hadley, American travel writer and socialite (b. 1926)
• 2009 – Jeremy Lusk, American freestyle motocross racer (b. 1984)
• 2010 – Fred Schaus, American basketball coach and executive (b. 1925)
• 2010 – Charles Wilson, American politician (b. 1933)

[edit] Holidays and observances

• Christian Feast Day:
  • Austreberta
  • Charalampe
  • Scholastica
  • February 10 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

• Feast of St. Paul's Shipwreck (Malta)
• Fenkil Day (Eritrea)
• National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe, commemorate Italian Istrian and Dalmatian exiles and Foibe massacres (Italy, especially in Trieste)