February 10
February 10 is the 41st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 324 days remain until the end of the year (325 in leap years).
Events
- 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).
- 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 invaded Rome, on February 15 proclaimed a Roman Republic and then on February 20 take Pope Pius VI as a 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
- 1863 - The world-famous dwarfs General Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren get married in New York City.
- 1870 - The YWCA is founded (New York City).
- 1897 - Freedom of religion in Madagascar
- 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 was founded as Texas Technilogical College in Lubbock, TX.
- 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.
- 1940 - The first Tom and Jerry cartoon "Puss Gets the Boot" premiers.
- 1947 - Italy cedes most of Venezia Giulia to Yugoslavia.
- 1949 - Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman premiered 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.
- 1964 - 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 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 - 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 that 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 - FBI invades the houses of pro-independence members in Puerto Rico and attacks media members reporting the event.
- 2007-Super Smash Brothers Brawl comes out
Births
- 1499 - Thomas Platter, Swiss humanist (d. 1582)
- 1524 - Albrecht Giese, German politician and diplomat (d. 1580)
- 1609 - John Suckling, English poet (d. 1642)
- 1685 - Aaron Hill, English writer (d. 1750)
- 1775 - Charles Lamb, English essayist (d. 1834)
- 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)
- 1846 - Ira Remsen, American chemist (d. 1927)
- 1859 - Alexandre Millerand, French President (d. 1943)
- 1890 - Boris Pasternak, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1960)
- 1892 - Alan Hale Sr., American actor (d. 1950)
- 1893 - Jimmy Durante, American actor/comedian (d. 1980)
- 1893 - Bill Tilden, American tennis player (d. 1953)
- 1894 - Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1986)
- 1897 - Judith Anderson, Australian actress (d. 1992)
- 1897 - John Franklin Enders, 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, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1987)
- 1903 - Matthias Sindelar, Austrian footballer (d. 1939)
- 1903 - Waldemar Hoven, German physician (d. 1948)
- 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, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1969)
- 1914 - Larry Adler, American musician (d. 2001)
- 1920 - Alex Comfort, physician and writer (d. 2000)
- 1924 - Bud Poile, National Hockey League player, coach, manager and executive (d. 2005)
- 1926 - Danny Blanchflower, Northern Irish footballer (d. 1993)
- 1927 - Leontyne Price, American soprano
- 1927 - Brian Priestman, British conductor
- 1929 - Jerry Goldsmith, American composer (d. 2004)
- 1930 - Robert Wagner, American actor
- 1931 - Thomas Bernhard, Austrian author (d. 1989)
- 1933 - Richard Schickel, American film critic
- 1934 - Fleur Adcock, New Zealand poet
- 1935 - John Alcorn (artist), American designer and illustrator (d. 1992)
- 1937 - Roberta Flack, American singer
- 1939 - Adrienne Clarkson, 26th Governor General of Canada
- 1940 - Mary Rand, British athlete
- 1941 - Michael Apted, British director
- 1944 - Peter Allen, Australian singer and actor (d. 1992)
- 1944 - Rufus Reid, American musician
- 1944 - Frank Keating, American politician
- 1944 - Vernor Vinge, American novelist
- 1947 - Louise Arbour, Canadian judge
- 1947 - Nicholas Owen, English newsreader
- 1948 - Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexican politician (d. 1994)
- 1949 - Maxime Le Forestier, French singer
- 1949 - Nigel Olsson, drummer
- 1949 - Harold Sylvester, American actor
- 1949 - Jim Corcoran, Quebec singer and songwriter
- 1950 - Mark Spitz, American swimmer
- 1951 - Roxanne Pulitzer, American model
- 1951 - Robert Iger, President/CEO of The Walt Disney Company
- 1952 - Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore
- 1954 - Larry McWilliams, baseball player
- 1955 - Chris Adams, pro wrestler and judoka (d. 2001)
- 1955 - Jim Cramer, American television personality
- 1955 - Greg Norman, Australian golfer
- 1958 - Michael Weiss, American musician
- 1959 - Dennis Gentry, American football player
- 1960 - Robert Addie, British actor (d. 2003)
- 1961 - Alexander Payne, American film director
- 1961 - George Stephanopoulos, Canadian political commentator
- 1962 - Cliff Burton, American musician (d. 1986)
- 1962 - Bobby Czyz, American boxer
- 1963 - Lenny Dykstra, baseball player
- 1964 - Glenn Beck, radio and television host
- 1964 - Victor Davis, Canadian Olympic swimmer (d. 1989)
- 1964 - Arthur Lenk, Israeli diplomat
- 1964 - Francesca Neri, Italian actress
- 1965 - Mario Jean, Quebec stand up comedian and television actor
- 1967 - Jacky Durand, French cyclist
- 1967 - Laura Dern, American actress
- 1968 - Atika Suri, Indonesian television newscaster
- 1969 - Joe Mangrum, American artist
- 1970 - Alberto Castillo, Dominican baseball player
- 1970 - Nobushige Kumakubo, Japanese racing driver
- 1970 - Noureddine Naybet, Moroccan footballer
- 1970 - Myrea Pettit, British illustrator
- 1970 - Åsne Seierstad, Norwegian journalist
- 1971 - Lisa Marie Varon, American professional wrestler
- 1971 - Louie Spicolli, American wrestler (d. 1998)
- 1974 - Ty Law, American football player
- 1975 - Amber Frey, American witness
- 1975 - Kool Savas, German rapper
- 1976 - Lance Berkman, baseball player
- 1976 - Kev Brown, American rapper/producer
- 1977 - Salif Diao, Senegalese footballer
- 1978 - Lorna Bailey, English ceramic designer
- 1978 - Don Omar, Puerto Rican singer
- 1979 - Daryl Palumbo, American musician
- 1979 - Ross Powers, American snowboarder
- 1980 - César Izturis, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1980 - Steve Tully, English footballer
- 1980 - Mike Ribeiro, National Hockey League player
- 1981 - Natasha St-Pier, Canadian singer
- 1981 - The Reverend Tholomew Plague, American musician Avenged Sevenfold
- 1981 - Andrew Johnson, English footballer
- 1982 - Justin Gatlin, American sprinter
- 1982 - Iafeta Paleaaesina, New Zealand rugby league player
- 1982 - Keith Dunne, Irish footballer
- 1982 - The Reverend Eric Forney, American artist/philosopher
- 1984 - Kim Hyo-jin, South Korean actress
- 1985 - Anette Sagen, Norwegian ski jumper
- 1987 - Choi Si Won, actor/singer, member of Korean boyband Super Junior
- 1991 - Emma Roberts, American actress
- 1994 - Makenzie Vega, American actress
- 1997 - Chloe Moretz, American actress
Deaths
- 1126 - William IX, Duke of Aquitaine, poet (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)
- 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
- 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)
- 1891 - Sofia Kovalevskaya, Russian mathematician (b. 1850)
- 1904 - John A. Roche, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1844)
- 1906 - Ezra Butler Eddy, Canadian businessman (E.B. Eddy Company) 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 Röntgen, German physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1845)
- 1932 - Edgar Wallace, English novelist and screenwriter (b. 1875)
- 1939 - Pope Pius XI (b. 1857)
- 1944 - Eugène Michel Antoniadi, Greek astronomer, a crater on Mars and the Antoniadi crater on the Moon were named in his honor (b. 1870)
- 1950 - Marcel Mauss, French sociologist (b. 1872)
- 1952 - Henry Drysdale Dakin, British-American biochemist, known for the Dakin-West reaction (b. 1880)
- 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)
- 1975 - Nikos Kavvadias, Greek poet and writer (b. 1910)
- 1984 - David Von Erich, professional wrestler (b. 1958)
- 1985 - Johnny Mokan, baseball player (b. 1895)
- 1987 - Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi, Pakistani painter, calligrapher and artist (b. 1930)
- 1992 - Alex Haley, American author (b. 1921)
- 1993 - Fred Hollows, New Zealand ophthalmologist (b. 1929)
- 1997 - Matthew Eappen of Newton Massachussetts (b. 1996)
- 2000 - Jim Varney, American actor (b. 1949)
- 2001 - Abraham Beame, Mayor of New York City (b. 1906)
- 2001 - George Holmes 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, United States Congressman from Minnesota (b. 1922)
- 2003 - Al Ruffo, Mayor of San Jose, California (b. 1908)
- 2003 - Ron Ziegler, 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)
- 2007 - Jung Da Bin, South Korean actress (b. 1980)
- 2007 - Ned Austin, American character actor (b. 1925)
Holidays and observances
- Italy - National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe to commemorate Italian Istrian and Dalmatian exiles and Foibe massacres.
Liturgical feasts
- Saint Scholastica
- St. Paul's shipwreck day; birth of Catholicism in Malta
- Saint Silvanus
- Saint Charalampe
- Saint Austreberta
- Blessed Arnaud
- Blessed Hugo
- February 10 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)