February 10

• 1258 - Mongols overrun Baghdad, burning it to the ground and killing 10,000 citizens.
• 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 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 Yugoslavia.
• 1949 - Death of a Salesman opens (Morocco Theatre 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.
• 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.
• 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 American contestant named Desiree Washington.
• 1996 - Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov for the first time.
• 1997 - The United States Army suspends Sgt. Major Gene 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.

• 1846 - Charles Beresford, British Admiral and Member of Parliament (d. 1919)
• 1890 - Boris Pasternak, poet, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1958 (d. 1960)
• 1893 - Jimmy Durante, actor, singer, comedian, vaudevillean (d. 1980)
• 1894 - Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1986)
• 1897 - John F. Enders, scientist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1954 (d. 1985)
• 1897 - Dame Judith Anderson, actress (d. 1992)
• 1898 - Bertolt Brecht, author (d. 1956)
• 1901 - Stella Adler, acting teacher (d. 1992)
• 1902 - Walter Houser Brattain, scientist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956 (d. 1987)
• 1906 - Lon Chaney Jr., actor (d. 1973)
• 1927 - Leontyne Price, lyric soprano
• 1930 - Robert Wagner, actor
• 1931 - Thomas Bernhard, author (d. 1989)
• 1932 - Branko Lustig, Croatian film producer
• 1939 - Roberta Flack, singer
• 1941 - Michael Apted, director
• 1943 - Frank-Patrick Steckel, theater director
• 1944 - Vernor Vinge, novelist
• 1947 - Louise Arbour, Jurist
• 1950 - Mark Spitz, Olympic Games swimming gold medalist
• 1955 - Greg Norman, golfer
• 1961 - George Stephanopoulos, political consultant, commentator
• 1962 - Cliff Burton, musician
• 1962 - Bobby Czyz, boxer
• 1967 - Laura Dern, actress
• 1979 - Ross Powers, American Olympic Games gold medalist for snowboarding

• 1126 - William IX, Duke of Aquitaine and vernacular poet (b.1071)
• 1278 - Margaret II, countess of Flanders
• 1829 - Pope Leo XII (b. 1760)
• 1923 - Wilhelm Röntgen, discover of X-Rays (b. 1845)
• 1939 - Pope Pius XI (b. 1857)
• 1957 - Laura Ingalls Wilder, author (b. 1867)
• 1964 - Eugen Sänger, Austrian aerospace engineer (b. 1905)
• 1966 - Billy Rose, composer, band leader (b. 1899)
• 1992 - Alex Haley, author (b. 1921)

• Catholicism - World Marriage Day.