Calendar for February 10th, 2010

2001: Islamic New Year

2001: Quinquagesima

1720: Edmond Halley became second Astronomer Royal of England

1763: France ceded Canada to England at the Treaty of Paris, ending the French and Indian War

1840: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom married Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha

1841: Act of Union merged Upper and Lower Canada

1846: The Mormon exodus to the American West began

1863: Alanson Crane patented a fire extinguisher system

1863: Showman P. T. Barnum staged the wedding of General Tom Thumb and Mercy Lavinia Warren (both little people) in New York. They had to stand on a piano to greet their guests.

1883: Ontario's first free public library opened, in Guelph

Born 1890: Boris Pasternak (poet)

Born 1892: Alan Hale (actor)

Born 1893: Jimmy Durante (comedian)

Born 1893: Bill Tilden, Jr. (tennis player)

Born 1897: John F. Enders (scientist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1954)

Born 1898: Bertolt Brecht (dramatist)

Born 1906: Lon Chaney, Jr. (actor)

1916: German government informed the U.S. that after March 1, 1916, armed merchantmen would be treated as warships and attacked without warning (WW I)

Born 1927: Leontyne Price (opera singer)

Born 1930: Robert Wagner, Jr. (actor)

1931: New Delhi became the capital of India

1933: The New York City-based Postal Telegraph Company introduced the first singing telegram

Born 1939: Roberta Flack (singer)

1942: The first gold record was awarded for sales of over one million copies. It was Glenn Miller's "Chattanooga Choo Choo" on RCA

1949: Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman premiered in NY

Born 1950: Mark Spitz (Olympic gold medal swimmer)

Born 1955: Greg Norman (golfer)

1956: Elvis Presley made his first recording in Nashville-- "Heartbreak Hotel" was the A side, "I Was The One" was the B-side

Born 1961: George Stephanopoulos (political consultant & commentator)

1962: Soviets released U.S. U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers in Berlin in exchange for convicted Soviet agent Rudolf Abel

Died 1966: Billy Rose (composer & bandleader)

Born 1967: Laura Dern (actress)

1967: The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, providing a contingency plan for presidential succession

1968: Peggy Fleming won an Olympic Gold medal in figure skating

1970: Arab terrorists killed 1 Israeli and wounded 11 others in an attack at the Munich, West Germany, airport

1982: 28 skiers performed backflips while holding hands, Bromont Québec

Born 1991: Emma Roberts (actress)

1992: Bonnie Blair became the first U.S. medal winner at the Winter Olympics in Albertville in the women's 500-meter speed skating. Also the first woman in Olympic history to win consecutive Winter Olympic gold medals

Died 1992: Alex Haley (author)

Born 1994: Makenzie Vega (actress)

1996: Garry Kasparov began chess match against computer "Deep Blue"

Died 2000: Jim Varney (actor)

Died 2002: Retired Lt. Gen. Vernon Walters (ambassador to the UN and Germany)

2003: Brett Hull scored his 700th NHL goal

Died 2005: Arthur Miller (playwright)

Died 2008: Roy Scheider (actor)

2011: Ray Allen of the Boston Celtics sank his 2,561st 3-pointer, breaking the NBA record set by Reggie Miller