Today in History

Today is Friday, Feb. 10, the 41st day of 2023. There are 324 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Feb. 10, 1962, the Soviet Union exchanged captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy held by the United States.

On this date:

In 1763, Britain, Spain and France signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the Seven Years’ War (also known as the French and Indian War in North America).

In 1840, Britain’s Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg (KOH’-borg) and Gotha (GAH’-thuh).

In 1936, Nazi Germany’s Reichstag passed a law investing the Gestapo secret police with absolute authority, exempt from any legal review.

In 1959, a major tornado tore through the St. Louis area, killing 21 people and causing heavy damage.

In 1967, the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, dealing with presidential disability and succession, was ratified as Minnesota and Nevada adopted it.

In 1981, eight people were killed when a fire set by a busboy broke out at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino.

In 1989, Ron Brown was elected the first Black chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

In 1992, boxer Mike Tyson was convicted in Indianapolis of raping Desiree Washington, a Miss Black America contestant. (Tyson served three years in prison.) “Roots” author Alex Haley died in Seattle at age 70.

In 1996, world chess champion Garry Kasparov lost the first game of a match in Philadelphia against an IBM computer dubbed “Deep Blue.” (Kasparov ended up winning the match, 4 games to 2; he was defeated by Deep Blue in a rematch the following year.)

In 2005, North Korea boasted publicly for the first time that it possessed nuclear weapons.

In 2015, NBC announced it was suspending Brian Williams as “Nightly News” anchor and managing editor for six months without pay for misleading the public about his experiences covering the Iraq War. Jon Stewart announced he would step down as host of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central later in the year.

In 2020, U.S. health officials confirmed the first case of the novel coronavirus among the hundreds of people who’d been evacuated from China to military bases in the United States; it was among the 13 confirmed cases in the U.S. Britain declared the new coronavirus a “serious and imminent threat to public health” and said people with the virus could now be forcibly quarantined.

Ten years ago: Joe Paterno’s family released its response to Penn State’s report on the Jerry Sandusky scandal, attacking Louis Freeh’s conclusion that the coach hid sex abuse allegations against his longtime assistant. Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford took charge of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. At the Grammy Awards, Fun. won song of the year for “We Are Young”; Gotye’s “Somebody I Used to Know” picked up record of the year.

Five years ago: Israel carried out a wave of airstrikes in Syria that were ordered after Israel intercepted an Iranian drone that had infiltrated its airspace; it was the most serious Israeli engagement in Syria since the war erupted there almost seven years earlier. In a tweet that appeared to take aim at the rising #MeToo movement, President Donald Trump wrote that “lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation;” the tweet came in the aftermath of the resignation of a pivotal aide, Rob Porter, who’d been accused of abusing two ex-wives. The Korean women’s hockey team, the first in Olympic history to combine players from the North and South, lost its debut game, 8-0, to Switzerland before a cheering, chanting sellout crowd at the Winter Olympics in South Korea.

One year ago: The U.S. Labor Department revealed that inflation over the past year had soared at its highest rate in forty years. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the Ukraine crisis has grown into “the most dangerous moment” for Europe in decades, while his top diplomat held icy talks with her Moscow counterpart who said the Kremlin wouldn’t accept lectures from the West.

Today’s birthdays: Opera singer Leontyne Price is 96. Actor Robert Wagner is 93. Singer Roberta Flack is 86. Singer Jimmy Merchant (Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers) is 83. Rock musician Bob Spalding (The Ventures) is 76. Olympic gold-medal swimmer Mark Spitz is 73. Walt Disney Co. executive Robert Iger is 72. Rock musician and composer Cory Lerios (Pablo Cruise) is 72. World Golf Hall of Famer Greg Norman is 68. Actor Kathleen Beller is 67. Country singer Lionel Cartwright is 63. Movie director Alexander Payne is 62. ABC News correspondent George Stephanopoulos is 62. Political commentator Glenn Beck is 59. Actor Laura Dern is 56. Writer-producer-director Vince Gilligan (TV: “Breaking Bad”) is 56. Country singer Dude Mowrey is 51. Actor Jason Olive is 51. Actor Elizabeth Banks is 49. Actor Julia Pace Mitchell is 45. Reggaeton singer Don Omar is 45. Actor Uzo Aduba is 42. Actor Stephanie Beatriz is 42. Actor Max Brown is 42. Actor Barry Sloane is 42. Rock singer Eric Dill is 41. Actor Trevante Rhodes is 33. Actor Emma Roberts is 32. Actor Makenzie Vega is 29. Actor Chloe Grace Moretz is 26. Actor Yara Shahidi is 23.

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