10 February History
- 1258 - Huegu, a Mongol leader, seizes Baghdad, bringing and end to the Abbasid caliphate.
- 1620 - Supporters of Marie de Medici, the queen mother, who has been exiled to Blois, are defeated by the king's troops at Ponts de Ce, France.
- 1763 - The Treaty of Paris ends the French-Indian War. France gives up all her territories in the New World except New Orleans and a few scattered islands.
- 1799 - Napoleon Bonaparte leaves Cairo, Egypt, for Syria, at the head of 13,000 men.
- 1814 - Napoleon personally directs lightning strikes against enemy columns advancing toward Paris, beginning with a victory over the Russians at Champaubert.
- 1840 - Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert.
- 1846 - Led by religious leader Brigham Young, the first Mormons begin a long westward exodus from Nauvoo, Il., to Utah.
- 1863 - P.T. Barnum's star midgets, Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren, are married.
- 1904 - Russia and Japan declare war on each other.
- 1915 - President Wilson blasts the British for using the U.S. flag on merchant ships to deceive the Germans.
- 1939 - Japanese occupy island of Hainan in French Indochina.
- 1941 - London severs diplomatic relations with Romania.
- 1941 - Iceland is attacked by German planes.
- 1942 - The war halts civilian car production at Ford.
- 1945 - B-29s hit the Tokyo area.
- 1955 - Bell Aircraft displays a fixed-wing vertical takeoff plane.
- 1960 - Adolph Coors, the beer brewer, is kidnapped in Golden, Colo.
- 1966 - Protester David Miller is convicted of burning his draft card.
- 1979 - The Metropolitan Museum announces the first major theft in 110-year history, $150,000 Greek marble head.
- 1986 - The largest Mafia trial in history, with 474 defendants, opens in Palermo, Italy.
10 February Birthdays
- 1890 - Boris Pasternak, Russian novelist and poet (Dr. Zhivago).
- 1893 - Jimmy Durante, American comedian and film actor.
- 1894 - Harold MacMillan, British prime minister (1957-1963).
- 1897 - John F. Enders, virologist.
- 1898 - Bertolt Brecht, German poet and dramatist (The Threepenny Opera).
- 1901 - Stella Adler, actress and teacher.
- 1902 - Walter Brattain, physicist, one of the inventors of the transistor.
- 1910 - Dominique Georges Pire, Belgian cleric and educator.
- 1914 - Larry Adler, harmonica virtuoso.
- 1920 - Alex Comfort, English physician and author (Joy of Sex).
- 1927 - (Mary Violet) Leontyne Price, opera singer.