TODAY IN HISTORY: FEBRUARY 10

 

February 10

 

1258 – Mongol invasions: Baghdad falls to the Mongols, bringing the Islamic Golden Age to an end.

1306 – In front of the high altar of Greyfriars Church in Dumfries, Robert the Bruce murders John Comyn, sparking the revolution in the Wars of Scottish Independence.

1355 – The St Scholastica Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days.

1502 – Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on his second voyage to India.

1567 – Lord Darnley, second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, is found strangled following an explosion at the Kirk o' Field house in Edinburgh, Scotland, a suspected assassination.

1712 – Huilliches in Chiloé rebel against Spanish encomenderos.

1763 – French and Indian War: The Treaty of Paris ends the war and France cedes Quebec to Great Britain.

1814 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Champaubert ends in French victory over the Russians and the Prussians.

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 the final battle of the war.

1861 – Jefferson Davis is notified by telegraph that he has been chosen as provisional President of the Confederate States of America.

1862 – American Civil War: A Union naval flotilla destroys the bulk of the Confederate Mosquito Fleet in the Battle of Elizabeth City on the Pasquotank River in North Carolina.

1906 – HMS Dreadnought, the first of a revolutionary new breed of battleships, is christened.

1920 – Józef Haller de Hallenburg performs the symbolic wedding of Poland to the sea, celebrating restitution of Polish access to open sea.

1920 – About 75% of the population in Zone I votes to join Denmark in the 1920 Schleswig plebiscites.

1923 – Texas Tech University is founded as Texas Technological College in Lubbock, Texas.

1930 – The Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng launches the failed Yên Bái mutiny in hope of overthrowing French protectorate over Vietnam.

1933 – In round 13 of a boxing match at New York City's Madison Square Garden, Primo Carnera knocks out Ernie Schaaf. Schaaf dies four days later.

1936 – Second Italo-Abyssinian War: Italian troops launch the Battle of Amba Aradam against Ethiopian defenders.

1939 – Spanish Civil War: The Nationalists conclude their conquest of Catalonia and seal the border with France.

1940 – The Soviet Union begins mass deportations of Polish citizens from occupied eastern Poland to Siberia.

1943 – World War II: Attempting to completely lift the Siege of Leningrad, the Soviet Red Army engages German troops and Spanish volunteers in the Battle of Krasny Bor.

1947 – The Paris Peace Treaties are signed by Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Finland and the Allies of World War II.

1954 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam.

1962 – Cold War: Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.

1964 – Melbourne–Voyager collision: The aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne collides with and sinks the destroyer HMAS Voyager off the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, killing 82.

1967 – The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.

1972 – Ras Al Khaimah joins the United Arab Emirates, now making up seven emirates.

1984 – Kenyan soldiers kill an estimated 5,000 ethnic Somali Kenyans in the Wagalla massacre.

1989 – Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party.

1996 – IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov in chess for the first time.

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.

2004 – Forty-three people are killed and three are injured when a Fokker 50 crashes near Sharjah International Airport.

2009 – The communications satellites Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251 collide in orbit, destroying both.

2013 – Thirty-six people are killed and 39 others are injured in a stampede in Allahabad, India, during the Kumbh Mela festival.

2016 – South Korea decides to stop the operation of the Kaesong joint industrial complex with North Korea in response to the launch of Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4.

2018 – Nineteen people are killed and 66 injured when a Kowloon Motor Bus double decker on route 872 in Hong Kong overturns.

2021 – The traditional Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is canceled for the first time because of the COVID-19 pandemic.