February 10
Today in America's Present Past
1676 | Indian Wars: During “King Phillip’s War,” Wampanoag and Narragansett Indians kill 30 colonists in Lancaster, Massachusetts.
1763 | The Treaty of Paris concludes the French-Indian War, with France surrendering Canada to England. This ended the Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War). It fundamentally reshaped North America, as France ceded almost all its territory east of the Mississippi to Britain, setting the stage for the American Revolution by removing the French threat and increasing British colonial debt.
1807 | Congress: A U.S. coastline survey was authorized. President Thomas Jefferson signed the act to provide for surveying the coasts of the United States. This led to the creation of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the nation’s oldest scientific agency.
1807 | General Abner Clark Harding was born.
1855 | Congress: Citizenship laws amended. This was a landmark piece of legislation. It established that children born abroad to U.S. citizen fathers (and later amended for mothers) were considered citizens at birth, a concept known as jus sanguinis.
1858 | POTUS: President Millard Fillmore weds Caroline Carmichael.
1863 | Alanson Crane patents the fire extinguisher.
1870 | The Young Woman’s Christian Association forms in New York City, New York.
1890 | Indian Wars: Sioux Indians ceded 11 million racers to the U.S. for settlement. This was part of the ongoing breakup of the “Great Sioux Reservation” following the Sioux Act of 1889. The 11 million acres opened to settlement further fragmented tribal lands and led directly to the tensions that culminated in Wounded Knee later that year.
1892 | Actor Alan Hale, Sr. was born.
1893 | Actor Jimmy Durante was born.
1897 | The New York Times begins using the tagline “All the News That’s Fit to Print.”
1897 | Microbiologist John Franklin Enders was born.
1899 | POTUS: President Herbert Hoover weds Lou Henry.
1930 | Actor Robert Wagner was born in Detroit, Michigan.
1942 | James Franklin Hyde patients fused silica.
1946 | Outlaw Charles “Lucky” Luciano was deported.
1946 | Jackie Robinson weds Rachel Isum.
1950 | Olympian Mark Spitz was born.
1954 | POTUS: Republican President Eisenhower warns against U.S. engagement in Vietnam. During a press conference, Eisenhower warned that he could not conceive of a greater tragedy than for the United States to become involved in an all-out war in Indochina.
1957 | Author Laura Ingalls Wilder died.
1962 | The US and USSR swap “spies” Francis Gary Power and Rudolph Abel. This was a quintessential Cold War moment on the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin. 1964 | Journalist Glenn Beck was born.
1967 | The 25th Amendment was ratified. This amendment clarified the line of succession for the presidency and established the procedure for filling a vacancy in the office of the Vice President and for responding to presidential disability.
1992 | Author Alex Haley died.
1995 | Author Paul Monette died.
1996 | An IBM supercomputer defeated the reigning World Chess Champion in a game for the first time, a major milestone in the history of artificial intelligence.
2005 | Author Arthur Miller died.
2007 | Entrepreneur Charles Rudolph Walgreen died.
2008 | Actor Roy Scheider died.
2010 | Political Charles Wilson died.
2014 | Actress Shirley Temple died.
2017 | Entrepreneur Mike Ilitch died.
2021 | Publisher Larry Flynt died.