January 10

Events

• 49 BC - Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon which signalled civil war.
• 1072 - Robert Guiscard conquers Palermo.
• 1776 - Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense.
• 1806 - Dutch in Cape Town surrender to the British.
• 1810 - Marriage of Napoleon and Josephine is annulled.
• 1861 - Florida secedes from the United States.
• 1863 - The first section of the London Underground Railway opens (Paddington to Farringdon Street).
• 1870 - John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.
• 1901 - The first great Texas gusher, oil discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas.
• 1920 - League of Nations holds its first meeting and ratifies the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I.
• 1922 - Arthur Griffith is elected President of the Irish Free State.
• 1923 - Lithuania seizes and annexes Memel.
• 1927 - The film Metropolis by Fritz Lang premiers.
• 1929 - Tintin, a comic book character created by Hergé, makes his debut. He went on to be published in over 200 million comic books in 40 languages.
• 1941 - Lend-Lease is introduced into the U.S. Congress.
• 1946 - First General Assembly of the United Nations opens in London. 51 nations are represented.
• 1957 - Harold Macmillan becomes the prime minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1969 - After 147 years, the last issue of the Saturday Evening Post is published.
• 1971 - Masterpiece Theatre debuts on PBS.
• 1984 - The United States and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations.
• 1989 - Cuban troops begin withdrawing from Angola.
• 1990 - Time Warner is formed from the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc.
• 1994 - Lorena Bobbitt goes on trial for severing the penis of her husband John (Manassas, Virginia).
• 2000 - America Online announces an agreement to buy Time Warner for $162 billion, the largest corporate merger in history.
• 2001 - Wikipedia starts as part of Nupedia. It becomes a separate site five days later.
  

  Births

• 1480 - Margaret of Austria, A Hapsburg Princess (d. 1530)
• 1769 - Michel Ney, French marshal (d. 1815)
• 1843 - Frank James, American outlaw (d. 1915)
• 1849 - Francisco Ferrer Guardia, Spanish free-thinker (d. 1909)
• 1858 - Heinrich Zille, German illustrator and photographer (d. 1929)
• 1873 - George Orton, Canadian athlete (d. 1958)
• 1883 - Francis X. Bushman, American actor (d. 1966)
• 1883 - Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoi, writer (d. 1945)
• 1887 - Robinson Jeffers, American poet (d. 1962)
• 1899 - Axel Eggelbrecht, journalist (d. 1991)
• 1904 - Ray Bolger, American actor, singer, dancer (d. 1987)
• 1908 - Bernard Lee, British actor (d. 1981)
• 1908 - Paul Henreid, Austrian actor (d. 1993)
• 1913 - Gustáv Husák, Czechoslovak president (d. 1991)
• 1913 - Mehmet Shehu, Albanian politician (d. 1981)
• 1917 - Jerry Wexler, American record producer
• 1917 - Hilde Krahl, actress (d. 1999)
• 1920 - Max Patkin, the "Clown Prince of Baseball" (d. 1999)
• 1921 - Rodger Ward, American auto racer, two-time Indianapolis 500 winner (d. 2004)
• 1923 - Benson Skoff, clergyman
• 1923 - Ingeborg Drewitz, writer (d. 1986)
• 1925 - Max Roach, drummer, composer
• 1927 - Gisele MacKenzie, Canadian singer (d. 2003)
• 1927 - Johnnie Ray, American singer (d. 1990)
• 1927 - Otto Stich, Swiss politician
• 1930 - Roy Edward Disney, American film executive
• 1931 - Viktor Liebermann, violinist (d. 1999)
• 1934 - Leonid Kravchuk, Ukrainian politician
• 1935 - Sherrill Milnes, American baritone
• 1935 - Eddy Clearwater, blues musician
• 1936 - Stephen Ambrose, American historian (d. 2002)
• 1936 - Robert Wilson, American physicist, radio astronomer
• 1937 - Thomas Penfield Jackson, American judge
• 1938 - Donald Knuth, American mathematician, computer scientist
• 1938 - Willie McCovey, American Baseball Hall of Famer
• 1939 - Bill Toomey, American track and field athlete
• 1939 - (possibly) Scott McKenzie, American singer
• 1939 - Sal Mineo, American actor (d. 1976)
• 1939 - William Levy, Writer
• 1943 - Jim Croce, American singer (d. 1973)
• 1944 - Frank Sinatra, Jr, American singer
• 1945 - Rod Stewart, English singer
• 1945 - Spider Sabich, American skier (d. 1975)
• 1948 - Donald Fagen, American keyboardist
• 1948 - Teresa Graves, American actress, singer (d. 2002)
• 1948 - William Sanderson, American actor
• 1949 - George Foreman, boxer
• 1949 - James Lapine, American stage director
• 1949 - Linda Lovelace, pornographic film actress (d. 2002)
• 1953 - Pat Benatar, American singer
• 1953 - Bobby Rahal, American automobile racer
• 1955 - Michael Schenker, German guitar player of UFO and solo career
• 1956 - Shawn Colvin, singer
• 1961 - Evan Handler, American actor
• 1964 - Brad Roberts, Canadian singer
• 1973 - Ryan Drummond, voice actor, comedian, radio host at seaworld
• 1975 - Jake Delhomme, American football quarterback, Carolina Panthers
• 1982 - Josh Ryan Evans, American actor (d. 2004)
  

  Deaths

• 681 - Pope Agatho
• 1276 - Pope Gregory X
• 1645 - William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1573)
• 1778 - Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist (b. 1707)
• 1862 - Samuel Colt, American inventor (b. 1814)
• 1917 - William F. Cody, American frontiersman (b. 1846)
• 1934 - Marinus van der Lubbe, Dutch communist, accused of Reichstag fire (b. 1909)
• 1941 - Joe Penner, comedian, actor
• 1951 - Sinclair Lewis, American writer (b. 1885)
• 1957 - Gabriela Mistral, Chilean poet (b. 1889)
• 1961 - Dashiell Hammett, American writer (b. 1894)
• 1970 - Pavel Belyayev, cosmonaut (b. 1925)
• 1971 - Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, French fashion designer (b. 1883)
• 1976 - Howlin' Wolf, American musician (b. 1910)
• 1978 - Pedro Chamorro, Nicaraguan journalist
• 1980 - George Meany, American labor leader (b. 1894)
• 1981 - Katherine Alexander, American actress (b. 1898)
• 1981 - Richard Boone, American actor (b. 1917)
• 1981 - Fawn M. Brodie, American historian (b. 1915)
• 1982 - Paul Lynde, comedian
• 1987 - Sir David Robinson, British philanthropist and entrepreneur (b. 1904)
• 1997 - Sheldon Leonard, American producer, actor, director
• 1997 - Elspeth Huxley, journalist, writer
• 2000 - Sam Jaffe, American producer (b. 1901)
• 2004 - Spalding Gray, American actor, screenwriter, and monologue artist (b. 1941)
• 2004 - Alexandra Ripley, author
• 2005 - Gene Baylos, comedian
• 2005 - Margherita Carosio, Italian soprano (b. 1908)
• 2005 - James Forman, American Civil Rights leader (b. 1928)
• 2005 - Erwin Hillier, British cinematographer (b. 1911)
• 2005 - Gordon John "Jack" Horner, sports journalist
• 2005 - Joséphine-Charlotte, Grandduchess of Luxembourg (b. 1927)
  

  Holidays and observances

  External links

• BBC: On This Day