On this day, April 10

1845 A Downtown fire that started in the back of an icehouse at Ferry Street and Second Avenue destroyed 982 buildings, made about 12,000 people homeless, resulted in damage estimated between $5 million and $8 million and left one-third of the city in ashes.

1947 Brooklyn Dodgers President Branch Rickey purchased the contract of Jackie Robinson from the Montreal Royals.

1974 Golda Meir told party leaders she was resigning as prime minister of Israel.

1995 The Pittsburgh Symphony appointed Mariss Jansons as music director to succeed Lorin Maazel. Some items are from Stefan Lorant’s “Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City” (digital.library.pitt.edu/chronology).

— Compiled by Rick Nowlin

Today’s birthdays: Actor Max von Sydow, 86. Actor Omar Sharif, 83. Sportscaster John Madden, 79. Actor Steven Seagal, 64.

Thought for today: “Work is something you can count on, a trusted, lifelong friend who never deserts you.” — Margaret Bourke-White, American

photojournalist (1904-1971)