Today in history

On Feb. 10, 1763,

France ceded Canada to England under the Treaty of Paris, which ended the French and Indian War.

In 1840

Britain’s Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

In 1841

Upper Canada and Lower Canada were proclaimed united under an Act of Union passed by the British Parliament.

In 1846

members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormons, began an exodus to the west from Nauvoo, Ill.

In 1927

opera diva Leontyne Price was born in Laurel, Miss.

In 1939

singer Roberta Flack was born in Black Mountain, N.C.

In 1942

the former French liner Normandie capsized in New York Harbor a day after it caught fire while being refitted for the U.S. Navy. Also in 1942 RCA Victor presented Glenn Miller and his Orchestra with a gold record, signifying more than a million copies sold, for their recording of “Chattanooga Choo Choo.”

In 1949

Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman” opened at Broadway’s Morosco Theater.

In 1962

the Soviet Union exchanged captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for Rudolph Ivanovich Abel, a Soviet spy held by the United States.

In 1967

the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, dealing with presidential disability and succession, went into effect.

In 1968

Peggy Fleming of the United States won the gold medal in women’s figure skating at the Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble, France.

In 1981

eight people were killed and 198 injured when fire broke out at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino.

In 1989

Ron Brown was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, becoming the first black to head a major U.S. political party.