TODAY IN HISTORY
Today’s highlight:
On Feb. 10, 1962, the Soviet Union exchanged captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy held by the United States.
On this date:
In 1763, Britain, Spain and France signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the Seven Years’ War (also known as the French and Indian War in North America).
In 1840, Britain’s Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-coburg and Gotha.
In 1936, Nazi Germa- ny’s Reichstag passed a law investing the Gestapo secret police with absolute author- ity, exempt from any legal review.
In 1959, a major tornado tore through the St. Louis area, killing 21 people and causing heavy damage.
In 1967, the 25th Amend- ment to the U.S. Constitution, dealing with presidential disability and succession, was ratified as Minnesota and Nevada adopted it.
In 1981, eight people were killed when a fire set by a busboy broke out at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino.
In 1989, Ron Brown was elected the first Black chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
In 1992, boxer Mike Tyson was convicted in Indianapolis of raping Desiree Wash- ington, a Miss Black Amer- ica contestant. (Tyson served three years in prison.) “Roots” author Alex Haley died in Seattle at age 70.
In 1996, world chess cham- pion Garry Kasparov lost the first game of a match in Phil- adelphia against an IBM computer dubbed “Deep Blue.” (Kasparov ended up winning the match, 4 games to 2; he was defeated by Deep Blue in a rematch the following year.)
In 2005, North Korea boasted publicly for the first time that it possessed nuclear weapons.
In 2015, NBC announced it was suspending Brian Williams as “Nightly News” anchor and managing editor for six months without pay for misleading the public about his experiences covering the Iraq War. Jon Stewart announced he would step down as host of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central later in the year.
In 2020, U.S. health officials confirmed the first case of the novel coronavirus among the hundreds of people who’d been evacuated from China to military bases in the United States; it was among the 13 confirmed cases in the U.S. Britain declared the new coronavirus a “serious and imminent threat to public health” and said people with the virus could now be forcibly quarantined.
Ten years ago: Joe Paterno’s family released its response to Penn State’s report on the Jerry Sandusky scandal, attacking Louis Freeh’s conclusion that the coach hid sex abuse allegations against his longtime assistant.
Five years ago: Israel carried out a wave of airstrikes in Syria that were ordered after Israel intercepted an Iranian drone that had infiltrated its airspace.
One year ago: The U.S. Labor Department revealed that inflation over the past year had soared at its highest rate in 40 years.