Today in History
Today is Ash Wednesday, Feb. 10, the 41st day of 2016. There are 325
days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Feb. 10, 1996,
world chess champion Garry Kasparov lost the first game of a match in
Philadelphia 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.) 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 Germany's Reichstag passed a law investing the
Gestapo secret police with absolute authority exempt from any legal
review. In 1949, Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman" opened at
Broadway's Morosco Theater with Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman. In 1959, a
major tornado tore through the St. Louis area, killing 21 people and
causing heavy damage. In 1962, the Soviet Union exchanged captured
American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy
held by the United States. Republican George W. Romney announced his
ultimately successful candidacy for governor of Michigan. In 1966, the
Jacqueline Susann novel "Valley of the Dolls" was published by Bernard
Geis Associates. In 1967, the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,
dealing with presidential disability and succession, was ratified as
Minnesota and Nevada adopted it. In 1968, U.S. figure skater Peggy
Fleming won America's only gold medal of the Winter Olympic Games in
Grenoble, France. In 1981, eight people were killed when a fire set by
a busboy broke out at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino. In 1998, Dr.
David Satcher was confirmed by the Senate to be surgeon general. In
2005, playwright Arthur Miller died in Roxbury, Connecticut, at age 89
on the 56th anniversary of the Broadway opening of "Death of a
Salesman. Ten years ago: Former federal disaster chief Michael Brown
told a Senate committee he had alerted the White House to how bad
things were in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and agreed with senators
who said he'd been made a scapegoat for government failures. The Winter
Olympics opened in Turin, Italy, with cross-country skier and gold
medalist Stefania Belmondo lighting the caldron. Dr. Norman Shumway,
who performed the first successful U.S. heart transplant, died in Palo
Alto, California, at age 83. Five years ago: Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak refused to step down or leave the country and instead handed
his powers to his vice president, stunning protesters in central Cairo
who waved their shoes in contempt and shouted, "Leave, leave, leave.
(Mubarak resigned the next day.) One year ago: The parents of Kayla
Jean Mueller and U.S. officials confirmed the death of the 26-year-old
aid worker who had been held captive by the Islamic State group (IS
said Mueller had been killed in a Jordanian airstrike). Three Muslim
college students were shot to death at a condominium complex near the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; a neighbor, Craig Stephen
Hicks, is charged with murder. 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. Today's Birthdays:
Cinematographer Douglas Slocombe is 103. Opera singer Leontyne Price is
89. Actor Robert Wagner is 86. Rock musician Don Wilson (The Ventures)
is 83. Singer Roberta Flack is 79. Singer Jimmy Merchant (Frankie Lymon
and the Teenagers) is 76. Rock musician Bob Spalding (The Ventures) is
69. Olympic gold-medal swimmer Mark Spitz is 66. Walt Disney Co.
chairman and chief executive Robert Iger is 65. Rock musician and
composer Cory Lerios (Pablo Cruise) is 65. World Golf Hall of Famer
Greg Norman is 61. Actress Kathleen Beller is 60. Country singer Lionel
Cartwright is 56. Movie director Alexander Payne is 55. ABC News
correspondent George Stephanopoulos is 55. Retired MLB All-Star Lenny
Dykstra is 53. Political commentator Glenn Beck is 52. Actress Laura
Dern is 49. Country singer Dude Mowrey is 44. Actor Jason Olive is 44.
Actress Elizabeth Banks is 42. Pop singer Rosanna Taverez (Eden's
Crush) is 39. Actress Julia Pace Mitchell is 38. Reggaeton singer Don
Omar is 38. Country musician Jeremy Baxter (Carolina Rain) is 36.
Actress Uzo Aduba is 35. Actor Max Brown is 35. Actor Barry Sloane is
35. Rock singer Eric Dill is 34. Rock musician Ben Romans (The Click
Five) is 34. Actress Emma Roberts is 25. Actress Makenzie Vega is 22.
Actress Chloe Grace Moretz is 19. Actress Yara Shahidi is 16. Thought
for Today: "People, even more than things, have to be restored,
renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.
Audrey Hepburn, Belgian-born British actress (1929-1993).
