What Happened This Day In History

Today in History
December 10

1817		Mississippi is admitted as the 20th state.
1861		Kentucky is admitted to the Confederate States of America.
1862		The U.S. House of Representatives passes a bill creating the state of West Virginia.
1869		Governor John Campbell signs the bill that grants women in Wyoming Territory the right to vote as well as hold public office.
1898		The United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Paris, ceding Spanish possessions, including the Philippines, to the United States.
1917		The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the International Red Cross.
1918		U.S. troops are called to guard Berlin as a coup is feared.
1919		Captain Ross Smith becomes the first person to fly 11,500 miles from England to Australia.
1936		Edward VIII abdicates to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, an American-born divorcee.
1941		Japanese troops invade the Philippine island of Luzon.
1941		The siege of Tobruk in North Africa is raised.
1943		Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill that postpones a draft of pre-Pearl Harbor fathers.
1943		Allied forces bomb Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.
1949		150,000 French troops mass at the border in Vietnam to prevent a Chinese invasion.
1950		Dr. Ralph J. Bunche becomes the first African-American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1977		On UN Human Rights Day, the Soviet Union places 20 prominent dissidents under house arrest, cutting off telephones and threatening to break up a planned silent demonstration in Moscow’s Pushkin Square. Soviet newspapers decry human rights violations elsewhere in the world.
1978		President of Egypt Anwar Sadat and Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1983		Democracy restored to Argentina with the assumption of Raul Alfonsin.
1989		Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announces the establishment of Mongolia’s democratic movement that changes the second oldest communist country into a democracy.
1993		The Wearmouth Colliery in Sunderland, East England, closes, marking the end of the County Durham coalfield, which had been in operation since the Middle Ages.
Born on December 10
1830		Emily Dickinson, American poet of more than 1,000 poems, seven published in her lifetime.
1851		Melvil Dewey, American librarian who created the Dewey Decimal System.
1881		Viscount Alexander of Tunis, British soldier who took his title from his part in the Allied victories in North Africa.
1891		Nelly Sachs, Nobel Prize-winning poet.
1903		Mary Norton, English children’s author (Bedknobs and Broomsticks).
1907		Rumor Godden, English novelist (Black Narcissus).
1908		Oliver Messian, French composer (Quartet for the End of Time).
1911		Chester "Chet" Huntley, American broadcast journalist.
1914		Dorothy Lamour, actress, best remembered for co-starring with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in their "Road to" movie series.
1922		Agnes Nixon, writer, producer; creator of long-running TV soap operas (One Life to Live, All My Children).
1934		Howard Martin Temin, geneticist; shared 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
1941		Chad Stuart, singer, musician; half of the Chad & Jeremy folk rock duo.
1948		Abu Abbas (Muhammad Zaidan, Muhammad Abbas), a founder of the Palestine Liberation Front; led terrorist hijacking of cruise ship Achille Lauro.
1956		Rod Blagojevich, 40th Governor of Illinois; arrested on federal charges of trying to sell the US Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama.