Today in History for Feb. 10, 2013

Today is Sunday, Feb. 10, the 41st day of 2013. There are 324 days left in the year. This is the Chinese New Year of the Snake.

Today’s Highlight:

On Feb. 10, 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).

On this date:

In 1840, Britain’s Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

In 1841, Upper Canada and Lower Canada were proclaimed united under an Act of Union passed by the British Parliament.

In 1863, showman P.T. Barnum staged the wedding of General Tom Thumb and Mercy Lavinia Warren – both little people – in New York City.

In 1933, the first singing telegram was introduced by the Postal Telegram Co. in New York.

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. RCA Victor presented Glenn Miller and his Orchestra with a “gold record” for their recording of “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” which had sold more than 1 million copies.

In 1949, Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman” opened at Broadway’s Morosco Theater with Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman.

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 1967, the 25th Amendment to the 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, Conn., at age 89 on the 56th anniversary of the Broadway opening of his “Death of a Salesman.”

Ten years ago: At a NATO meeting in Brussels, France, Germany and Belgium jointly vetoed a U.S.-backed measure to authorize the alliance to make plans to protect Turkey if Iraq attacked it. Iraq agreed to allow U-2 surveillance flights over its territory, meeting a key demand by U.N. inspectors searching for banned weapons; President George W. Bush, however, brushed aside Iraqi concessions as too little, too late. A Chinese court convicted U.S.-based dissident Wang Bingzhang on spying and terrorism charges and sentenced him to life in prison. President Richard Nixon’s press secretary, Ron Ziegler, died in Coronado at age 63. Former Minnesota Congressman Clark MacGregor, who’d led the Nixon re-election campaign in 1972, died in Pompano Beach, Fla., at age 80.

Five years ago: Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton replaced campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle with longtime aide Maggie Williams. Barack Obama defeated Clinton in the Maine Democratic presidential caucuses. British journalist Richard Butler and his Iraqi interpreter were kidnapped in Iraq (both were later released). An arson fire destroyed a 610-year-old wooden city gate in Seoul, South Korea. The NFC defeated the AFC 42-30 in the Pro Bowl. Amy Winehouse won five Grammys, appearing via satellite from London. Death claimed actor Roy Scheider, 75, in Little Rock, Ark.; lounge rocker Freddie Bell, 76, and “Howard the Duck” creator Steve Gerber, 60, in Las Vegas; and “Married with Children” co-creator Ron Leavitt, 60, in Los Angeles.

One year ago: President Barack Obama, under fierce election-year fire, abruptly abandoned his stand that religious organizations had to pay for free birth control for workers, demanding that insurance companies step in to provide the coverage instead.

Today’s birthdays: Cinematographer Douglas Slocombe (“Raiders of the Lost Ark”) is 100. Opera singer Leontyne Price is 86. Actor Robert Wagner is 83. Rock musician Don Wilson (The Ventures) is 80. Singer Roberta Flack is 76. Singer Jimmy Merchant (Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers) is 73. Rock musician Bob Spalding (The Ventures) is 66. Olympic gold-medal swimmer Mark Spitz is 63. Walt Disney Co. chairman and chief executive Robert Iger is 62. Rock musician and composer Cory Lerios (Pablo Cruise) is 62. World Golf Hall of Famer Greg Norman is 58. Actress Kathleen Beller is 57. Country singer Lionel Cartwright is 53. Movie director Alexander Payne is 52. ABC News correspondent George Stephanopoulos is 52. Retired MLB All-Star Lenny Dykstra is 50. Political commentator Glenn Beck is 49. Actress Laura Dern is 46. Country singer Dude Mowrey is 41. Actress Elizabeth Banks is 39. Pop singer Rosanna Taverez (Eden’s Crush) is 36. Actress Julia Pace Mitchell is 35. Country musician Jeremy Baxter (Carolina Rain) is 33. Rock singer Eric Dill is 31. Rock musician Ben Romans (The Click Five) is 31. Actress Emma Roberts is 22. Actress Makenzie Vega is 19. Actress Chloe Grace Moretz is 16.

Thought for today: “Be nice to people on the way up. They’re the same people you’ll pass on the way down.” — Jimmy Durante, American comedian (born this day in 1893, died 1980).