#TodayInHistory – February 10
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February 10 – Some important events on this day
60 ππΌ St Paul thought to have been shipwrecked at Malta
1720 ππΌ Edmond Halley appointed as the second Astronomer Royal at the Greenwich Observatory
1763 ππΌ Treaty of Paris ends French-Indian War, surrendering Canada to Britain
1824 ππΌ SimΓ³n BolΓvar named dictator by the Congress of Peru
1859 ππΌ General Horsford defeats Begum of Oude and Nana Sahib in Indian Mutiny.
1879 ππΌ Henry Morton Stanley departs for the Congo
1906 ππΌ British battleship HMS Dreadnought launches after only 100 days, renders all other capital ships obsolete with its revolutionary design
1940 ππΌ “Tom & Jerry” cartoon created by William Hanna & Joseph Barbera debut by MGM
1942 ππΌ Glenn Miller awarded 1st ever gold record for selling 1 million copies of “Chattanooga Choo Choo”.
The Glenn Miller Orchestra was one of the most popular acts in the United States pre-World War II. Led by Glenn Miller, the band had several hit songs, such as “In the Mood” (1941) and “Moonlight Serenade” (1939).
One of these hits was “Chattanooga Choo Choo”, a song about a train ride from New York to Chattanooga in Tennessee. The song was released on August 7, 1941, and was an immediate success.
The success of the song led RCA Victor, the band’s record label, to issue the first ever gold record for sales of 1.2 million copies, in 1942. The gold record (along with platinum, silver and diamond) later became the standard certification for records of the Recording Industry Association of America. A silver record has sold 250,000 units; gold 500,000; platinum 1,000,000 and diamond 10,000,000.
1952 ππΌ India holds its first general election: Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru remains in power
1994 ππΌ 44th Berlin International Film Festival: “In the Name of the Father” wins the Golden Bear
1996 ππΌ IBM computer Deep Blue becomes the first computer to win a game of chess against a reigning (human) chess champion, Gary Kasparov
2020 ππΌ More than 30 bushfires put out by heaviest rainfall for 30 years in New South Wales, Australia, helping end one of the worst bushfire seasons ever, 46 million acres burnt, over 1 billion animals killed, 34 people dead