By The Associated Press
- Today is Wednesday, Feb. 10, the 41th day of 1999. There are 324
days left in the year.
- Fifty years ago, on Feb. 10, 1949, Arthur Miller's play "Death
of a Salesman" opened at Broadway's Morosco Theater.
- In 1763, France ceded Canada to England under the Treaty of
Paris, which ended the French and Indian War.
- In 1840, Britain's Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
- In 1846, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints, the Mormons, began an exodus from Illinois to the west.
- 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.
- In 1942, 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 1962, the Soviet Union exchanged captured American U-2 pilot
Francis Gary Powers for Rudolph Ivanovich Abel, a Soviet spy held
by the United States.
- In 1967, the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, dealing with
presidential disability and succession, went into effect.
- In 1968, Peggy Fleming of the United States won the gold medal
in ladies' figure skating at the Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble,
France.
- In 1981, eight people were killed and 198 injured, when fire
broke out at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino.
- Ten years ago: Ron Brown was elected chairman of the Democratic
National Committee, becoming the first black to head a major U.S.
political party.
- Five years ago: The Senate approved $8.6 billion in relief for
victims of the Los Angeles earthquake. The House approved the
measure the next day, and President Clinton signed it the day after
that.
- One year ago: Dr. David Satcher was confirmed by the Senate to
be surgeon general. Voters in Maine become the first to repeal a
state gay rights law. Monica Lewinsky's mother, Marcia Lewis,
testified before the grand jury investigating her daughter's
alleged affair with President Clinton. Speedskater Hiroyasu Shimizu
won Japan's first gold medal of the Nagano Olympics, in the
500-meter event.
*Happy Birthday*
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- Opera singer Leontyne Price is 72.
- Movie composer Jerry Goldsmith is 70.
- Actor Robert Wagner is 69.
- Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice is 65.
- Singer Roberta Flack is 60.
- Singer Jimmy Merchant is 59.
- Olympic gold-medal swimmer Mark Spitz is 49.
- Actress Kathleen Beller is 44.
- Country singer Lionel Cartwright is 39.
- Former presidential adviser George Stephanopoulos is 38.
- Actress Laura Dern is 32.
- Country singer Dude Mowrey is 27.