This day in history

[February 10, 2011]  (AP)  Today is Thursday, Feb. 10, the 41st day of 2011. There are 324 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On Feb. 10, 1949, Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman" opened at Broadway's Morosco Theater with Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman.

On this date:

In 1763, Britain, Spain and France signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the Seven Years' War.

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 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 1959, a major tornado tore through the St. Louis, Mo., 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.

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 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: The space shuttle Atlantis' astronauts installed the $1.4 billion Destiny laboratory on the international space station. Former New York City Mayor Abraham D. Beame died at age 94.

Five 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'd performed the first successful U.S. heart transplant, died in Palo Alto, Calif., at age 83.

One year ago: Shuttle Endeavour arrived to a warm welcome at the International Space Station, delivering a new room and observation deck. Former Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson, whose funding of Afghanistan's resistance to the Soviet Union was chronicled in the movie and book "Charlie Wilson's War," died in Dallas at age 76.

Today's birthdays: Opera singer Leontyne Price is 84. Actor Robert Wagner is 81. Rock musician Don Wilson (The Ventures) is 78. Singer Roberta Flack is 74. Singer Jimmy Merchant (Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers) is 71. Rock musician Bob Spalding (The Ventures) is 64. Olympic gold-medal swimmer Mark Spitz is 61. Walt Disney Co. president and chief executive Robert Iger is 60. World Golf Hall of Famer Greg Norman is 56. Country singer Lionel Cartwright is 51. Movie director Alexander Payne is 50. ABC News correspondent George Stephanopoulos is 50. Political commentator Glenn Beck is 47. Actress Laura Dern is 44. Country singer Dude Mowrey is 39. Actress Elizabeth Banks is 37. Pop singer Rosanna Taverez (Eden's Crush) is 34. Country musician Jeremy Baxter (Carolina Rain) is 31. Rock singer Eric Dill is 29. Rock musician Ben Romans (The Click Five) is 29. Actress Emma Roberts is 20. Actress Makenzie Vega is 17. Actress Chloe Moretz is 14.

Thought for today: "Morality is moral only when it is voluntary." -- Lincoln Steffens, American journalist (1866-1936)

[Associated Press]

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