Explore 10 February

Explore 10 February: the Mongols take Baghdad and end the Abbasid caliphate, the Treaty of Paris hands Canada to Britain, Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert and the United States and the Soviet Union swap spies on a Berlin bridge. Meet Bertolt Brecht, Boris Pasternak and Mark Spitz, born on 10 February.

This day through time →6 verified events across 4 eras

⌛6Full
Timeline ◈4Historic
Moments ♙7Born
Today ✦6Lives
Remembered ◉1Firsts &
Discoveries

The taking of Baghdad by Hülegü, from a Mughal copy of Rashid al-Din’s history made in northern India in 1596 (Cincinnati Art Museum).

Image credit

Sailko · CC BY 3.0Resized and cropped for display.

1258

The Mongols take Baghdad and end the Abbasid caliphate

For five centuries Baghdad had been the seat of the Abbasid caliphs, the heads of the Sunni Muslim world, and one of the great cities of learning. By the 1250s the caliphs’ real power was small, but their prestige was immense. The Mongol ruler Möngke sent his brother Hülegü west to bring the Islamic lands to heel.

Hülegü’s army surrounded Baghdad in January 1258, and after its walls were breached the caliph al-Mustasim surrendered. The city fell on 10 February 1258. The Mongols sacked it, killing a great part of its population, and the caliph was put to death soon afterwards. For the first time in its history, Islam was left without a caliph in Baghdad.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Iraq, the later Abbasids (1152-1258) ↗

A new map of North America published in London in 1763, showing the colonies of the European powers ‘according to the definitive treaty concluded at Paris’.

Image credit

Sayer, Robert, 1725-1794 -- Cartographer ;Anville, Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d', 1697-1782 -- CartographerRobert de Vaugondy, Didier, 1723-1786 -- Cartographer · Public domainResized and cropped for display.

1763

The Treaty of Paris hands Canada to Britain

The Seven Years’ War, known in America as the French and Indian War, was fought across North America, Europe, the Caribbean, West Africa and India. By 1762 Britain had taken Quebec, Montreal, Havana and Manila, and all sides were exhausted.

On 10 February 1763 Britain, France and Spain signed the peace in Paris. France gave up Canada and all its lands east of the Mississippi to Britain, and passed Louisiana to Spain, which in turn ceded Florida to Britain in return for Havana and Manila. Britain became the leading colonial power, but the cost of the war, and of defending its new lands, led it to tax its American colonies, which set them on the road to revolution.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: US Department of State, Office of the Historian: Treaty of Paris, 1763 ↗

The Marriage of Queen Victoria, 10 February 1840, painted by Sir George Hayter (Royal Collection).

Image credit

George Hayter · Public domainResized and cropped for display.

1840

Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert

Victoria became queen in 1837 at the age of 18. Her German cousin Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha visited in October 1839, and within days she, as the monarch, proposed to him.

They were married on 10 February 1840 in the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace. Victoria wore a white satin dress rather than robes of state, a choice copied by brides ever since, and drove through London in an open carriage so that crowds could see her. The couple had nine children, whose marriages linked the royal families of Europe, and Albert became her closest adviser until his death in 1861.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Royal Collection Trust: the marriage of Queen Victoria, 10 February 1840 ↗

The Glienicke Bridge between Potsdam and Berlin, where the exchange took place, seen from the Potsdam bank in 2018.

Image credit

Loewenflausch · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized and cropped for display.

1962

The superpowers swap spies on a Berlin bridge

In May 1960 the Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 spy plane and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers, who was sentenced to ten years. In New York the FBI already held Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy convicted in 1957.

The New York lawyer James Donovan, who had defended Abel, negotiated a trade in East Berlin. On the morning of 10 February 1962 Abel and Powers walked across the Glienicke Bridge between West Berlin and Potsdam in opposite directions, while an American student, Frederic Pryor, was released at Checkpoint Charlie. The crossing, later called the ‘bridge of spies’, was used for several more exchanges during the Cold War.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Central Intelligence Agency: May Day over Moscow, the Francis Gary Powers story ↗

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PEOPLE

Born Today

Image credit

Владимир Савостьянов / ТАСС · Public domainResized and cropped for display.

Born 1890

Boris Pasternak

Russian poet and novelist of Doctor Zhivago, Nobel laureate in 1958.

Image credit

Unknown photographer · Public domainResized and cropped for display.

Born 1894

Harold Macmillan

British prime minister from 1957 to 1963 who spoke of the ‘wind of change’ in Africa.

Image credit

Kolbe, Jörg · CC BY-SA 3.0 deResized and cropped for display.

Born 1898

Bertolt Brecht

German playwright of The Threepenny Opera and Mother Courage.

Image credit

fuxoft · CC BY-SA 2.0Resized and cropped for display.

Born 1929

Jerry Goldsmith

American composer of film scores for Planet of the Apes, Alien and The Omen.

Image credit

Atlantic Records · Public domainResized and cropped for display.

Born 1937

Roberta Flack

American singer of Killing Me Softly with His Song.

Image credit

Doha Stadium Plus Qatar Photograph: Vinod Divakaran (www.dohastadiumplusqatar.com) · CC BY 2.0Resized and cropped for display.

Born 1950

Mark Spitz

American swimmer who won seven gold medals at the 1972 Olympics.

Image credit

Bryan Berlin · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized and cropped for display.

Born 1967

Laura Dern

American actress of Jurassic Park and Blue Velvet.

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IDEAS THAT CHANGED THINGS

Firsts, Science & Discoveries

An IBM computer of the Deep Blue type, on show at the Computer History Museum in California.

Image credit

James the photographer · CC BY 2.0Resized and cropped for display.

1996

A computer beats the world chess champion for the first time

Since the early days of computing, programmers had dreamed of building a machine to beat the best human chess players. IBM’s Deep Blue, built on a supercomputer with hundreds of special chess chips, could examine about a hundred million positions a second.

In Philadelphia on 10 February 1996, in the first game of a six-game match, Deep Blue beat the world champion, Garry Kasparov, the first time a computer had won a game against a reigning champion under normal tournament conditions. Kasparov recovered to win the match 4-2, but an upgraded Deep Blue beat him in a rematch in May 1997.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Computer History Museum: Deep Blue defeats Kasparov ↗

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LIVES REMEMBERED