Saturday 10 February 2024 Calendar with holidays, observances and special days

Holidays and observances

• Ecuador Combat Aviation Day
• European Epilepsy Day
• Feast of St. Paul's Shipwreck in Malta
• Fenkil Day in Eritrea
• International Epilepsy Day (every year on the second Monday of February people join together to celebrate IED)
• Mexican Air Force Day
• Name Your Car Day
• National African American Parent Involvement Day (second monday of february - NAAPID is a day for all parents to come to their child's school, see what their day is like and to support their child's educational future)
• National Cream Cheese Brownie Day and National “Have a Brownie” Day in USA
• National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe (Giorno del ricordo)
• Plimsoll Day
• Umbrella Day
• Volunteer Defense's Day in Thailand
• World Pulses Day (UN: A/RES/73/251. Dried beans, lentils and peas are the most commonly known and consumed types of pulses. Pulses are a type of leguminous crop that are harvested solely for the dry seed.)

Events

• 1996 – IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov in chess for the first time.
• 1989 – Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party.
• 1967 – The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.
• 1962 – Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
• 1962 – Roy Lichtenstein's first solo exhibition opened, and it included Look Mickey, which featured his first employment of Ben-Day dots, speech balloons and comic imagery sourcing, all of which he is now known for.
• 1954 – United States President Dwight Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam.
• 1923 – Texas Tech University is founded as Texas Technological College in Lubbock, Texas
• 1906 – HMS Dreadnought, the first of a revolutionary new breed of battleships is christened and launched by King Edward VII.
• 1870 – The YWCA is founded in New York City.
• 1862 – American Civil War: A Union naval flotilla destroys the bulk of the Confederate Mosquito Fleet in the Battle of Elizabeth City on the Pasquotank River in North Carolina.
• 1846 – First Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Sobraon: British defeat Sikhs in final battle of the war

Births

• 1997 – Chloë Grace Moretz, American actress. She began acting at age six, with early roles in the supernatural horror film The Amityville Horror (2005), the drama series Desperate Housewives (2006–07), the supernatural horror film The Eye (2008), the drama film The Poker House (2008), the drama series Dirty Sexy Money (2007–08), the romantic comedy film 500 Days of Summer (2009) and the children's comedy film Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010).
• 1997 – Lilly King, American swimmer. She is the current world record holder in 100-metre and 50-metre breaststroke (long course).
• 1991 – Emma Roberts, American actress. She released her debut studio album Unfabulous and More in 2005.
• 1986 – Jeff Adrien, American basketball player. Jeffrey Adrien (born February 10, 1986) is an American professional basketball player who last played for Ironi Nahariya of the Israeli Premier League.
• 1986 – Josh Akognon, American basketball player. Joshua Emmanuel Akognon (born February 10, 1986) is an Nigerian–American professional basketball player who last played for Montakit Fuenlabrada of the Liga ACB.
• 1984 – Alex Gordon, American baseball player. Alexander Jonathan Gordon (born February 10, 1984) is an American professional baseball left fielder who is a free agent.
• 1983 – Vic Fuentes, American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Victor Vincent "Vic" Fuentes (born February 10, 1983, in San Diego, California) is the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the rock band Pierce the Veil.
• 1982 – Justin Gatlin, American sprinter. He is the 2004 Olympic champion in the 100 metres, the 2005 and 2017 World champion in the same event, and the 2005 World champion in the 200 metres.
• 1981 – Uzo Aduba, American actress. She is one of only two actors to win an Emmy Award in both the comedy and drama categories for the same role, the other being Ed Asner for the character Lou Grant.
• 1979 – Joey Hand, American race car driver. Joey Hand (born February 10, 1979) is an American professional racing driver, and is currently a Ford factory driver.
• 1976 – Lance Berkman, American baseball player and coach. William Lance Berkman (born February 10, 1976), nicknamed "Big Puma", is an American former professional baseball outfielder and first baseman.
• 1974 – Elizabeth Banks, American actress. Elizabeth Banks (born Elizabeth Irene Mitchell; February 10, 1974) is an American actress, director, writer, and producer.
• 1974 – Ty Law, American football player. Tajuan E. "Ty" Law (born February 10, 1974) is a former American football cornerback who played fifteen seasons in the National Football League (NFL).
• 1969 – Joe Mangrum, American painter and sculptor. Joe Mangrum (born February 10, 1969) is an installation and multiple-medium artist who is particularly known for his large-scale colored sand paintings.
• 1968 – Garrett Reisman, American engineer and astronaut. He returned to Earth on June 14, 2008 on board STS-124 on Space Shuttle Discovery.
• 1967 – Laura Dern, American actress, director, and producer. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including five Golden Globe Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award, and nominations for three Academy Awards.
• 1967 – Vince Gilligan, American director, producer, and screenwriter. He was a writer and producer for The X-Files and was the co-creator of its spin-off The Lone Gunmen.
• 1966 – Daryl Johnston, American football player and sportscaster. Daryl Peter "Moose" Johnston (born February 10, 1966) is a former fullback in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys.
• 1964 – Glenn Beck, American journalist, producer, and author. Glenn Lee Beck (born February 10, 1964) is an American conservative political commentator, radio host, television producer, and conspiracy theorist.
• 1963 – Lenny Dykstra, American baseball player. Leonard Kyle Dykstra (/ˈdaɪkstrə/; born February 10, 1963), is an American former professional baseball center fielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Mets (1985 to 1989) and Philadelphia Phillies (1989 to 1996).
• 1961 – Alexander Payne, American director, producer, and screenwriter. Constantine Alexander Payne (/peɪn/; born February 10, 1961) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer, known for the films Election (1999), About Schmidt (2002), Sideways (2004), The Descendants (2011), Nebraska (2013), and Downsizing (2017).
• 1961 – George Stephanopoulos, American television journalist. Stephanopoulos also serves as a regular substitute anchor on ABC World News Tonight.
• 1960 – Jim Kent, American biologist, computer programmer, academic. He has been a contributor to genome database projects and the 2003 winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award.
• 1959 – John Calipari, American basketball player and coach. * Vacated by the NCAA
• 1957 – Katherine Freese, American astrophysicist and academic. She is known for her work in theoretical cosmology at the interface of particle physics and astrophysics.
• 1955 – Jim Cramer, American television personality, pundit, and author. Cramer is the host of CNBC's Mad Money and a co-founder of TheStreet.com.
• 1951 – Bob Iger, American media executive. Robert Allen Iger (/ˈaɪɡər/; born February 10, 1951) is an American media executive, film producer, author and businessman who is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Walt Disney Company.
• 1950 – Mark Spitz, American swimmer. Mark Andrew Spitz (born February 10, 1950) is an American former competitive swimmer and nine-time Olympic champion.
• 1947 – Butch Morris, American cornet player, composer, and conductor (d. 2013), was an American cornetist, composer and conductor. He was known for pioneering his structural improvisation method, Conduction, which he utilized on many recordings.
• 1944 – Frances Moore Lappé, American author and activist. Her most recent books include Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning, and Connection for the America We Want, coauthored with Adam Eichen, and World Hunger: 10 Myths. with Joseph Collins.
• 1944 – Frank Keating, American lawyer and politician, 25th Governor of Oklahoma. Francis Anthony "Frank" Keating II (born February 10, 1944) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 25th governor of Oklahoma from 1995 to 2003.
• 1944 – Rufus Reid, American bassist and composer. Rufus Reid (born February 10, 1944, in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American jazz bassist, educator, and composer.
• 1940 – Kenny Rankin, American singer-songwriter (d. 2009), was an American singer and songwriter from the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City.
• 1939 – Roberta Flack, American singer-songwriter and pianist. She is known for her No. 1 singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song", "Feel Like Makin' Love"; and "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You", two of her many duets with Donny Hathaway.
• 1933 – Richard Schickel, American journalist, author, and critic, was an American film historian, journalist, author, documentarian, and film and literary critic. He was a film critic for Time magazine from 1965–2010, and also wrote for Life magazine and the Los Angeles Times Book Review.
• 1932 – Barrie Ingham, English-American actor (d. 2015), was an English actor, performing on stage and "in a handful of films." He was perhaps most widely known as "a prolific television actor".
• 1931 – James Edward Maceo West, American inventor and acoustician. He holds over 250 foreign and U.S. patents for the production and design of microphones and techniques for creating polymer foil electrets.
• 1930 – E. L. Konigsburg, American author and illustrator (d. 2013), was an American writer and illustrator of children's books and young adult fiction. She is one of six writers to win two Newbery Medals, the venerable American Library Association award for the year's "most distinguished contribution to American children's literature."
• 1930 – Robert Wagner, American actor and producer. Robert John Wagner Jr. (born February 10, 1930) is an American actor of stage, screen, and television, best known for starring in the television shows It Takes a Thief (1968–1970), Switch (1975–1978), and Hart to Hart (1979–1984).
• 1929 – Jerry Goldsmith, American composer and conductor (d. 2004), was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring. He composed scores for such films as Star Trek: The Motion Picture and four other films within the Star Trek franchise, The Sand Pebbles, Logan's Run, Planet of the Apes, Patton, Papillon, Chinatown, The Wind and the Lion, The Omen, The Boys from Brazil, Capricorn One, Alien, Outland, Poltergeist, The Secret of NIMH, Gremlins, Hoosiers, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Rudy, Air Force One, L.A.
• 1929 – Jim Whittaker, American mountaineer. Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, on May 1, 1963 he became the first American to reach the summit of Mount Everest as a member of the American Mount Everest Expedition led by Norman Dyhrenfurth, alongside the Sherpa Nawang Gombu (a nephew of Tenzing Norgay).
• 1929 – Lou Whittaker, American mountaineer. Lou Whittaker (born February 10, 1929) is a mountaineer, mountain guide, and entrepreneur.
• 1927 – Leontyne Price, American operatic soprano. Born and raised in Laurel, Mississippi, she rose to international acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s, and was the first African American to become a leading performer at the Metropolitan Opera, and one of the most popular American classical singers of her generation.
• 1926 – Sidney Bryan Berry, American general (d. 2013), was a United States Army Lieutenant General, Superintendent of West Point (1974–1977), and Commissioner of Public Safety for the state of Mississippi (1980–1984).
• 1923 – Allie Sherman, American football player and coach (d. 2015), was an American football player and coach who played 51 games in six seasons in the National Football League (NFL) as a quarterback and defensive back, and afterward served as head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and of the New York Giants of the NFL. He later worked as a cable television and sports marketing executive and media personality.
• 1920 – Neva Patterson, American actress (d. 2010). Born on a farm near Nevada, Iowa, the daughter of a mailman and a seamstress, Patterson and her parents moved to New York City in 1938.
• 1914 – Larry Adler, American harmonica player, composer, and actor (d. 2001). Known for playing major works, he played compositions by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Arnold, Darius Milhaud and Arthur Benjamin.
• 1906 – Lon Chaney Jr., American actor (d. 1973), was an American actor known for playing Larry Talbot in the film The Wolf Man (1941) and its various crossovers, Count Alucard (Dracula spelled backward) in Son of Dracula, Frankenstein's monster in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), the Mummy in three pictures, and various other roles in many Universal horror films. He also portrayed Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men (1939) and supporting parts in dozens of mainstream movies.
• 1905 – Chick Webb, American drummer and bandleader (d. 1939), was an American jazz and swing music drummer as well as a band leader.
• 1905 – Walter A. Brown, American businessman, founded the Boston Celtics (d. 1964). Brown (February 10, 1905 – September 7, 1964) was the founder and original owner of the Boston Celtics as well as an important figure in the development of ice hockey in the United States.
• 1904 – John Farrow, Australian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1963), was an Australian-born American film director, producer and screenwriter. In 1957, he won the Academy Award for Best Writing/Best Screenplay for Around the World in Eighty Days and in 1942, he was nominated as Best Director for Wake Island.
• 1902 – Walter Houser Brattain, Chinese-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987), was an American physicist at Bell Labs who, along with fellow scientists John Bardeen and William Shockley, invented the point-contact transistor in December of 1947. They shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for their invention.
• 1901 – Stella Adler, American actress and educator (d. 1992), was an American actress and acting teacher. She founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City in 1949.
• 1897 – John Franklin Enders, American virologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1985), was an American biomedical scientist and Nobel Laureate. Enders has been called "The Father of Modern Vaccines."
• 1893 – Bill Tilden, American tennis player and coach (d. 1953), was an American male tennis player. He is often considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time.
• 1893 – Jimmy Durante, American actor, singer, and pianist (d. 1980), was an American singer, pianist, comedian, and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, Lower East Side Manhattan accent, comic language-butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and prominent nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s.
• 1892 – Alan Hale Sr., American actor and director (d. 1950), was an American movie actor and director, most widely remembered for his many supporting character roles, in particular as a frequent sidekick of Errol Flynn, as well as films supporting Lon Chaney, Wallace Beery, Douglas Fairbanks, James Cagney, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, and Ronald Reagan, among dozens of others.
• 1883 – Edith Clarke, American electrical engineer (d. 1959), was the first woman to be professionally employed as an electrical engineer in the United States, and the first female professor of electrical engineering in the country. She was the first woman to deliver a paper at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the first female engineer whose professional standing was recognized by Tau Beta Pi, and the first woman named as a Fellow of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
• 1869 – Royal Cortissoz, American art critic (d. 1948), was an American art historian and long-time art critic for the New York Herald Tribune from 1891 until his death. During his tenure, he consistently championed traditionalism and decried modernism.
• 1868 – William Allen White, American journalist and author (d. 1944), was an American newspaper editor, politician, author, and leader of the Progressive movement. Between 1896 and his death, White became a spokesman for middle America.
• 1846 – Ira Remsen, American chemist and academic (d. 1927), was a chemist who, along with Constantin Fahlberg, discovered the artificial sweetener saccharin. He was the second president of Johns Hopkins University.
• 1766 – Benjamin Smith Barton, American botanist and physician (d. 1815), was an American botanist, naturalist, and physician. He was one of the first professors of natural history in the United States and built the largest collection of botanical specimens in the country.

Deaths

• 2017 – Mike Ilitch, American businessman (b. 1929)
• 2014 – Shirley Temple, American actress and diplomat (b. 1928)
• 2013 – David Hartman, American-Israeli rabbi and philosopher, founded the Shalom Hartman Institute (b. 1931)
• 2013 – W. Watts Biggers, American author, screenwriter, and animator (b. 1927)
• 2012 – Jeffrey Zaslow, American journalist and author (b. 1958)
• 2012 – Lloyd Morrison, New Zealand banker and businessman, founded H. R. L. Morrison & Co (b. 1957)
• 2010 – Fred Schaus, American basketball player and coach (b. 1925)
• 2008 – Roy Scheider, American actor and boxer (b. 1932)
• 2005 – Arthur Miller, American actor, playwright, and author (b. 1915)
• 2003 – Albert J. Ruffo, American lawyer and politician, Mayor of San Jose (b. 1908)
• 2003 – Edgar de Evia, Mexican-American photographer (b. 1910)
• 2003 – Ron Ziegler, American politician, 14th White House Press Secretary (b. 1939)
• 2002 – Dave Van Ronk, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1936)
• 2001 – Abraham Beame, American academic and politician, 104th Mayor of New York City (b. 1906)
• 2001 – Buddy Tate, American saxophonist and clarinet player (b. 1913)
• 2000 – Jim Varney, American actor, comedian and writer (b. 1949)
• 1995 – Paul Monette, American author, poet, and activist (b. 1945)
• 1992 – Alex Haley, American soldier, journalist, and author (b. 1921)
• 1966 – Billy Rose, American composer and songwriter (b. 1899)
• 1957 – Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author (b. 1867)
• 1956 – Leonora Speyer, American poet and violinist (b. 1872)
• 1906 – Ezra Butler Eddy, American-Canadian businessman and politician (b. 1827)
• 1904 – John A. Roche, American lawyer and politician, 30th Mayor of Chicago (b. 1844)