January 10

Events 49 BC - Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signaling the start of civil war.236 - Saint Fabian begins his reign as a Catholic Pope.1072 - Robert Guiscard conquers Palermo.1475 - Stephen III of Moldavia defeats the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vaslui.1645 - Archbishop William Laud is beheaded at the Tower of London1776 - Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense.1806 - Dutch settlers in Cape Town surrender to the British.1810 - The marriage of Napoleon and Josephine is annulled.1861 - American Civil War: Florida secedes from the Union.1863 - The London Underground, the world's oldest underground railway, opens between London Paddington station and Farringdon station.1870 - John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.1899 - Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity was founded.1901 - The first great Texas oil gusher is discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas.1920 - The League of Nations holds its first meeting and ratifies the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I. 1922 - Arthur Griffith is elected President of the Irish Free State.1923 - Lithuania seizes and annexes Memel.1927 - The film Metropolis by Fritz Lang premieres. 1929 - Tintin, a comic book character created by Hergé, makes his debut. He went on to be published in over 200 million comic books in 40 languages. 1941 - Lend-Lease is introduced into the US Congress.1946 - The first General Assembly of the United Nations opens in London. Fifty-one nations are represented.1957 - Harold Macmillan becomes the prime minister of the United Kingdom. 1962 - Apollo Project: NASA announces plans to build the C-5 rocket booster. It became better known as the Saturn V moon rocket, which launched every Apollo moon mission. 1982 - The Catch - Dwight Clark of the San Francisco 49ers makes a leaping catch from Joe Montana with 58 seconds to play to defeat the Dallas Cowboys 28-27 in the NFC Championship Game at Candlestick Park.1984 - The US and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations after 117 years. 1989 - Cuban troops begin withdrawing from Angola.1990 - Time Warner is formed from the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc. 1995 - The World Youth Day was held in the Philippines.1999 - A large piece of the chalk cliff at Beachy Head collapses into the sea.1999 - The HBO television series The Sopranos first aires.2000 - America Online announces an agreement to buy Time Warner for $162 billion, the largest corporate merger in history.2001 - Wikipedia starts as part of Nupedia. It becomes a separate site five days later.2005 - A mudslide occurs in La Conchita, CA, killing 10 people, injuring many more and closing the Highway 101, the main coastal corridor between San Francisco and Los Angeles, for 10 days.2005 - Eyre Peninsula Bushfire in South Australia kills nine and injures 113.
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