December 10

Today in History
• 1520 - Martin Luther publicly burns papal edict demanding he recant
• 1672 - New York Governor Lovelace announces mail service between New York and Boston
• 1690 - Massachusetts Bay becomes first American colonial government to issue paper money
• 1768 - First part (number) of the Encyclopedia Britannica is published in Edinburgh, Scotland
• 1799 - Metric system first adopted in France
• 1817 - Mississippi admitted as 20th state of the Union
• 1869 - Women suffrage (right to vote) granted in Wyoming Territory (US 1st)
• 1901 - First Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Wilhelm Röntgen for his discovery of X-rays


Holidays - Traditional and Obscure
• Dewey Decimal System Day
• Festival for the Souls of Dead Whales
• Human Rights Day
• International Animal Rights Day
• Iraq Victory Day
• National Lager Day
• National Salesperson Day
• Nobel Prize Day

Birthdays
• 1394 - James I, King of Scotland (1406-37)
• 1679 - Willem Maurits, Dutch count of Nassau/Governor of Zeeuws-Flanders
• 1787 - Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, American pioneer of educating the deaf
• 1805 - John E Feisser, theologist/founder 1st Dutch baptist church
• 1813 - Zachariah Chandler, American merchant and politician (found Republican Party)
• 1815 - Ada Lovelace, English mathematician considered the first computer programmer
• 1830 - Kalman Tisza, premier of Hungary, 1875-90
• 1851 - Melvil[le Louis K] Dewey, created Dewey Decimal System for libraries