Today is Thursday, February 11, the 42nd day of 2010. There are 323 days left in the year.
660 B.C. _ Traditional founding of Japan by Emperor Jimmu Tenno
1531 _ Henry VIII recognized as supreme head of the Church in England
1808 _ Anthracite coal first burned as fuel, experimentally, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
1809 _ Robert Fulton patents the steamboat
1810 _ Napoleon marries Marie-Louise of Austria
1812 _ Massachusetts Governor Gerry signs a redistricting bill _ the first ``gerrymander"
1814 _ Norway's independence proclaimed
1843 _ Giuseppe Verdi's Opera ``I Lombardi" premieres in Milan
1971 _ U.S., U.K., USSR, others sign Seabed Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons
1990 _ Nelson Mandela (political prisoner-27 years) freed in South Africa