December 10

1520 Having denied the infallibility of the pope, rejecting the Papal claim to be the sole authority of scriptures, and the infallibility of the general council, Martin Luther was sent a papal bull Exsurge Domine on June 15, 1520 threatening his excommunication. Luther publicly burned his copy of the bull outside Wittenberg's Elster Gate on December 10, 1520 and was consequently excommunicated.

Title page of first printed edition of Exsurge Domine.

1799 France became the first country to adopt the metric system as its system for weights and measures on December 10, 1799. The US may have adopted the metric system in the early 19th century if pirates hadn’t kidnapped the French scientist sent to help Thomas Jefferson persuade Congress to adopt the system.

1815 Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace was born on December 10, 1815. She was the only legitimate child of the poet Lord Byron and his wife Anne Isabella Milbanke. Lovelace is chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. She is often described as the world's first computer programmer.

1816 On December 10, 1816 Percy Shelley's estranged and pregnant wife Harriet drowned herself in the Serpentine River in Hyde Park, London. A few weeks after Harriet's body was recovered, Shelley married his mistress Mary Godwin. The marriage was intended, in part, to help secure Shelley's custody of his children by Harriet, but it was in vain: the children were handed over to foster parents by the courts.

Harriet Westbrook

1817 After the American Revolution, Britain ceded the Mississippi area to the United States of America. On April 7, 1798 the Mississippi Territory was organized from disputed territory claimed by both the United States and Spain. It expanded in 1804 and again in 1812. Mississippi was the 20th state admitted to the Union on December 10, 1817.

1817 Scottish doctor Alexander Wood was born on December 10, 1817. He invented in 1853 a hypodermic syringe with a needle fine enough to pierce the skin. Wood's innovation allowed drugs to be administered intravenously without the patient's skin having to be cut first. It is said he found inspiration in the sting of a honeybee.

An antique glass and metal syringe By Julo - Own work

1822 On December 10, 1822, at age 19, the writer George Sand married François Casimir Dudevant, he illegitimate son of a French military officer. After the couple had two children, Sand left her husband and entered upon a four- or five-year period of "romantic rebellion." In 1835 she was legally separated from Dudevant, two years before she embarked on a relationship with Frédéric Chopin.

1830 Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830 at the family's homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts into a prominent, but not wealthy, family. Emily's Amherst Academy principal Daniel Taggart Fiske, recalled that Dickinson was "very bright" and "an excellent scholar, of exemplary deportment, faithful in all school duties.”A reclusive, she wrote close to 1800 poems of which only ten were published during her relatively short lifetime. Many of them deal with the theme of mortality. 

1834 When King William IV asked the Duke of Wellington to become Prime Minister in November 1834, he recommended that the King choose Robert Peel instead. Robert Peel started his first term as UK Prime Minister on December 10, 1834. He served as Prime Minister: to April 1835 and  again between August 1841 and  June 1846.

Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Bt, by Henry William Pickersgill

1845 Back when carriages relied on real horsepower and bicycles weighed a ton, travelers were forced to endure bone-jarring rides over the bumps and potholes of the nation's primitive roads. Scottish railway engineer Robert Thomson saw the potential of air to soften the way and on December 10, 1845, he patented the use of pneumatic leather tires on bikes. However, his invention was deemed too expensive to mass-produce.

1868 The world's first traffic light system was invented by the British railroad signal engineer JP Knight. These first traffic lights consisted of revolving red and green lanterns, illuminated by gas. The system was installed on December 10, 1868 at the intersection of George and Bridge Streets in front of the House of Commons in London to control the flow of horse buggies and pedestrians.

1869 On December 10, 1869, the governor of the Wyoming Territory signed legislation giving women the right to vote in addition to the ability to hold office and be on juries. When Wyoming became a state in 1890, Congress asked they revoke women's right to vote but they refused.

1898 The Spanish–American War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, which was signed on December 10, 1898. Its clauses included Spain ceding Puerto Rico to the United States. For the next 53 years, it became a felony to display the Puerto Rican flag.

1901 When a brother of Swedish arms manufacturer Alfred Nobel died a French newspaper mistakenly printed Alfred's obituary with the headline: "The merchant of death is dead." Desperate for a positive legacy he bequeathed his fortune to establish a set of annual international awards . The first Nobel Prizes were awarded on December 10, 1901.

Nobel Prize medallion

1906 U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, 1906 for his role in the mediation of the Russo-Japanese War, becoming the first American to win a Nobel Prize. He remains the only U.S. president to have received the Nobel Peace Prize while in office.

1909 Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf became the first female writer on December 10, 1909 to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was awarded it, "in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings."

1927 The Grand Ole Opry began broadcasting in Nashville, Tennessee, as the WSM Barn Dance in November 1925. The country and western show was first called the Grand Ole Opry on December 10, 1927.

1936 Desiring to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson against widespread opposition, Edward VIII abdicated the United kingdom throne on December 10, 1936, the only British monarch to have voluntarily done so since the Anglo-Saxon period. After his abdication, Edward was given the title Duke of Windsor. He married Simpson in a private ceremony near Tours, France on June 3, 1937.

1942 The systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto begun in July 1942. The Polish government wrote a White Book with proof of the mass extermination of Jews in German occupied Poland and gave it to the United Nations on December 10, 1942.

1948 Almost all countries agree that torture is a violation of human rights. On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Article 5 states, "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".

1954 The first commercial, digital and programmable robot was built by American inventor George Devol and named the Unimate. It was not made to look like a human, but was instead designed for use, having just one arm and one hand. The patent was filed on December 10, 1954.

1968 French/American Catholic writer and Trappist monk Thomas Merton died aged 53 on December 10, 1968 after being accidentally electrocuted by an electric fan. He'd been attending a monastic conference at a Red Cross retreat facility named Sawang Kaniwat in Samut Prakan, a province near Bangkok, Thailand. Merton was found in the room of his cottage, lying on his back with a short-circuited Hitachi floor fan lying across his body.

1977 Ethel Carow Roosevelt Derby died on December 10, 1977. The third of Theodore Roosevelt's five children, she was instrumental in preserving both the legacy of her father as well as the family home, "Sagamore Hill" for future generations, especially after the death of her mother Edith in 1948.

1989 At the first open pro-democracy demonstration in Mongolia on December 10, 1989, journalist Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announced the formation of the Mongolian Democratic Union, which would be instrumental in ending Communist rule four months later.

1997 The first commercial hybrid car, the Toyota Prius, first went on sale in Japan on December 10, 1997 and was launched worldwide three years later. Since becoming fashionable among ecologically aware Hollywood celebrities the Toyota Prius has inspired a legion of impressionable "civilian" consumers to follow suit.

2005 The comedian Richard Pryor suffered a fatal heart attack and died in Encino, Los Angeles, California on December 10, 2005 at the age of 65. Pryor is listed at Number 1 on Comedy Central's list of all-time greatest stand-up comedians.

2005 Garth Brooks met his first wife Sandy Mahl when he was working as a bouncer at the Tumbleweed Ballroom, in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He broke up a fight that had erupted between Sandy and another woman in the ladies' room. They divorced in 2001. Garth married his second wife, fellow country star Trisha Yearwood, on December 10, 2005 at their home in Owasso, Oklahoma.

2009 The blockbuster 3D film Avatar made its world debut on December 10, 2009. The James Cameron-directed feature became the highest ever grossing movie, a record it held for a decade  until it was overtaken by Avengers: Endgame in 2019.

2013 The Higgs boson is a particle that gives mass to other particles. It is nicknamed by the popular press as the "God Particle." It was named after Peter Higgs, one of six physicists who, in 1964, proposed the mechanism that suggested the particle. On December 10, 2013 Peter Higgs (see picture below) and François Englert, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work and prediction.

2013 Uruguay became the first country to legalize the growing, sale and smoking of cannabis on December 10, 2013. However, it is important to note that the law did not specifically address the legalization of growing cannabis for personal use.