On this day
Revisit the news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
Portrait 1080 × 1920 PNG · created on your device
ROME, Friday, Feb. 10.--Vatican City had been quiet all last night before word was sent out to Cardinals and functionaries that the Pope was dying, and the Swiss Guards were surprised as these functionaries began arriving in haste early this morning.
The election of a new Pope will take place at a gathering of the Sacred College of Cardinals known as a conclave, which dates back in its present form to the end of the...
Lehman replies
Delays granting recognition to Gen Franco
wreckage sighted
1939Adrienne Clarkson, Hong Kong-Canadian journalist and politician, 26th Governor General of Canada[†]
Adrienne Louise Clarkson is a Canadian journalist and stateswoman who served as the 26th governor general of Canada from 1999 to 2005.
1939Deolinda Rodríguez de Almeida, Angolan nationalist (died 1967)[†]
Deolinda Rodrigues Francisco de Almeida was an Angolan revolutionary, writer, and poet. She was a member of the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola and, in addition to seeing combat, worked for the organisation as a translator, educator, and radio host.
1939Pope Pius XI (born 1857)[†]
Pope Pius XI was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 until his death in February 1939. He was also the first sovereign of the Vatican City State upon its creation on 11 February 1929.
1939Spanish Civil War: The Nationalists conclude their conquest of Catalonia and seal the border with France.[†]
The Spanish Civil War was fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans and the Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic and included socialists, anarchists, communists, and separatists. The opposing Nationalists who established the Spanish State were an alliance of fascist Falangists, monarchists, conservatives, and traditionalists supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy and led by a military junta among whom General Francisco Franco quickly achieved a preponderant role. Due to the international political climate at the time, the war was variously viewed as class struggle, a religious struggle, or a struggle between dictatorship and republican democracy, between revolution and counterrevolution, or between fascism and communism. The Nationalists won the war, which ended in early 1939, and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975.