On this day: December 10

Events on December 10

• 1520 Martin Luther burns his copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine outside Wittenberg's Elster Gate. Wikipedia
• 1684 Edmond Halley presented the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, containing Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, to the Royal Society. Wikipedia
• 1684 Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmond Halley. Wikipedia
• 1817 Mississippi becomes the 20th U.S. state. Wikipedia
• 1861 Forces led by Nguyễn Trung Trực, an anti-colonial guerrilla leader in southern Vietnam, sink the French lorcha L'Esperance. Wikipedia
• 1861 American Civil War: The Confederate States of America accept a rival state government's pronouncement that declares Kentucky to be the 12th state of the Confederacy. Wikipedia
• 1877 Russo-Turkish War: The Russian Army captures Plevna after a 5-month siege. The garrison of 25,000 surviving Turks surrenders. The Russian victory is decisive for the outcome of the war and the Liberation of Bulgaria. Wikipedia
• 1884 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Finn depicted) by American author Mark Twain was first published in the United Kingdom and Canada, two months earlier than in the US. Wikipedia
• 1898 Spanish–American War: The Treaty of Paris is signed, officially ending the conflict. Spain cedes administration of Cuba to the United States, and the United States agrees to pay Spain $20 million for the Philippines. Wikipedia
• 1901 On the fifth anniversary of the death of their founder, Swedish chemist and industrialist Alfred Nobel, the first Nobel Prizes were awarded in Stockholm. Wikipedia
• 1901 The first Nobel Prize ceremony is held in Stockholm on the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. Wikipedia
• 1902 The opening of the reservoir of the Aswan Dam in Egypt. Wikipedia
• 1932 Thailand becomes a constitutional monarchy. Wikipedia
• 1941 Second World War: The Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse were sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers east of Malaya. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: The Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near British Malaya. Wikipedia
• 1942 Edward Raczyński of the Polish government-in-exile issued a note that was the first official report on the Holocaust. Wikipedia
• 1948 The Human Rights Convention is signed by the United Nations. Wikipedia
• 1949 Chinese Civil War: The People's Liberation Army begins its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China, forcing President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and his government to retreat to Taiwan. Wikipedia
• 1953 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill receives the Nobel Prize in Literature. Wikipedia
• 1983 Democracy is restored in Argentina with the inauguration of President Raúl Alfonsín. Wikipedia
• 1991 The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic is renamed into the Republic of Kazakhstan. Wikipedia
• 1996 The new Constitution of South Africa is promulgated by Nelson Mandela. Wikipedia
• 2005 Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 crashes at Port Harcourt International Airport in Nigeria, killing 108 people. Wikipedia
• 2016 Two explosions outside a football stadium in Istanbul, Turkey, kill 38 people and injure 166 others. Wikipedia
• 2017 ISIL is defeated in Iraq. Wikipedia
• 2021 A widespread, deadly, and violent tornado outbreak slams the Central, Midwestern, and Southern regions of the United States. Eighty-nine people are killed by the tornadoes, with most of the fatalities occurring in Kentucky, where a single tornado kills 57 people, and injures hundreds of others. Another tornado in Edwardsville, Illinois strikes an Amazon warehouse, killing six workers. Wikipedia

Born on December 10

• 1804 Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, German mathematician and academic (died 1851) Wikipedia
• 1815 Ada Lovelace, English mathematician and computer scientist (died 1852) Wikipedia
• 1821 Nikolay Nekrasov, Russian poet and critic (died 1877) Wikipedia
• 1822 César Franck, Belgian organist and composer (died 1890) Wikipedia
• 1824 George MacDonald, Scottish minister, author, and poet (died 1905) Wikipedia
• 1830 Emily Dickinson, American poet (died 1886) Wikipedia
• 1851 Melvil Dewey, American librarian, created the Dewey Decimal System (died 1931) Wikipedia
• 1870 Adolf Loos, Austrian architect and theoretician (died 1933) Wikipedia
• 1870 Pierre Louÿs, Belgian-French author and poet (died 1925) Wikipedia
• 1886 Victor McLaglen, English-American actor (died 1959) Wikipedia
• 1891 Nelly Sachs, German-Swedish poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1970) Wikipedia
• 1904 Antonín Novotný, Czechoslovak politician, President of Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (died 1975) Wikipedia
• 1908 Olivier Messiaen, French composer and ornithologist (died 1992) Wikipedia
• 1920 Clarice Lispector, Ukrainian-Brazilian journalist and author (died 1977) Wikipedia
• 1934 Howard Martin Temin, American geneticist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1994) Wikipedia
• 1944 Andris Bērziņš, Latvian businessman and politician, 8th President of Latvia Wikipedia
• 1957 Michael Clarke Duncan, American actor (died 2012) Wikipedia
• 1958 Cornelia Funke, German-American author Wikipedia
• 1960 Kenneth Branagh, British actor director, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1982 Sultan Kösen, Turkish farmer, tallest living person Wikipedia
• 1987 Gonzalo Higuaín, French-Argentinian footballer Wikipedia
• 1988 Wilfried Bony, Ivorian footballer Wikipedia

Died on December 10

• 925 Sancho I, king of Pamplona Wikipedia
• 1081 Nikephoros III Botaneiates, deposed Byzantine Emperor (born c.1002) Wikipedia
• 1475 Paolo Uccello, Italian painter (born 1397) Wikipedia
• 1865 Leopold I of Belgium (born 1790) Wikipedia
• 1896 Alfred Nobel, Swedish chemist and engineer, invented Dynamite and founded the Nobel Prize (born 1833) Wikipedia
• 1917 Mackenzie Bowell, English-Canadian journalist and politician, 5th Prime Minister of Canada (born 1823) Wikipedia
• 1936 Luigi Pirandello, Italian dramatist, novelist, and poet Nobel Prize laureate (born 1867) Wikipedia
• 1967 Otis Redding, American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1941) Wikipedia
• 1968 Karl Barth, Swiss theologian and author (born 1886) Wikipedia
• 1999 Franjo Tuđman, Croatian general and politician, 1st President of Croatia (born 1922) Wikipedia
• 2005 Richard Pryor, American comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter (born 1940) Wikipedia
• 2006 Augusto Pinochet, Chilean general and dictator, 30th President of Chile (born 1915) Wikipedia
• 2010 John Fenn, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1917) Wikipedia
• 2020 Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr., American actor and wrestler (born 1958) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Alfred Nobel Day or Nobeldagen (Sweden) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Behnam, Sarah, and the Forty Martyrs (Syriac Orthodox Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Eulalia of Mérida Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gregory III Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Karl Barth (Episcopal Church (USA)) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Polydore Plasden Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Thomas Merton (Episcopal Church (USA)) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Translation of the Holy House of Loreto Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: December 10 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Constitution Day (Thailand) Wikipedia
• Human Rights Day (International) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “December 10” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.