About Today in History December 10 #history

1. The first part of the first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, the oldest continuously published and revised work in the English language, was published and advertised for sale in Edinburgh on this day in 1768.
2. Argentine politician Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was sworn into office as Argentina's first female elected president; she succeeded her husband, Néstor Kirchner.
3. Chilean General Augusto Pinochet, whose dictatorial reign (1974–90) in Chile was marked by the murder and torture of political opponents, died while facing charges of human rights abuses.
4. American comedian and actor Richard Pryor, who revolutionized comedy with his frank and controversial style, died at age 65.
5. South African President Nelson Mandela signed a new constitution that completed a transition from a long period of white minority rule (apartheid) to full-fledged democracy.
6. A treaty codifying the Law of the Sea was signed by 117 countries.
7. American singer-songwriter Otis Redding, who was one of the great soul stylists of the 1960s, died in an airplane crash.
8. The British historical film Lawrence of Arabia, which was directed by David Lean and starred Peter O'Toole as T.E. Lawrence, had its world premiere; it became one of the most celebrated epics in the history of cinema.
9. The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
10. Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, cited for “the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings.”
11. The first Nobel Prizes were distributed, marking the fifth anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, who founded and endowed the awards through his will.
12. Representatives of Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris, concluding the Spanish-American War.
13. American author Mark Twain's classic novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first published, appearing in the United Kingdom and Canada; it was released in the United States the following year.
14. American librarian Melvil Dewey, who devised the Dewey Decimal Classification for library cataloging and was largely responsible for the development of library science in the United States, was born.
15. English mathematician Ada Lovelace, who was called the first computer programmer, was born.
16. Pope Julius II, the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian I, Louis XII of France, and Ferdinand II of Aragon formed the League of Cambrai.
17. Michael V Calaphates ascended the throne of the Byzantine Empire following the death of Michael IV.