Today in History: February 10, ‘Bridge of Spies' prisoner exchange

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 10, the 41st day of 2026. There are 324 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Feb. 10, 1962, on the Glienicke Bridge connecting West Berlin and East Germany, the Soviet Union exchanged captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy held by the United States.

Also on this date:

In 1763, the treaty ending the Seven Years' War was signed in Paris, with France ceding its territory in Canada to Great Britain.

In 1936, Nazi Germany's Reichstag passed a law investing the Gestapo secret police with absolute authority, exempt from any legal review.

In 1959, an F4-intensity tornado tore through the St. Louis area, killing 21 people and injuring 345.

In 1973, at least 40 workers were killed in an explosion and collapse of a large liquefied natural gas tank that was undergoing routine maintenance in the New York City borough of Staten Island.

In 1981, eight people were killed when a fire set by a busboy broke out at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel.

In 1996, world chess champion Garry Kasparov lost the first game of a match in Philadelphia against an IBM computer dubbed ''Deep Blue.'' (Kasparov ended up winning the match, 4 games to 2; however, he was defeated by Deep Blue in a rematch the following year.)

In 2009, a U.S. commercial satellite and a defunct Russian satellite accidentally collided in orbit over Siberia, destroying both and creating a large debris field in space.

In 2018, a double-decker bus lost control and crashed in a Hong Kong suburb, killing 19 people and injuring dozens more in the southern Chinese city.