February 10

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  1868: Physicist, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, and writer David Brewster dies.

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  1845: Engineer and physicist Wilhelm Röntgen dies. He won the first Nobel Prize in Physics, for the discovery of X-rays.

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  1891: Mathematician and physicist Sofia Kovalevskaya dies. Kovalevskaya made noteworthy contributions to analysis, partial differential equations and mechanics.

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  1902: Physicist and academic Walter Houser Brattain born. He will share the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956 "for research on semiconductors and the discovery of the transistor effect."

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  1912: Surgeon and scientist Joseph Lister dies. He pioneered antiseptic surgery, performing the first antiseptic surgery in 1865.

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  1913: Nuclear physicist Arnold Flammersfeld born. Flammersfeld will work on the German nuclear energy project during World War II.

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  1952: Inventor Edward Hugh Hebern dies. He was a pioneer of rotor encryption machines.

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  1962: Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.