Today in History: December 10, Teddy Roosevelt is first American to win Nobel Prize

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Today is Wednesday, Dec. 10, the 344th day of 2025. There are 21 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Dec. 10, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to win a Nobel Prize, winning the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to negotiate peace in the Russo-Japanese War.

Also on this date:

In 1861, the Confederacy admitted Kentucky as it recognized a pro-Southern shadow state government that was acting without the authority of the pro-Union government in Frankfort.

In 1898, a treaty was signed in Paris officially ending the Spanish-American War.

In 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. received his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, saying he accepted it “with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind.”

In 1967, singer Otis Redding, 26, and six others were killed when their plane crashed into a Wisconsin lake; trumpeter Ben Cauley, a member of the group the Bar-Kays, was the only survivor.

In 1994, Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to advance the Middle East peace process.

In 2007, former Vice President Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with a call to confront human-caused climate change and stop waging war on the environment.

In 2021, a two-day outbreak of tornadoes in the U.S. Midwest and South killed more than 90 people across five states, including 77 in Kentucky. The National Weather Service recorded more than 40 twisters Dec. 10 and Dec. 11.

In 2022, Morocco became the first African country to reach the World Cup semifinals by beating Portugal 1-0.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Fionnula Flanagan is 84. Actor-singer Gloria Loring is 79. Republican Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas is 75. Actor Susan Dey is 73. Jazz musician Diane Schuur is 72. Actor-director Kenneth Branagh (BRAH’-nah) is 65. Actor Nia Peeples is 64. TV chef Bobby Flay is 61. Rock musician Meg White (The White Stripes) is 51. Actor Emmanuelle Chriqui is 50. Actor Raven-Symone is 40. Actor/singer Teyana Taylor is 35. Actor Kiki Layne is 34. Cyclist Jonas Vingegaard is 29.