February 7

2024 Calendar

February 7 is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 327 days remaining until the end of the year (328 in leap years).

Events

Up to 1900

457 – Leo I becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
1074 – Pandulf IV of Benevento is killed battling the invading Normans at the Battle of Montesarchio.
1301 – Edward of Caernarvon (later King Edward II of England) becomes the first Prince of Wales.
1497 – The Bonfire of the Vanities occurs, in which supporters of Girolamo Savonarola burns thousands of objects like cosmetics, art and books in Florence, Italy.
1783 – Spanish and French forces end the Siege of Gibraltar.
1785 – William Herschel discovers the Antennae Galaxies.
1795 – The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution is accepted.
1807 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Eylau in Poland begins.
1812 – The strongest in a series of earthquakes strikes New Madrid, Missouri.
1819 – Thomas Stamford Raffles leaves Singapore shortly after taking it over, leaving the governing duties to William Farquhar.
1855 – The Treaty of Shimoda is signed, determining which of the Kuril islands are Japanese and which are Russian.
1863 – The ship HMS Orpheus sinks off Auckland, New Zealand, killing 189 people.
1897 – The first full–scale battle of the Greco–Turkish War occurs.
1898 – Émile Zola is brought to trial for libel for publishing J'Accuse, in which he questioned the guilt of Alfred Dreyfus in the Dreyfus Affair.
1900 – The British Labour Party is formed.

1901 – 2000

1904 – A fire in Baltimore, Maryland, destroys 1,500 buildings.
1922 – Antonio Maria da Silva becomes Prime Minister of Portugal for a second time.
1935 – The Monopoly board game is invented.
1940 – The second full–length animated Walt Disney movie, Pinocchio, is shown for the first time.
1943 – World War II: Japanese forces complete the evacuation of the Imperial Japanese Army from Guadalcanal.
1948 – Neil Harvey becomes the youngest Australian to score a century in a test cricket match.
1951 – Korean War: Sancheong–Hamyang massacre.
1962 – The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.
1971 – Women gain the right to vote in Switzerland.
1974 – Grenada becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
1976 – Daniel Sittler sets an National Hockey League record by scoring 10 points in a single game.
1979 – For the first time since its discovery, the dwarf planet Pluto orbits the Sun closer than Neptune.
1984 – US astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart perform the first untethered spacewalk.
1986 – The rule of the Duvalier family in Haiti comes to an end when Jean–Claude Duvalier ("Baby Doc") leaves the country.
1990 – Collapse of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly of power.
1991 – Jean–Bertrand Aristide becomes President of Haiti.
1992 – The Maastricht Treaty is signed to officially form the European Union.
1995 – Ramzi Yousef, who planned the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.
1998 – The 1998 Winter Olympics open in Nagano, Japan.
1999 – Abdullah II of Jordan becomes King, after the death of his father, King Hussein of Jordan.
1999 – A border conflict begins between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
1999 – NASA's Stardust probe is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida to study comets.

From 2001

2005 – Ellen MacArthur becomes the fastest round–the–world sailor, though this record has since been beaten.
2009 – Bushfires in the Australian state of Victoria kill 173 people.
2012 – After a political crisis in the Maldives, President Mohamed Nasheed resigns, and is replaced my Mohammed Waheed Hassan.
2014 – The 2014 Winter Olympics begin in Sochi, southern Russia.
2015 – More than 30 people are killed in separate bomb attacks in Baghdad.
2016 – North Korea announces that it has launched a rocket.
2016 – The Denver Broncos win the 50th Super Bowl, defeating the Carolina Panthers 24–10.

Births

Up to 1900

572 – Prince Shotoku of Japan (d. 622)
1102 – Princess Matilda, Princess of England and wife of Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1169)
1478 – Sir Thomas More, English statesman, humanist, and writer (d. 1535)
1606 – Nicolas Mignard, French painter (d. 1668)
1693 – Empress Anna of Russia (d. 1740)
1741 – Henri Fuseli, Swiss painter (d. 1825)
1758 – Benedikt Schack, Czech composer and tenor (d. 1826)
1804 – John Deere, American manufacturer (d. 1886)
1812 – Charles Dickens, English novelist (d. 1870)
1816 – Jean Frédéric Frenet, French astronomer, mathematician and meteorologist (d. 1900)
1817 – Frederick Douglass, American abolitionist (d. 1895)
1824 – William Huggins, British astronomer and physicist (d. 1910)
1825 – Karl Möbius, German zoologist (d. 1908)
1837 – James Murray, Scottish lexicographer and philologist (d. 1915)
1842 – Alexandre Ribot, Prime Minister of France (d. 1923)
1862 – Horace F. Graham, Governor of Vermont (d. 1941)
1867 – Laura Ingalls Wilder, American writer (d. 1957)
1870 – Alfred Adler, Austrian psychologist (d. 1937)
1873 – Thomas Andrews, Irish shipbuilder (d. 1912)
1877 – G.H. Hardy, British mathematician (d. 1947)
1878 – Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Russian–American pianist and conductor (d. 1936)
1885 – Sinclair Lewis, American writer, Nobel Prize winner (d. 1951)
1887 – Eubie Blake, American musician and composer (d. 1983)
1889 – Harry Nyquist, contributor to Information Theory (d. 1976)
1893 – Joseph Algernon Pearce, Canadian astrophysicist and astronomer (d. 1988)
1895 – Anita Stewart, American movie actress (d. 1961)
1898 – Dock Boggs, American musician (d. 1971)

1901 – 1950

1901 – Arnold Nordmeyer, New Zealand politician (d. 1989)
1905 – Paul Nizan, French writer (d. 1940)
1905 – Rene de Cossel, French mathematician (d. 1974)
1905 – Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist (d. 1983)
1906 – Henry Pu–yi, Emperor of China (d. 1967)
1906 – Oleg Antonov, Soviet aircraft designer (d. 1984)
1908 – Buster Crabbe, American swimmer and actor (d. 1983)
1909 – Helder Camara, Brazilian archbishop (d. 1999)
1909 – Silvio Zavala, Mexican historian (d. 2014)
1912 – Roberta McCain, mother of John McCain (d. 2020)
1912 – Roy Sullivan, American survivor of seven lightning strikes (d. 1983)
1914 – Ramón Mercader, Spanish assassin of Leon Trotsky (d. 1978)
1915 – Teoctist, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church (d. 2007)
1915 – Eddie Bracken, American actor (d. 2002)
1920 – An Wang, Chinese–born computer pioneer (d. 1990)
1922 – Hattie Jacques, English actress (d. 1980)
1923 – Dora Bryan, English actress (d. 2014)
1926 – Konstantin Feoktistov, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 2009)
1926 – Mark Taimanov, Russian pianist and chess player (d. 2016)
1927 – Juliette Gréco, French singer and actress
1927 – Vladimir Kuts, Russian runner
1927 – Patsy Swayze, American dancer and choreographer (d. 2013)
1928 – Lincoln D. Faurer, American general (d. 2014)
1929 – Alejandro Jodorowsky, Chilean actor, director and screenwriter
1932 – Gay Talese, American writer
1932 – Alfred Worden, American astronaut
1933 – K. N. Choksy, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician (d. 2015)
1934 – Earl King, American musician (d. 2003)
1934 – Eddie Fenech Adami, former President of Malta
1934 – King Curtis, American jazz saxophonist (d. 1971)
1934 – Murtaza Rakhimov, former leader of Bashkortostan in Russia
1938 – S. Ramachandran Pillai, Indian Communist leader
1938 – Cayetano Ré, Paraguayan footballer and coach (d. 2013)
1939 – Ray Taliaferro, American radio talk show host
1939 – Francisco Mendès, Prime Minister of Guinea–Bissau
1940 – Toshihide Maskawa, Japanese physicist
1940 – Tony Tan, former President of Singapore
1941 – Little Tony, Italian–Sammarinese singer (d. 2013)
1943 – Gareth Hunt, English actor
1945 – Gerald Davies, Welsh rugby player
1945 – Jörg Schneider, Swiss actor (d. 2015)
1946 – Pete Postlethwaite, English actor (d. 2011)
1946 – Héctor Babenco, Argentine–Brazilian screenwriter, producer and actor (d. 2016)
1947 – Wayne Allwine, American voice actor (d. 2009)
1947 – Flemming Jorgensen, Danish musician and actor (d. 2011)
1948 – Josef Ackermann, Swiss banker, former CEO of Deutsche Bank
1948 – Jimmy Greenspoon, American singer (d. 2015)
1949 – Paulo César Carpegiani, Brazilian footballer and coach
1949 – Regina Derieva, Russian poet and writer (d. 2013)
1950 – Mauro Bellugi, Italian footballer

1951 – 1975

1952 – John Hickenlooper, Governor of Colorado
1952 – Vasco Rossi, Italian singer
1953 – Dan Quisenberry, American baseball player (d. 1998)
1954 – Dieter Bohlen, German composer and media personality
1955 – Mario Coutinho, Brazilian physician
1955 – Miguel Ferrer, American actor (d. 2017)
1955 – Rolf Benirschke, American football player
1956 – Mark St. John, American musician (Kiss)
1958 – Giuseppe Baresi, Italian footballer
1959 – Mick McCarthy, English–Irish football manager
1960 – James Spader, American actor
1960 – Gabriel Humberto Calderon, Argentine footballer
1962 – Garth Brooks, American singer
1962 – David Bryan, American keyboardist and songwriter (Bon Jovi)
1962 – Eddie Izzard, British actor and comedian
1963 – Heidemarie Stefanyshyn–Piper, American astronaut
1964 – Ray Mears, British television presenter and outdoor survival expert
1965 – Petr Vasa, Czech poet, singer–songwriter, actor and artist
1965 – Jason Gedrick, American actor
1965 – Chris Rock, American comedian and actor
1966 – Kristin Otto, German swimmer
1966 – Monika Weber, German fencer
1967 – Richie Burnett, Welsh darts player
1968 – Peter Bondra, Ukrainian–born hockey player
1968 – Sully Erna, American singer (Godsmack)
1968 – Katja Kaan, Danish pornographic actress
1969 – Adriano Silva Francisco, Brazilian footballer
1969 – Yves Racine, Canadian ice hockey player
1970 – Stanley Roberts, American basketball player
1971 – Anita Tsoy, Russian singer–songwriter
1972 – Robyn Lively, American actress
1972 – Essence Atkins, American actress
1972 – Amon Tobin, Brazilian musician, composer and producer
1974 – Danny Goffey, English musician
1974 – Steve Nash, Canadian basketball player
1975 – Wes Borland, American guitarist (Limp Bizkit)
1975 – Rafik Saïfi, Algerian footballer

From 1976

1977 – Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Japanese footballer
1977 – Dimitris Papanikolaou, Greek basketball player
1978 – Ashton Kutcher, American actor
1978 – Daniel Van Buyten, Belgian footballer
1979 – Tawakel Karman, Yemeni activist, co–winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize
1979 – Cerina Vincent, American actress
1979 – Daniel Bierofka, German footballer
1980 – Sasa Papac, Bosnia and Herzegovina footballer
1981 – Lee Ok–Sung, South Korean boxer
1985 – Tina Majorino, American actress
1986 – Stephen Colletti, American actor
1986 – Pippa Wilson, English sailor
1986 – Giorgi Tsintzade, Georgian basketball player
1987 – Joe Cardle, British footballer
1987 – Kerli, Estonian singer
1988 – Lee Don–Ku, South Korean ice hockey player
1988 – Lee Joon, South Korean singer, dancer and actor
1988 – Ai Kapo, Japanese singer and actress
1988 – Matthew Stafford, American football player
1989 – Louisa Lytton, English actress
1990 – Anna Abreu, Finnish singer
1991 – Zhou Yimiao, Chinese tennis player
1992 – Maimi Yajima, Japanese singer and actress
1993 – David Dorfman, American actor
1993 – Chris Mears, English diver
1996 – Mai Hagiwara, Japanese singer
1996 – Aaron Ekblad, Canadian ice hockey player
1999 – Bea Miller, American singer

Deaths

Up to 1900

531 – Emperor Keitai of Japan (b. 450)
590 – Pope Pelagius II (b. 1520)
812 – Li Ning, Chinese prince (b. 793)
999 – Boleslaus II of Bohemia
1045 – Emperor Go–Suzaku of Japan (b. 1009)
1074 – Pandulf IV of Benevento
1317 – Robert, Count of Clermont, French founder of the Bourbon Royal Family (b. 1526)
1560 – Bartolomeo Bandinelli, Italian sculptor (b. 1493)
1603 – Hermann Wilken, German humanist and mathematician (b. 1522)
1609 – Ferdinando I de'Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1549)
1626 – William V, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1548)
1652 – Gregorio Allegri, Italian composer (b. 1852)
1693 – Paul Pellisson, French writer (b. 1624)
1736 – Stephen Gray, English astronomer (b. 1666)
1779 – William Boyce, English composer (b. 1711)
1799 – Qianlong, Emperor of China (b. 1711)
1801 – Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish painter (b. 1726)
1823 – Ann Radcliffe, British writer (b. 1764)
1837 – Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden (b. 1778)
1839 – Karl August Nicander, Swedish poet (b. 1799)
1862 – Francisco de Paula Martinez de la Rosa, Spanish statesman and dramatist (b. 1787)
1864 – Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic, Serbian philologist and linguist (b. 1787)
1873 – Sheridan Le Fanu, Irish author (b. 1814)
1878 – Pope Pius IX (b. 1792)
1883 – Edmund J. Davis, American general and 15th Governor of Texas (b. 1827)
1897 – Galileo Ferraris, Italian physicist (b. 1847)

1901 – 2000

1920 – Aleksandr Vasilevich Kolchak, Russian military commander (b. 1876)
1931 – Tommaso Tittoni, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1855)
1932 – Augusto B. Leguia, President of Peru (b. 1863)
1935 – Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Scottish writer (b. 1901)
1937 – Elihu Root, American politician (b. 1845)
1938 – Harvey Samuel Firestone, American businessman (b. 1868)
1939 – Boris Grigoriev, Russian painter (b. 1886)
1942 – Ivan Bilibin, Russian illustrator (b. 1876)
1944 – Lina Cavalieri, Italian soprano (b. 1874)
1959 – Nap Lajoie, American baseball player (b. 1874)
1959 – Guitar Slim, American guitarist (b. 1926)
1959 – Daniel Francois Malan, South African politician, father of Apartheid (b. 1874)
1960 – Igor Kurchatov, Russian physicist (b. 1903)
1964 – Sophoklis Venizelos, Greek Prime Minister (b. 1894)
1967 – William Preston Lane, Jr., Governor of Maryland (b. 1892)
1971 – Douglass Cadwallader, American golfer (b. 1884)
1972 – Walter Lang, American movie director (b. 1896)
1979 – Josef Mengele, Nazi doctor (b. 1911)
1980 – Secondo Campini, Italian jet aircraft pioneer (b. 1904)
1985 – Matt Monro, English singer (b. 1930)
1986 – Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegalese historian, anthropologist and physicist (b. 1923)
1987 – Claudio Villa, Italian singer (b. 1926)
1990 – Jimmy Van Heusen, American songwriter (b. 1913)
1993 – Nic Broca, Belgian comic artist (b. 1932)
1994 – Witold Lutoslawski, Polish composer (b. 1913)
1994 – Stephen Milligan, English journalist and politician (b. 1948)
1994 – Arnold Smith, Canadian diplomat (b. 1915)
1996 – Boris Tchaikovsky, Russian composer (b. 1925)
1999 – King Hussein of Jordan (b. 1935)
2000 – Big Pun, American rapper (b. 1971)
2000 – Doug Henning, Canadian magician (b. 1947)

From 2001

2001 – Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American writer and pilot (b. 1906)
2001 – Dale Evans, American actress and singer (b. 1912)
2005 – Atli Dam, 5th Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (b. 1932)
2005 – Bob Turner, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1934)
2006 – Princess Duhru Shehvar of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1914)
2008 – Tamara Desni, German–born British actress (b. 1913)
2010 – Franco Ballerini, Italian road racing cyclist (b. 1964)
2010 – André Kolingba, Prime Minister of the Central African Republic (b. 1936)
2013 – Krsto Papic, Croatian director and screenwriter (b. 1933)
2014 – Doug Mohns, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1933)
2014 – Georgina Henry, British journalist (b. 1960)
2014 – Nico Nicolaiewsky, Brazilian actor, musician and comedian (b. 1957)
2014 – Mohamed Guessous, Moroccan sociologist and politician (b. 1937)
2015 – Dean Smith, American basketball coach (b. 1931)
2015 – Joe B. Mauldin, American musician (b. 1940)
2015 – John C. Whitehead, American financier and civil servant (b. 1922)
2015 – Billy Casper, American golfer (b. 1931)
2015 – René Lavand, Argentine magician and illusionist (b. 1928)
2015 – Donald H. Clausen, American politician (b. 1923)
2015 – Marshall Rosenberg, American psychologist (b. 1934)
2016 – Roger Willemsen, German author, essayist and television presenter (b. 1955)
2017 – Svend Asmussen, Danish jazz violinist (b. 1916)
2017 – Sotsha Dlamini, 5th Prime Minister of Swaziland (b. 1940)
2017 – Smail Hamdani, 11th Prime Minister of Algeria (b. 1930)
2017 – Richard Hatch, American actor, writer and producer (b. 1945)
2017 – Hans Rosling, Swedish physician, statistician and public speaker (b. 1948)
2017 – Tzvetan Todorov, Bulgarian–French philosopher (b. 1939)
2017 – Richard B. Wright, Canadian novelist (b. 1937)
2017 – Valeriu Bularca, Romanian wrestler (b. 1931)
2017 – Loukianos Kilaidonis, Greek singer–songwriter (b. 1943)
2017 – John Salt, British Anglican bishop (b. 1941)
2018 – Mickey Jones, American drummer and actor (b. 1941)
2018 – Pat Torpey, American drummer (b. 1953)

Observances

Independence Day in Grenada

Events

Up to 1900

1901 – 2000

From 2001

Births

Up to 1900

1901 – 1950

1951 – 1975

From 1976

Deaths

Up to 1900

1901 – 2000

From 2001

Observances

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