February 7

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 - Emile 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 Frederic 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 Mobius, 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 - Ramon 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 Greco, 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 Re, Paraguayan footballer and coach (d. 2013)
1939 - Ray Taliaferro, American radio talk show host
1939 - Francisco Mendes, 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 - Jorg Schneider, Swiss actor (d. 2015)
1946 - Pete Postlethwaite, English actor (d. 2011)
1946 - Hector 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 Cesar 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 Saifi, 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 - Andre 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 - Rene 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
February 07