February 7

## Events
### Up to 1900 
* 457 &ndash; Leo I becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
* 1074 &ndash; Pandulf IV of Benevento is killed battling the invading Normans at the Battle of Montesarchio.
* 1301 &ndash; Edward of Caernarvon (later King Edward II of England) becomes the first Prince of Wales.
* 1497 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Spanish and French forces end the Siege of Gibraltar.
* 1785 &ndash; William Herschel discovers the Antennae Galaxies.
* 1795 &ndash; The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution is accepted.
* 1807 &ndash; Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Eylau in Poland begins.
* 1812 &ndash; The strongest in a series of earthquakes strikes New Madrid, Missouri.
* 1819 &ndash; Thomas Stamford Raffles leaves Singapore shortly after taking it over, leaving the governing duties to William Farquhar.
* 1855 &ndash; The Treaty of Shimoda is signed, determining which of the Kuril islands are Japanese and which are Russian.
* 1863 &ndash; The ship HMS *Orpheus* sinks off Auckland, New Zealand, killing 189 people.
* 1897 &ndash; The first full-scale battle of the Greco-Turkish War occurs.
* 1898 &ndash; 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 &ndash; The British Labour Party is formed.

### 1901 &ndash; 2000 
* 1904 &ndash; A fire in Baltimore, Maryland, destroys 1,500 buildings.
* 1922 &ndash; Antonio Maria da Silva becomes Prime Minister of Portugal for a second time.
* 1935 &ndash; The Monopoly board game is invented.
* 1940 &ndash; The second full-length animated Walt Disney movie, *Pinocchio*, is shown for the first time.
* 1943 &ndash; World War II: Japanese forces complete the evacuation of the Imperial Japanese Army from Guadalcanal.
* 1948 &ndash; Neil Harvey becomes the youngest Australian to score a century in a test cricket match.
* 1951 &ndash; Korean War: Sancheong-Hamyang massacre.
* 1962 &ndash; The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.
* 1971 &ndash; Women gain the right to vote in Switzerland.
* 1974 &ndash; Grenada becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
* 1976 &ndash; Daniel Sittler sets an National Hockey League record by scoring 10 points in a single game.
* 1979 &ndash; For the first time since its discovery, the dwarf planet Pluto orbits the Sun closer than Neptune.
* 1984 &ndash; US astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart perform the first untethered spacewalk.
* 1986 &ndash; The rule of the Duvalier family in Haiti comes to an end when Jean-Claude Duvalier ("Baby Doc") leaves the country.
* 1990 &ndash; Collapse of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly of power.
* 1991 &ndash; Jean-Bertrand Aristide becomes President of Haiti.
* 1992 &ndash; The Maastricht Treaty is signed to officially form the European Union.
* 1995 &ndash; Ramzi Yousef, who planned the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.
* 1998 &ndash; The 1998 Winter Olympics open in Nagano, Japan.
* 1999 &ndash; Abdullah II of Jordan becomes King, after the death of his father, King Hussein of Jordan.
* 1999 &ndash; A border conflict begins between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
* 1999 &ndash; NASA's *Stardust* probe is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida to study comets.

### From 2001 
* 2005 &ndash; Ellen MacArthur becomes the fastest round-the-world sailor, though this record has since been beaten.
* 2009 &ndash; Bushfires in the Australian state of Victoria kill 173 people.
* 2012 &ndash; After a political crisis in the Maldives, President Mohamed Nasheed resigns, and is replaced my Mohammed Waheed Hassan.
* 2014 &ndash; The 2014 Winter Olympics begin in Sochi, southern Russia.
* 2015 &ndash; More than 30 people are killed in separate bomb attacks in Baghdad.
* 2016 &ndash; North Korea announces that it has launched a rocket.
* 2016 &ndash; The Denver Broncos win the 50th Super Bowl, defeating the Carolina Panthers 24–10.

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

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

### 1951 &ndash; 1975 
* 1952 &ndash; John Hickenlooper, Governor of Colorado
* 1952 &ndash; Vasco Rossi, Italian singer
* 1953 &ndash; Dan Quisenberry, American baseball player (d. 1998)
* 1954 &ndash; Dieter Bohlen, German composer and media personality
* 1955 &ndash; Mario Coutinho, Brazilian physician
* 1955 &ndash; Miguel Ferrer, American actor (d. 2017)
* 1955 &ndash; Rolf Benirschke, American football player
* 1956 &ndash; Mark St. John, American musician (Kiss)
* 1958 &ndash; Giuseppe Baresi, Italian footballer
* 1959 &ndash; Mick McCarthy, English-Irish football manager
* 1960 &ndash; James Spader, American actor
* 1960 &ndash; Gabriel Humberto Calderon, Argentine footballer
* 1962 &ndash; Garth Brooks, American singer
* 1962 &ndash; David Bryan, American keyboardist and songwriter (Bon Jovi)
* 1962 &ndash; Eddie Izzard, British actor and comedian
* 1963 &ndash; Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, American astronaut
* 1964 &ndash; Ray Mears, British television presenter and outdoor survival expert
* 1965 &ndash; Petr Vasa, Czech poet, singer-songwriter, actor and artist
* 1965 &ndash; Jason Gedrick, American actor
* 1965 &ndash; Chris Rock, American comedian and actor
* 1966 &ndash; Kristin Otto, German swimmer
* 1966 &ndash; Monika Weber, German fencer
* 1967 &ndash; Richie Burnett, Welsh darts player
* 1968 &ndash; Peter Bondra, Ukrainian-born hockey player
* 1968 &ndash; Sully Erna, American singer (Godsmack)
* 1968 &ndash; Katja Kaan, Danish pornographic actress
* 1969 &ndash; Adriano Silva Francisco, Brazilian footballer
* 1969 &ndash; Yves Racine, Canadian ice hockey player
* 1970 &ndash; Stanley Roberts, American basketball player
* 1971 &ndash; Anita Tsoy, Russian singer-songwriter
* 1972 &ndash; Robyn Lively, American actress
* 1972 &ndash; Essence Atkins, American actress
* 1972 &ndash; Amon Tobin, Brazilian musician, composer and producer
* 1974 &ndash; Danny Goffey, English musician
* 1974 &ndash; Steve Nash, Canadian basketball player
* 1975 &ndash; Wes Borland, American guitarist (Limp Bizkit)
* 1975 &ndash; Rafik Saïfi, Algerian footballer

### From 1976 
* 1977 &ndash; Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Japanese footballer
* 1977 &ndash; Dimitris Papanikolaou, Greek basketball player
* 1978 &ndash; Ashton Kutcher, American actor
* 1978 &ndash; Daniel Van Buyten, Belgian footballer
* 1979 &ndash; Tawakel Karman, Yemeni activist, co-winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize
* 1979 &ndash; Cerina Vincent, American actress
* 1979 &ndash; Daniel Bierofka, German footballer
* 1980 &ndash; Sasa Papac, Bosnia and Herzegovina footballer
* 1981 &ndash; Lee Ok-Sung, South Korean boxer
* 1985 &ndash; Tina Majorino, American actress
* 1986 &ndash; Stephen Colletti, American actor
* 1986 &ndash; Pippa Wilson, English sailor
* 1986 &ndash; Giorgi Tsintzade, Georgian basketball player
* 1987 &ndash; Joe Cardle, British footballer
* 1987 &ndash; Kerli, Estonian singer
* 1988 &ndash; Lee Don-Ku, South Korean ice hockey player
* 1988 &ndash; Lee Joon, South Korean singer, dancer and actor
* 1988 &ndash; Ai Kapo, Japanese singer and actress
* 1988 &ndash; Matthew Stafford, American football player
* 1989 &ndash; Louisa Lytton, English actress
* 1990 &ndash; Anna Abreu, Finnish singer
* 1991 &ndash; Zhou Yimiao, Chinese tennis player
* 1992 &ndash; Maimi Yajima, Japanese singer and actress
* 1993 &ndash; David Dorfman, American actor
* 1993 &ndash; Chris Mears, English diver
* 1996 &ndash; Mai Hagiwara, Japanese singer
* 1996 &ndash; Aaron Ekblad, Canadian ice hockey player
* 1999 &ndash; Bea Miller, American singer

## Deaths
### Up to 1900 
* 531 &ndash; Emperor Keitai of Japan (b. 450)
* 590 &ndash; Pope Pelagius II (b. 1520)
* 812 &ndash; Li Ning, Chinese prince (b. 793)
* 999 &ndash; Boleslaus II of Bohemia
* 1045 &ndash; Emperor Go-Suzaku of Japan (b. 1009)
* 1074 &ndash; Pandulf IV of Benevento
* 1317 &ndash; Robert, Count of Clermont, French founder of the Bourbon Royal Family (b. 1526)
* 1560 &ndash; Bartolomeo Bandinelli, Italian sculptor (b. 1493)
* 1603 &ndash; Hermann Wilken, German humanist and mathematician (b. 1522)
* 1609 &ndash; Ferdinando I de'Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1549)
* 1626 &ndash; William V, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1548)
* 1652 &ndash; Gregorio Allegri, Italian composer (b. 1852)
* 1693 &ndash; Paul Pellisson, French writer (b. 1624)
* 1736 &ndash; Stephen Gray, English astronomer (b. 1666)
* 1779 &ndash; William Boyce, English composer (b. 1711)
* 1799 &ndash; Qianlong, Emperor of China (b. 1711)
* 1801 &ndash; Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish painter (b. 1726)
* 1823 &ndash; Ann Radcliffe, British writer (b. 1764)
* 1837 &ndash; Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden (b. 1778)
* 1839 &ndash; Karl August Nicander, Swedish poet (b. 1799)
* 1862 &ndash; Francisco de Paula Martinez de la Rosa, Spanish statesman and dramatist (b. 1787)
* 1864 &ndash; Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic, Serbian philologist and linguist (b. 1787)
* 1873 &ndash; Sheridan Le Fanu, Irish author (b. 1814)
* 1878 &ndash; Pope Pius IX (b. 1792)
* 1883 &ndash; Edmund J. Davis, American general and 15th Governor of Texas (b. 1827)
* 1897 &ndash; Galileo Ferraris, Italian physicist (b. 1847)

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

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

## Observances
* Independence Day in Grenada