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On this day in history - February 7

What Happened On This Day – February 7

  • 2009 The Black Saturday bushfires in Australia kill 173 people

    The fires were the worst natural disaster in Australian history.

  • 2005 Ellen MacArthur breaks the speed record for sailing solo around the world

    The journey took her 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes, and 33 seconds.

  • 1992 The European Union is established as the Maastricht Treaty is signed

    The treaty also defined a single European currency: the Euro.

  • 1986 Haiti's president, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, flees the country, ending 28 years of family rule

    On the same day 5 years later, the first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was sworn in.

  • 1984 NASA astronauts take the first untethered spacewalk

    The photographs of Bruce McCandless and Robert L. Stewart hovering freely in space became some of the most iconic images of the 1980s.

Illustration of stork, signifying birth

Births On This Day,
February 7

  • 1978 Ashton Kutcher

    American model, actor, producer

  • 1962 Eddie Izzard

    Yemeni/English actor, comedian

  • 1962 Garth Brooks

    American singer-songwriter, guitarist

  • 1906 Oleg Antonov

    Soviet aircraft designer, founded the Antonov Aircraft Company

  • 1812 Charles Dickens

    English author

Illustration of tombstone, signifying death

Deaths On This Day,
February 7

  • 2015 Dean Smith

    American basketball player, coach

  • 1994 Witold Lutosławski

    Polish composer, conductor

  • 1986 Cheikh Anta Diop

    Senegalese historian, anthropologist, physicist

  • 1959 Nap Lajoie

    American baseball player

  • 1938 Harvey Samuel Firestone

    American businessman, founded the Firestone Tire, Rubber Company