On Feb. 7, 1984, space shuttle Challenger astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart went on the first untethered space walk, which lasted nearly six hours.
On this date:
In 1812, author Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England.
In 1857, a French court acquitted author Gustave Flaubert of obscenity for his serialized novel "Madame Bovary."
In 1904, a fire began in Baltimore that raged for about 30 hours and destroyed more than 1,500 buildings.
In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized a flag for the office of the vice president.
In 1943, the government announced the start of shoe rationing, limiting consumers to buying three pairs per person for the remainder of the year.
In 1948, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower resigned as Army chief of staff; he was succeeded by Gen. Omar Bradley.
In 1971, women in Switzerland gained the right to vote through a national referendum, 12 years after a previous attempt failed.
In 1974, the island nation of Grenada (greh-NAY'-duh) won independence from Britain.
In 1983, Elizabeth H. Dole was sworn in as the first female secretary of transportation by the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
In 1986, Haitian President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier fled his country, ending 28 years of family rule.
In 1990, the Soviet Union's Communist Party gave up its monopoly on power by agreeing to let other political parties compete for control of the country.
In 1991, the Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide was sworn in as Haiti's first democratically elected president.
In 1995, Ramzi Yousef, the alleged mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.
In 1999, Jordan's King Hussein died of cancer at age 63; he was succeeded by his eldest son, Abdullah.
In 2000, With an astonishing comeback to win the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Tiger Woods gained his sixth straight PGA Tour victory, becoming the first player since Ben Hogan in 1948 to win six in a row. The Web site Yahoo! came under a "denial of service" attack by Internet vandals. Yugoslav Defense Minister Pavle Bulatovic (byoo-LAH'-toh-vihch) was gunned down in a Belgrade restaurant and died later in a hospital.
In 2004, John Kerry won the Washington state and Michigan Democratic presidential primaries.
In 2005, President George W. Bush proposed a $2.57 trillion budget that would erase scores of programs but still worsen federal deficits by $42 billion over the next five years. Defrocked priest Paul Shanley, the most notorious figure in the sex scandal that rocked the Boston Archdiocese, was convicted of repeatedly raping and fondling a boy at his church during the 1980s. (Shanley was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison.) Ellen MacArthur, a 28-year-old Englishwoman, broke the then-record for solo around-the-world sailing, completing the 26,000-mile circumnavigation after 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds at sea.
In 2008, John McCain effectively sealed the Republican presidential nomination as chief rival Mitt Romney suspended his campaign. Fourteen refinery workers were killed in a sugar dust explosion near Savannah, Ga. A gunman opened fire at a Kirkwood, Mo., council meeting, killing two police officers and three city officials before being fatally shot by law enforcers. In Los Angeles, a man who claimed responsibility for the deaths of three relatives opened fire on a SWAT unit, killing one officer; the gunman was killed by a police sniper. After two months of delay, shuttle Atlantis blasted into orbit with Europe's gift to the international space station, a $2 billion science lab named Columbus.
In 2009, a miles-wide section of ice in Lake Erie broke away from the Ohio shoreline, trapping about 135 fishermen, some for as long as four hours before they could be rescued. Walls of flame roared across southeastern Australia, leveling scores of homes, forests and farmland in the country's worst wildfire disaster in a quarter century. Bolivia's new constitution took effect. Death claimed jazz singer Blossom Dearie at age 84, country singer Molly Bee at age 69, and Jack Cover, inventor of the Taser stun gun, at age 88.
Today's Birthdays: Country singer Wilma Lee Cooper is 89. Author Gay Talese is 78. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) is 75. Actor Miguel Ferrer is 55. Reggae musician Brian Travers (UB40) is 51. Comedy writer Robert Smigel (SMY'-guhl) is 50. Actor James Spader is 50. Country singer Garth Brooks is 48. Rock musician David Bryan (Bon Jovi) is 48. Actor-comedian Eddie Izzard is 48. Actor-comedian Chris Rock is 45. Actor Jason Gedrick is 43. Actress Essence Atkins is 38. Rock singer-musician Wes Borland is 35. Actor Ashton Kutcher is 32. Actress Tina Majorino is 25.
Those Born On This Date Include: English statesman and writer Sir Thomas More (1478); farm equipment manufacturer John Deere (1804); "Little House" books author Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867); novelist Sinclair Lewis (1885); ragtime composer and pianist Eubie Blake (1887); actor and Olympic swimming gold medalist Buster Crabbe ("Flash Gordon") (1908).
Today In Entertainment History February 7
In 1944, Bing Crosby and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra recorded "Swinging on a Star" in Los Angeles for Decca Records.
In 1964, thousands of screaming fans greeted The Beatles as they arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport for their first US tour.
In 1965, George Harrison had his tonsils removed at a London hospital.
In 1979, Stephen Stills became the first artist to record on digital equipment, at a recording studio in Los Angeles. However, Ry Cooder is credited with releasing the first digitally recorded record because Stills never released the material.
In 1980, Pink Floyd performed "The Wall" for the first time in the U.S. The band only did the show in Los Angeles and New York.
In 1981, country singer John Conlee joined the Grand Ole Opry.
In 1989, Michael Jackson visited the Stockton, California, elementary school where five students were killed by a gunman the month before. He brought T-shirts and cassettes for the kids.
In 2000, magician Doug Henning died in Los Angeles after battling liver cancer. He was 52. That same day, Foghat singer "Lonesome" Dave Peverett died of pneumonia in Orlando, Florida. He was 56.
In 2005, Paul McCartney performed at the Super Bowl halftime show in Jacksonville, Florida. He was the first act to play that gig since Janet Jackson exposed her breast at the previous year's Super Bowl halftime show.
Thought for Today: "Priests are no more necessary to religion than politicians to patriotism." — John Haynes Holmes, American clergyman and reformer (1879-1964).
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