On this day, Feb. 7

1817 America’s first public gas street lamp was lighted in Baltimore at Market and Lemon streets, now East Baltimore and Holliday streets.

1929 A metropolitan charter bill, designed to make Pittsburgh the fifth-largest city in the United States with a consolidated population of 1,319,684, was prepared for the state Legislature.

1962 President John F. Kennedy imposed a full trade embargo on Cuba.

1975 The mayor of Pittsburgh and the Allegheny County commissioners agreed on a proposal for a 130,000- to 140,000square-foot convention center on a site bounded by Penn Avenue, Tenth Street and Fort Duquesne Boulevard.

1986 A $28 million merger offer by Australia’s Swan Brewing Co. to Pittsburgh Brewing Co. was accepted by the city’s only beer maker.

2009 A miles-wide section of ice in Lake Erie broke away from the Ohio shoreline, trapping about 135 ice fishermen on an ice floe, some for as long as four hours before they could be rescued. One man fell into the water and later died of an apparent heart attack.

2014 The Sochi Olympics opened with a celebration of Russia’s past greatness and hopes for future glory. Some items are from Stefan Lorant’s “Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City” (digital.library.pitt.edu/chronology).

— Compiled by Alyssa Brown

Today’s birthdays: Author Gay Talese, 87. Actor James Spader, 59. Country singer Garth Brooks, 57. Rock musician David Bryan (Bon Jovi), 57. Actor-comedian Eddie Izzard, 57. Actor-comedian Chris Rock, 54. Actor Ashton Kutcher, 41. Actress Tina Majorino, 34. NBA player Isaiah Thomas, 30.

Thought for today: “No one is useless in this world … who lightens the burden of it for anyone else.” — From “Our Mutual Friend” by Charles Dickens (born this date in 1812, died in 1870)