DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Tuesday, Feb. 7, the 38th day of 2023. There are 333 days left in the year. On this date in:
1857: A French court acquitted author Gustave Flaubert of obscenity for his serialized novel “Madame Bovary.”
1943: The government abruptly announced that wartime rationing of shoes made of leather would go into effect in two days, limiting consumers to buying three pairs per person per year. (Rationing was lifted in October 1945.)
1948: Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower resigned as U.S. Army chief of staff; he was succeeded by Gen. Omar Bradley.
1962: President John F. Kennedy imposed a full trade embargo on Cuba.
1964: The Beatles arrived at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to begin their first American tour.
1971: Women in Switzerland gained the right to vote through a national referendum, 12 years after a previous attempt failed.
1984: Space shuttle Challenger astronauts Bruce Mccandless II and Robert L. Stewart went on the first untethered spacewalk, which lasted nearly six hours.
1985: U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena was kidnapped in Guadalajara, Mexico, by drug traffickers who tortured and murdered him.
1991: Jean-bertrand Aristide was inaugurated as the first democratically elected president of Haiti (he was overthrown by the military the following September).
1999: Jordan’s King Hussein died of cancer at age 63; he was succeeded by his eldest son, Abdullah.
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 (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.
2020: Two days after his acquittal in his first Senate impeachment trial, President Donald Trump took retribution against two officials who had delivered damaging testimony; he ousted Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a national security aide, and Gordon Sondland, his ambassador to the European Union.
Saxophonist Brian Travers of UB40 is 64. Comedian Robert Smigel (Triumph the Insult Comic Dog) is 63. Actor James Spader is 63. Country singer Garth Brooks is 61. Keyboardist David Bryan of Bon Jovi is 61. Comedian Chris Rock is 58. Actor Jason Gedrick
(“Windfall,” “Boomtown”) is 56. Actor Essence Atkins (“Half and Half,” “Smart Guy”) is 51. Guitarist Wes Borland
of Limp Bizkit is 48. Bassist Tom Blankenship of My Morning Jacket is 45. Actor Ashton Kutcher is 45. Actor Tina Majorino (“Napoleon Dynamite,” “Veronica Mars”) is 38. Actor Deborah Ann Woll (“True Blood”) is 38.