TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SUNDAY, FEB. 7, the 38th day of 2021. There are 327 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1962, President John F. Kennedy imposed a full trade embargo on Cuba.
In 1812, author Charles Dickens was born in Landport, Portsmouth, England.
In 1931, aviator Amelia Earhart married publisher George P. Putnam in Noank, Connecticut.
In 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.)
In 1948, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower resigned as U.S. Army chief of staff; he was succeeded by Gen. Omar Bradley.
In 1964, the Beatles arrived at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to begin their first American tour.
In 1984, space shuttle Challenger astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart went on the first untethered spacewalk, which lasted nearly six hours.
In 1985, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena was kidnapped in Guadalajara, Mexico, by drug traffickers who tortured and murdered him.
In 1991, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was inaugurated as the first democratically elected president of Haiti (he was overthrown by the military the following September).
In 1998, the Winter Olympic Games were opened in Nagano, Japan, by Emperor Akihito.
In 1999, Jordan’s King Hussein died of cancer at age 63; he was succeeded by his eldest son, Abdullah.
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 (one man fell into the water and later died of an apparent heart attack).
In 2019, former U.S. Rep. John Dingell, the longest serving member of Congress in American history, died at his home in Dearborn, Michigan, at the age of 92; the Democrat had served in the House for 59 years before retiring in 2014. Frank Robinson, the first Black manager in Major League Baseball, died in Los Angeles at the age of 83
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Author Gay Talese is 89. Reggae musician Brian Travers (UB40) is 62. Comedy writer Robert Smigel and actor James Spader are 61. Country singer Garth Brooks, rock musician David Bryan (Bon Jovi) and actor-comedian Eddie Izzard are 59. Actor-comedian Chris Rock is 56. Actor Jason Gedrick is 54. Actor Essence Atkins is 49. Rock singer-musician Wes Borland is 46. Rock musician Tom Blankenship (My Morning Jacket) and actor Ashton Kutcher are 43. Actors Tina Majorino and Deborah Ann Woll are 36. NBA player Isaiah Thomas is 32. NHL center Steven Stamkos is 31.