TODAY IN HISTORY

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).