125 things happened on 7 February, from AD 199 to 2025. UK stories come first, then the rest of the world.
1964 · 62 years ago
The Beatles landed in the United States for the first time, at the newly renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport. Only days earlier, the band had their first American number one hit with 'I Want to Hold Your Hand'. The four members were John Lennon, Pau…
UK history first: stories from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
UK story
King Edward I gave his son, Edward of Caernarfon, the title Prince of Wales. The title had first been used by the Welsh rulers of Gwynedd. Edward I gave it to his son to mark the completion of his conquest of Wales. Since then it has traditionally gone to the monarch's heir, and the young Edward later became King Edward II.
UK story
After three years and seven months, Spain and France gave up their attempt to capture Gibraltar from Britain. The Great Siege of Gibraltar took place during the American Revolutionary War. It was the largest battle of that war by the number of people who fought in it. In the end, Gibraltar stayed in British hands.
UK story
Kid Auto Races at Venice, a short American film starring the English comic actor Charlie Chaplin, was released. It was the first film in which audiences saw his famous character, the 'Little Tramp'. The Tramp made Chaplin a worldwide star of silent films. In 2020 the film was chosen to be preserved in the United States National Film Registry.
UK story
The Beatles landed in the United States for the first time, at the newly renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport. Only days earlier, the band had their first American number one hit with 'I Want to Hold Your Hand'. The four members were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, from Liverpool. They are regarded as the most influential band in popular music.
UK story
Scientists announced the discovery of the Happisburgh footprints on a beach in Norfolk, England. The prints, left by ancient human relatives, are around 850,000 to 950,000 years old. They are the oldest known footprints of their kind outside Africa. They were found in May 2013 and carefully photographed in 3D, before the tide washed them away shortly afterwards.
UK story
Napoleonic Wars: Two evenly matched frigates, the French Aréthuse and the British Amelia, battled to a stalemate (pictured) at the Îles de Los off the Guinean coast.
UK story
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles leaves Singapore after just taking it over, leaving it in the hands of William Farquhar.
UK story
Second Boer War: British troops made a third unsuccessful attempt to lift the siege of Ladysmith in the Battle of Vaal Krantz.
Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio had its first showing at the Center Theatre in New York City. It is loosely based on The Adventures of Pinocchio, an 1883 novel by Carlo Collodi. Pinocchio became the first animated feature film to win a competitive Academy Award. Walt Disney himself holds the record for the most Academy Awards won by one person, with 22.
Pluto moved inside the orbit of Neptune for the first time since either of them was discovered. Pluto's path around the Sun is a stretched oval, so for part of its journey it is closer to the Sun than Neptune. It stayed closer until 11 February 1999. Pluto was first counted as a planet, but it is now known as a dwarf planet.
Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart made the first untethered spacewalks, using a device called the Manned Maneuvering Unit. 'Untethered' means they were not attached to their spacecraft by a safety line. The spacewalks took place during the Space Shuttle Challenger's mission STS-41-B. It was NASA's tenth Space Shuttle mission, and it also put two communications satellites into space.
The twelve member states of the European Communities signed the Maastricht Treaty. It is the founding treaty of the European Union, often called the EU. It set out plans for a shared European citizenship and for a single currency. It also gave more power to the European Parliament.
Space Shuttle Atlantis launched on mission STS-98, carrying the Destiny laboratory module to the International Space Station. A laboratory is a place where scientists carry out experiments. It was the first human spaceflight launch of the 21st century. Atlantis spent six of its twelve days in space docked to the station before landing safely at Edwards Air Force Base.
Leo I (pictured), who ruled for nearly 20 years, was crowned Byzantine emperor.
Bardas Phokas the Younger and Bardas Skleros, Byzantine generals of the military elite, begin a wide-scale rebellion against Emperor Basil II.
A synod at Blachernae convened by anti-Unionist Greek clergy condemns the former pro-Unionist patriarch John XI of Constantinople.
King Thihathu founds the Pinya Kingdom as the de jure successor state of the Pagan Kingdom.
Albert, King of Sweden, granted a charter to the town of Ulvila, the third-oldest city in Finland.
Supporters of the Dominican preacher Girolamo Savonarola collected and publicly burned thousands of vanity items such as cosmetics, art and books in Florence, Italy.
The Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting the ability of U.S. citizens and foreign nationals to sue U.S. states in federal courts, was ratified.
Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon finds Bennigsen's Russian forces taking a stand at Eylau. After bitter fighting, the French take the town, but the Russians resume the battle the next day.
The strongest in a series of earthquakes strikes New Madrid, Missouri.
Battle of Debre Tabor: Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien.
A law is approved to found the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Lectures started October 16, 1855.
The Cripple Creek miner's strike, led by the Western Federation of Miners, begins in Cripple Creek, Colorado, United States.
The Great Baltimore Fire begins in Baltimore, Maryland; it destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
World War II: Japan successfully withdrew its troops from Guadalcanal.
World War II: In Anzio, Italy, German forces launch a counteroffensive during the Allied Operation Shingle.
Neil Harvey became the youngest Australian to score a century in Test cricket.
The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.
The Great Fire of Iloilo breaks out in a lumber yard in Iznart Street and burns for almost half a day destroying nearly three-quarters of the City Proper area and Php 50 million pesos in total properties' damage.
Grenada gains independence from the United Kingdom.
President of Haiti Jean-Claude Duvalier fled the country after a popular uprising, ending 28 years of one-family rule in the nation.
Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power.
Haiti's first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is sworn in.
Having retired four months earlier, American basketball player Michael Jordan signed a contract with the Chicago White Sox to play baseball.
Steve Jobs returned to Apple Inc. as a consultant after the company's acquisition of his technology startup NeXT.
President Ilham Aliyev issued a decree on the redenomination of Azerbaijan's currency, with 1 new manat equal to 5000 old manats.
The U.S. state of Mississippi officially certifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was formally ratified by Mississippi in 1995.
An inquiry report of the United Nations Human Rights Council found systematic and wide-ranging violations of human rights in North Korea.
North Korea launches Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4 into outer space violating multiple UN treaties and prompting condemnation from around the world.
Every answer is somewhere on this page. Have a go, then check!
In which year did this happen: “Spain and France give up the Great Siege of Gibraltar”?
B: 1783. 1783 — that’s 243 years ago. Find it on the page
In which year did this happen: “The Beatles arrive in the United States for the first time”?
B: 1964. 1964 — that’s 62 years ago. Find it on the page
Which of these happened first?
B: Spain and France give up the Great Siege of Gibraltar. 1964: The Beatles arrive in the United States for the first time · 1783: Spain and France give up the Great Siege of Gibraltar · 2014: Ancient footprints found on a Norfolk beach are announced Find it on the page
“Charlie Chaplin's 'Little Tramp' first appears on screen” happened in 1914. How many years ago was that?
B: 112 years. 2026 − 1914 = 112. Find it on the page
Famous people whose birthday is 7 February.
UK story
Charles Dickens was an English writer, born in Portsmouth, who is seen by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. At the age of 12 he had to leave school to work in a factory. His famous stories include A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist and Great Expectations, full of some of literature's best-known characters. He also campaigned for children's rights and education.
Laura Ingalls Wilder was an American writer, teacher and journalist. She is best known for the Little House on the Prairie series of children's books, published between 1932 and 1943. The stories are based on her own childhood, growing up in a family of settlers and pioneers in America.
Well-known people who died on 7 February.
Festivals, holidays and saints’ days celebrated on 7 February somewhere in the world.
Content note: these entries mention things like war, violence, deaths, disasters or crime. They are part of history, but they can be upsetting. Grown-ups and teachers: you may want to read them first. They come straight from Wikipedia and have not been rewritten for children.
Stories with a heading have been written for young readers by A Day in the Past, using the linked articles as sources. Other entries show text from Wikipedia’s “February 7” page and its “On this day” feed, written by Wikipedia contributors and shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. Each “Read more” link goes to the article an entry is based on. Photos are credited under each picture. Spotted a mistake? Please tell us.