What happened on February 7 ?

457 - Leo I becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire.

1301 - Edward of Caernarvon (later King Edward II of England) becomes the first English Prince of Wales.

1550 - Julius III becomes Pope.

1613 - Mikhail Romanov becomes Tsar of Russia.

1795 - The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed.

1807 - Napoléon's French Empire begin fighting against Russian and Prussian forces of the Fourth Coalition at the Battle of Eylau in Eylau, Poland.

1812 - The strongest in a series of earthquakes strikes New Madrid, Missouri.

1842 - Battle of Debre Tabor: Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien.

1856 - The colonial Tasmanian Parliament passes the first piece of legislation (the Electoral Act 1856) anywhere in the world providing for elections by way of a secret ballot. [1]

1863 - HMS Orpheus sinks off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand, killing 189.

1882 - The last heavyweight boxing championship bare-knuckle fight takes place in Mississippi City, Mississippi.

1894 - The Cripple Creek miner's strike, led by the Western Federation of Miners, begins in Cripple Creek, Colorado.

1898 - Emile Zola is brought to trial for libel for publishing J'Accuse.

1900 - The British Labour Party is formed.

1904 - A fire in Baltimore, Maryland destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.

1914 - Charlie Chaplin first appears as "The Tramp", as his first film Kid Auto Races at Venice is released at Keystone Studios.

1942 - In Drakulici, Banja Luka, Croatian Nazis kill 2,300 Serbian civilians, among them 551 children.

1944 - World War II: In Anzio, Italy Nazi forces launch a counteroffensive.

1948 - Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower resigned as Army chief of staff and was succeeded by Gen. Omar Bradley.

1962 - The United States Government bans all Cuban imports and exports.

1964 - The Beatles arrive on their first visit to the United States.

1967 - A fire at a restaurant in Montgomery, Alabama kills 25 people.

1969 - The original Hetch Hetchy Moccasin Powerhouse is removed from service.

1971 - Women gain the right to vote in Switzerland.

1974 - Grenada becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

1976 - Future Hall of Famer Darryl Sittler of the Toronto Maple Leafs scores six goals and records four assists in an 11-4 victory over the Boston Bruins, setting a NHL record with 10 points in one game.

1977 - The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 24.

1979 - Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit for the first time since either planet was known to science.

1984 - Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk.

1985 - "New York, New York" becomes the official city anthem of New York City.

1986 - Twenty-eight years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation.

1990 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly of power.

1991 - Haiti's first democratically-elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is sworn in.

1991 - The IRA launches a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street during a cabinet meeting.

1992 - The European Union is formed.

1995 - Ramzi Yousef, the alleged mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.

1999 - Crown Prince Abdullah becomes the King of Jordan on the death of his father, King Hussein.

2000 - Bahria University is established through the Presidential Ordinance No. V of 2000 of Government of Pakistan.

2003 - Last contact with Pioneer 10.