Today is Feb. 7. On this date in:
1795
The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, dealing with states’ sovereign immunity, was ratified.
1812
Author Charles Dickens was born in Landport, Portsmouth, England.
1857
A French court acquitted author Gustave Flaubert of obscenity for his serialized novel “Madame Bovary.”
1904
A fire began in Baltimore that raged for about 30 hours and destroyed more than 1,500 buildings.
1931
Aviator Amelia Earhart married publisher George P. Putnam in Noank, Connecticut.
1943
The government 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 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.
1974
Mel Brooks’ western comedy film “Blazing Saddles” premiered.
1984
Space shuttle Challenger astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart went on the first untethered spacewalk, which lasted nearly six hours.
1986
Haitian President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier fled his country, ending 28 years of his family’s rule.
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).
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