Today in History
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2009 The Black Saturday bushfires in Australia kill 173 people
The fires were the worst natural disaster in Australian history.
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2005 Ellen MacArthur breaks the speed record for sailing solo around the world
The journey took her 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes, and 33 seconds.
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1992 The European Union is established as the Maastricht Treaty is signed
The treaty also defined a single European currency: the Euro.
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1986 Haiti’s president, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, flees the country, ending 28 years of family rule
On the same day 5 years later, the first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was sworn in.
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1984 NASA astronauts take the first untethered spacewalk
Photographs of Bruce McCandless and Robert L. Stewart floating freely in space became some of the 1980s’ most iconic images.
Births On This Day, February 7
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1978 Ashton Kutcher
American model, actor, producer
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1962 Eddie Izzard
Yemeni/English actor, comedian
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1962 Garth Brooks
American singer-songwriter, guitarist
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1906 Oleg Antonov
Soviet aircraft designer founded the Antonov Aircraft Company
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1812 Charles Dickens
English author
Deaths On This Day, February 7
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2015 Dean Smith
American basketball player, coach
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1994 Witold Lutosławski
Polish composer, conductor
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1986 Cheikh Anta Diop
Senegalese historian, anthropologist, physicist
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1959 Nap Lajoie
American baseball player
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1938 Harvey Samuel Firestone
American businessman, founded the Firestone Tire, Rubber Company
