Today is Sunday, Feb. 7, the 38th day of 2016. There are 328 days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
1793 – Austria and Prussia sign alliance against France.
1816 – Congress of New Grenada entrusts Simon Bolivar with political and military control in invasion of Venezuela from Haiti.
1831 – Belgian Constitution is proclaimed.
1863 – HMS Orpheus is wrecked near New Zealand, killing 190 people.
1944 – German forces launch assault on Allies’ Anzio bridgehead in World War II.
1947 – British proposal for dividing Palestine into Arab and Jewish zones with administration as trusteeship is rejected by Arabs and Jews.
1962 – Coal mine explosion in Saarbruecken, Germany, kills 298 miners.
1964 – Rock ‘n’ roll’s British invasion begins when the Beatles are greeted by thousands of screaming fans on their arrival in New York for their first American tour.
1969 – Nigerian planes bomb and strafe crowded market in village in rebellious Biafra, killing more than 200 people.
1971 – U.S. Apollo 14 astronauts speed toward splashdown in Pacific Ocean after their visit to moon.
1974 – Britain grants independence to small Caribbean island of Grenada.
1984 – Space shuttle astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart go on first untethered spacewalk.
1986 – Haiti’s President for Life Jean-Claude Duvalier goes into exile, ending 29-year family dynasty in the Caribbean republic.
1992 – Pakistan for the first time acknowledges its ability to make nuclear weapons.
1994 – Guerrillas kill four Israeli soldiers in an ambush in Lebanon that draws retaliatory air and artillery strikes.
1995 – Ramzi Yousef, the alleged mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.
1996 – A charter jetliner carrying German tourists crashes into the Caribbean minutes after taking off from Puerto Plata, the Dominican Republic, killing 189 aboard.
1999 – King Hussein dies of cancer after nearly half a century on the throne of Jordan.
2001 – Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide returns to power in Haiti. Aristide won a second term as president in November 2000 elections that were boycotted by major opposition parties.
2005 – Secretary-General Kofi Annan suspends the head of the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq and a senior U.N. official who dealt with contracts following an independent investigation that accused them of misconduct.
2007 – The Episcopal Church names a woman, Rev. Nerva Cot Aguilera, as bishop in Cuba, the first such appointment by the church in the developing world.
2010 – Pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovych declares victory in Ukraine’s presidential contest even though exit polls show a very tight race.
2011 – A fire guts warehouses holding many of the elaborate, feather-and-sequin costumes and extravagant floats for Rio’s Carnival parade, destroying the dreams and hard work of thousands of mostly poor Brazilians who toil year-round to stage one of world’s most spectacular celebrations.
2012 – Greece’s private creditors signal progress on a debt-relief deal but crucial talks between Greek coalition leaders about forcing more austerity upon a hostile public are again postponed.
2013 – Ireland clinches a long-sought agreement with the European Central Bank to restructure the loans used to bail out its failing banks, a deal expected to reduce the national debt by euro 20 billion ($27 billion).
2014 — A Russia in search of global vindication kicks off the Sochi Olympics looking more like a Russia that likes to party, with a pulse-raising opening ceremony about fun and sports instead of terrorism, gay rights and coddling despots.
2015 — Ukraine’s president pushes for a quick cease-fire in his country’s troubled east and defensive weapons from the West as mediators seek momentum for a deal to stem the fighting on Europe’sedge.
Today’s Birthdays:
Sir Thomas More, English Lord Chancellor and writer (1478-1535); Charles Dickens, English novelist (1812-1870); Dmitri Mendeleyev, Russian chemist (1834-1907); Sinclair Lewis, U.S. writer (1885-1951); Aisingyoro Henry Puyi, last emperor of China (1906-1967); Sir Russell Drysdale, Australian artist (1912-1981); Earl King, U.S. blues singer/guitarist (1934-2003); Garth Brooks, U.S. country singer (1962–); Chris Rock, U.S. actor/comedian (1965–).
Thought For Today:
There are only two classes of mankind in the world — doctors and patients — Rudyard Kipling, English author and poet (1865-1936).
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