Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

February 7

2003
Iraq War: At an appearance at Aviano Air Base in Italy, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld projected that the Iraq war "could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."

1994
Dick Tracy: Tess Trueheart serves the cartoon detective with divorce papers.

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

1984
The Bubble Boy (age 12), known publicly only as David, leaves his bubble and is able to kiss his mother for the first time. He had spent most of his life inside the protective bubble due to a severe immune deficiency. He died several weeks later.

1984
First human to fly free of a spacecraft: Captain Bruce McCandless aboard the space shuttle Challenger.

1964
The Beatles arrive for their first trip to the U.S., and are greeted by screaming mobs at the airport. When asked about the Detroit movement to stamp out the Beatles, they responded, "We're starting a movement to stamp out Detroit." Chet Huntley didn't consider their arrival important enough to show on the NBC evening news.

1898
First woman executed in the electric chair: Martha M. Place murders her stepdaughter, for which she was executed the following year.

1882
Last bareknuckle world heavyweight boxing championship: John L. Sullivan knocks out Paddy Ryan in the 9th round.

1795
11th Amendment ratified, judicial power of the U.S. does not extend to suits against one of the states by citizens of another state.

1778
Daniel Boone is again captured by Indians.  He manages to escape by traveling 160 miles through woods.

1962
David Bryan (David Rashbaum), American keyboardist, with Bon Jovi. Music: Livin' on a Prayer (1986, #1) and Bad Medicine (1988, #1).

1926     d. 1988
Bill Hoest, American cartoonist, creator of The Lockhorns (1968), Agatha Crumm (1977), Laugh Parade (1980), Howard Huge (1981), and What a Guy! (1986).

1908     d. 1983
Buster Crabbe (Clarence Linden Crabbe), American athlete, actor. He won the 1932 Olympic gold medal for the 400-meter-freestyle swim and played Flash Gordon, Buck Roger, and Tarzan in the movies.

1885     d. 1951
Sinclair Lewis, American author, first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1930 for Babbitt, 1922).

1870     d. 1937
Alfred Adler, Austrian psychiatrist, chief proponent of the "inferiority complex" as the source of psychological problems.

1867     d. 1957
Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author. Her Little House books about her life on the frontier was the basis for the TV series.

1837     d. 1915
James Murray, Scottish-born lexicographer, chief editor (1879-1915) of the original Oxford English Dictionary, a comprehensive dictionary of the English language, considered to be one of the greatest literary achievements of all time.

1834     d. 1907
Dmitri Mendeléyev, Russian chemist. He created the periodic table of elements (1869).

1817     d. 1895
Frederick Douglass, American orator and journalist. Born into slavery, he escaped to Great Britain where he raised the money to buy his freedom.

1812     d. 1870
Charles Dickens, English author. Writings: Oliver Twist (1837-39), A Christmas Carol (1843), David Copperfield (1849-50), and A Tale of Two Cities (1859).

1804     d. 1886
John Deere, American blacksmith, invented the steel plow (1837).

2000     b. 1947
Doug Henning, Canadian magician.  He helped to revive magic shows in the 1970s. He later quit what he now called "fake magic" in order to pursue Transcendental Meditation (TM) in the attempt to learn to levitate.  When diagnosed with liver cancer, he chose to forego traditional medicine in favor of TM. He died five weeks later.

1968     b. 1931
Nick Adams (Nicholas Aloysius Adamshock), American actor. Film: Twilight of Honor (1963, Oscar nomination). TV: The Rebel (Johnny Yuma).

1958     b. 1908
Betty MacDonald, American author. Writings: The Egg and I (1945), which was made into the 1947 film featuring Ma and Pa Kettle.

1938     b. 1868
Harvey Samuel Firestone, American rubber manufacturer, founded the Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. (1900).

1878     b. 1792
Pius IX, Italian religious leader, 255th Pope (1846-78). Proclaimed the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary as dogma (1854), and the infallibility of the Pope (1870).

590     b. ????
Pelagius II, Italian religious leader, 63rd Pope (579-590).

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