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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way — in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
~ Charles Dickens
Wikiquote (Charles Dickens (February 7, 1812 – June 9, 1870) was the foremost English novelist of the Victorian era, as well as a vigorous social campaigner.)
(Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities first published December 19, 1843.)
February 7th, 457
Byzantine Empire (East Roman Empire):
457 - Leo I becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
Wikipedia Image: The Baptism of Constantine painted by Raphael's pupils (1520–1524, fresco, Vatican City, Apostolic Palace); Mural of Saints Cyril and Methodius, 19th century, Troyan Monastery, Bulgaria; Justinian I depicted on one of the famous mosaics of the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna; The Greek fire was first used by the Byzantine Navy during the Byzantine-Arab Wars (from the Madrid Skylitzes, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid); Alexios I, founder of the Komnenos dynasty.
February 7th, 1074
Battle of Montesarchio: Pandulf IV of Benevento is killed battling the invading Normans.
Wikipedia Photo: Montesarchio; is the site of ancient Caudium, an ancient city of Apulia et Calabria, situated on the road from Beneventum (modern Benevento) to Capua.
February 7th, 1301
Edward of Caernarvon (later King Edward II of England) becomes the first English Prince of Wales.
Wikipedia Painting: Edward II of England King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327.
February 7th, 1497
Bonfire of the vanities: supporters of Girolamo Savonarola burn thousands of objects like cosmetics, art, and books in Florence, Italy.
Wikipedia Image: Girolamo Savonarola an Italian Dominican friar and preacher active in Renaissance Florence, and known for his prophecies of civic glory and calls for Christian renewal.
February 7th, 1783
American Revolutionary War:
1783 - Great Siege of Gibraltar; French and Spanish forces lift the siege.
Wikipedia Paintings: Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Leutz; Battle of the Chesapeake, French (left) and British (right) lines; Battle of Bunker Hill, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill by John Trumbull; The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 13, 1782, by John Singleton Copley; Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown, 1781; "The surrender at Saratoga" shows General Daniel Morgan in front of a French de Vallière 4-pounder; Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown by (John Trumbull, 1797).
February 7th, 1795
11th Amendment to the United States Constitution, deals with each state's sovereign immunity is ratified.
Wikipedia Photo: United States Supreme Court building; Guardian of Law, by James Earle Fraser, US Supreme Court, Washington, DC, USA.
February 7th, 1807
French Revolutionary Wars / Napoleonic Wars:
1807 - Battle of Eylau; Napoléon's French Empire begins fighting against Russian and Prussian forces of the Fourth Coalition at Eylau, Poland.
Wikipedia Painting: Battle of Trafalgar: The British HMS Sandwich fires to the French flagship Bucentaure (completely dismasted) in the battle of Trafalgar;
Napoleon in Berlin (Meynier). After defeating Prussian forces at Jena, the French Army entered Berlin on 27 October 1806;
Battle of the Bridge of Arcole Napoleon Bonaparte leading his troops over the bridge of Arcole, by Horace Vernet;
Napoleon as King of Italy (Appiani);
Napoleon Crossing the Alps (David). In 1800 Bonaparte took the French Army across the Alps, eventually defeating the Austrians at Marengo;
Charge of the Russian Imperial Guard cavalry against French cuirassiers at the Battle of Friedland, 14 June 1807;
Battle of Borodino as depicted by Louis Lejeune. The battle was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the Napoleonic Wars;
Napoleon's withdrawal from Russia, a painting by Adolph Northen;
Wellington at Waterloo by Robert Alexander Hillingford;
Napoleon is often represented in his green colonel uniform of the Chasseur à Cheval, with a large bicorne and a hand-in-waistcoat gesture.
Battle of the Nile (Battle of Aboukir Bay).
February 7th, 1819
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles leaves Singapore its founding in the hands of William Farquhar.
Wikipedia Image: Singapore (officially the Republic of Singapore - an island country made up of 63 islands); is a southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, 137 kilometres (85 mi) north of the equator.
February 7th, 1842
Ethiopia:
Battle of Debre Tabor: Ras Ali Alula of the Emperor of Ethiopia defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien.
Wikipedia Photo: Blue Nile Falls; Ethiopia a magical and timeless land; credit Oklahoma State University, University of California - San Diego School of Medicine, National Geographics.
February 7th, 1856
The Kingdom of Awadh is annexed by the British East India Company and Wajid Ali Shah, the king of Awadh, is imprisoned and later exiled to Calcutta.
Wikipedia Image: Map Satellite India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet AR, Bangladesh.
February 7th, 1856
The colonial Tasmanian Parliament passes the second piece of legislation (the Electoral Act of 1856) anywhere in the world providing for elections by way of a secret ballot.
Wikipedia Photo: Australian satellite (Tasmania, the 26th largest island in the world, and the surrounding 334 islands) and scenery.
Image: The Charlotte Jane and the Randolph bring the first of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton, New Zealand, credit Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand.
February 7th, 1863
Signing of the HMS Orpheus sinks off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand.
Wikipedia Photo: Auckland in the North Island of New Zealand ● Satellite image of New Zealand ● The Church of the Good Shepherd stands on the shore of New Zealand's Lake Tekapo, credit Thomas Young, National Geographics ● Lake Wakatipu - Rocks in Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, New Zealand, credit Ian Rushton, National Geographics ● Fiordland National Park, credit Brian J. Skerry, National Geographics ● Hunua Falls New Zealand.
February 7th, 1894
Cripple Creek miners' strike of 1894: led by the Western Federation of Miners, begins in Cripple Creek, Colorado.
Wikipedia Photo: Cripple Creek, Victor, CO. Looking north to Pikes Peak ● The Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine ● Mine lies southwest of Colorado Springs.
February 7th, 1900
Second Boer War: Siege of Ladysmith; Battle of Vaal Krantz, Boers stop a British attempt to break the Siege of Ladysmith.
Wikipedia Photo: Second Boer War; (Dutch: Tweede Boerenoorlog, Afrikaans: Tweede Vryheidsoorlog or Tweede Boereoorlog) was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic (Transvaal Republic) and the Orange Free State.
February 7th, 1904
Great Baltimore Fire: destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours Baltimore, Maryland.
Wikipedi Image: Great Baltimore Fire of 1904: "Liberty & Lombard Streets, southwest limit of fire" National Photo Company Collection glass negative ● Engine at Work ● Baltimore Street from German and Sharp streets during the Great Baltimore City Fire of 1904. Sun archive photo by Judge Carroll T. Bond.
January 12th, 1907
Woman's suffrage:
1907- The Mud March is the first large procession organized by the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).
Wikipedia Photo: Woman's suffrage: in the United Kingdom and United States, credit Library of Congress ● Emmeline Pankhurst (100 Most Important People of the 20th Century) ● Christabel Pankhurst ● Women suffragists demonstrating for the right to vote, February 1913 ● Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution became law on August 26, 1920, and women could vote in the Presidential election.
February 7th, 1935
The classic board game MONOPOLY is invented by Elizabeth Magie.
Wikipedia Image: MONOPOLY, credit Hasbro; Elizabeth Magie first made the game, known as The Landlord's Game.
February 7th, 1940
The second full length animated Walt Disney film, Pinocchio premieres.
Wikipedia Image: © Pinocchio Original theatrical release poster ● Pinocchio with chirpy Jiminy Cricket ● Geppetto, Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket.
February 7th, 1943
World War II:
1943 - Guadalcanal Campaign; Operation Ke - Imperial Japanese naval forces complete the evacuation of Imperial Japanese Army troops from Guadalcanal during Operation Ke, ending Japanese attempts to retake the island from Allied forces.
1944 - Anzio Italy: German launch a counteroffensive during Allied Operation Shingle.
Wikipedia Photo: Bombing of Dresden in World War II; August Schreitmüller's sculpture 'Goodness' surveys Dresden after a firestorm started by Allied bombers in 1945.
USS Bunker Hill was hit by kamikazes piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa and another airman on 11 May 1945. 389 personnel were killed or missing from a crew of 2,600; Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, who flew his aircraft into the USS Bunker Hill during a Kamikaze mission on 11 May 1945; Kamikaze Missions - Lt Yoshinori Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33 Suisei) "Judy" in a suicide dive against USS Essex. The dive brakes are extended and the non-self-sealing port wing tank is trailing fuel vapor and/or smoke 25 November 1944.
German V1 flying-bomb and V2 Rockets - Preparations for a Salvo Launch of V-2 Rockets in the Heidelager near Blizna (Poland) (1944), credit German History in Documents and Images GHDI.
Eastern Front (World War II); Germans race towards Stalingrad. August 1942; Soviet children during a German air raid in the first days of the war, June 1941, by RIA Novosti archive; Soviet sniper Roza Shanina in 1944. About 400,000 Soviet women served in front-line duty units Caucasus Mountains, winter 1942/43; Finnish ski patrol: the invisible enemy of the Soviet Army with an unlimited supply of skis; Men of the German Engineers Corps cross a river which is swollen after the first autumn rains, to strengthen bridges linking the German positions on the central front in Russia. by Keystone / Getty Images. October 1942; Russian snipers fighting on the Leningrad front during a blizzard. Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images, 1943; German soldiers surrendering to the Russians in Stalingrad, the soldier holding the white flag of surrender is dressed in white so that there could be no doubt of his intentions, a Russian soldier is on the right of the photograph. by Keystone / Getty Images, January 1943.
February 7th, 1951
Korean War:
1951 - Sancheong-Hamyang massacre.
Wikipedia Photo: Korean War Collage credit, The Big Picture, Boston Globe - (Associated Press; U.S. Department of Defense / SGT. F.C. Kerr; AP Photo; U.S. Department of Defense / TSGT. Charles B. Tyler; U.S. Department of Defense / TSGT. Charles B. Tyler; U.S. Department of Defense / TSGT. Robert H. Mosier; AP Photo / Max Desfor; U.S. Department of Defense / CPL. P. McDonald; AP Photo / Max Desfor; AP Photo/George Sweers; U.S. Navy / Maj. R.V. Spencer, UAF; AP Photo / Max Desfor).
February 7th, 1962
Cold War, Cuban Missile Crisis:
1962 - The United States bans all Cuba imports and exports.
Wikipedia Photo: Cuban Missile Crisis: Fidel Castro and Nikita Khruschev; President John F. Kennedy; U-2 reconnaissance plane; U2 Image of Cuban Missile Crisis; Missile silo.
February 7th, 1964
British Invasion:
1964 - The Beatles first arrived in the United States. Their performance on The Ed Sullivan Show two days later would mark the beginning of the British Invasion.
Wikipedia Photo: The Ed Sullivan Show ● The Beatles 1st Ed Sullivan Performance (REMASTERED), Youtube 
February 7th, 1979
Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit for the first time since either was discovered.
Wikipedia Image: Solar System consists of the Sun and its planetary system of eight planets, their moons, and other non-stellar objects.
February 7th, 1984
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Space Shuttle program:
1984 - Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off for mission STS-41-B - Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).
Wikipedia Photo: Space Shuttle Challenger, 04-04-1983. (Space Transportation System Number 6, Orbiter Challenger, lifts off from Pad 39A carrying astronauts Paul J. Weitz, Koral J. Bobko, Donald H. Peterson and Dr. Story Musgrave.) NASA. Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) is an astronaut propulsion unit which was used by NASA on three space shuttle missions in 1984.
February 7th, 1990
Dissolution of the Soviet Union:
1990 - The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power.
Wikipedia Image: Russia Satellite Map.
February 7th, 1992
The Maastricht Treaty is signed, leading to the creation of the European Union.
Wikipedia Image: European Union (EU) is a unique economic and political union of 27 member states which are located primarily in Europe (Western Europe Satellite Map).
February 7th, 1995
Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Wikipedia Photo: The World Trade Center is a site for various buildings in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States (The original World Trade Center was a complex of seven buildings - it featured landmark twin towers, which opened on April 4, 1973 and were destroyed in the September 11 attacks of 2001).
February 7th, 2013
Thirteenth Amendment: The U.S. state of Mississippi officially certifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was formally ratified by Mississippi in 1995.
Wikipedia Image: “The True Issue or ‘That[’]s What[’]s the Matter” Currier & Ives. An 1864 election cartoon in which Lincoln exclaims “No peace without Abolition!” and Confederate president Jefferson Davis insists, “No peace without Separation!” while George B. McClellan tries to stop them from tearing apart a map of the United States by asserting, “The Union must be preserved at all hazards!” (1864 - Library of Congress).
February 7th, 2016
North Korea launches Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4 into outer space.
Wikipedia Image: North Korea launches Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4 into outer space.