Jeannine A. Disviscour, curator at the Maryland Historical Society, sits Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2004, in Baltimore with photographs of the city’s Great Fire of 1904. (AP Photo/ Steve Ruark)
Today is Saturday, Feb. 7, the 38th day of 2026. There are 327 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On Feb. 7, 1904, the Great Baltimore Fire began; one of the worst city fires in American history, it destroyed over 1,500 buildings in central Baltimore.
Also on this date:
In 1943, the U.S. government announced that wartime rationing of shoes made of leather would soon take effect, limiting the number of pairs a person could buy each year. (Rationing was lifted in 1945 after World War II ended.)
In 1964, the Beatles were met by thousands of screaming fans at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport as they arrived to begin their first American tour.
In 1971, women in Switzerland gained the right to vote through a national referendum, 12 years after a previous attempt failed.
In 1984, space shuttle Challenger astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart went on the first untethered spacewalk.
In 1991, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was inaugurated as the first democratically elected president of Haiti. (He was overthrown by the military the following September.)
In 1999, Jordan’s King Hussein died of cancer at age 63; he was succeeded by his eldest son, Abdullah.
In 2013, Mississippi certified its ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, making it the last state to officially abolish slavery.
In 2021, after moving south to a new team and conference, Tom Brady led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a 31-9 Super Bowl victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on the Buccaneers’ home field.
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In 2023, LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA’s all-time career scoring leader.
Today’s birthdays: Author Gay Talese is 94. Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., is 74. Actor James Spader is 66. Country singer Garth Brooks is 64. Actor-comedian Eddie Izzard is 64. Actor-comedian Chris Rock is 61. Actor Essence Atkins is 54. Basketball Hall of Famer Steve Nash is 52. Actor Ashton Kutcher is 48. Actor Deborah Ann Woll is 41. NFL quarterback Matthew Stafford is 38. NHL forward Steven Stamkos is 36. Race car driver Pierre Gasly is 30. Singer Bea Miller is 27.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/07/today-in-history-great-baltimore-fire-begins/
