February 7

February 7 in history:

• 1861, the general council of the Choctaw Indian nation adopted a resolution declaring allegiance with the South "in the event a permanent dissolution of the American Union takes place."

• 1904, a fire began in Baltimore that raged for about 30 hours and destroyed more than 1,500 buildings

• 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt authorized a flag for the office of the vice president

• 1943, the government announced the start of shoe rationing, limiting consumers to buying three pairs per person for the remainder of the year

• 1948, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower resigned as Army chief of staff; he was succeeded by General Omar Bradley

• 1964, The Beatles began their first American tour as they arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport

• 1983, Elizabeth H. Dole was sworn in as the first female secretary of transportation by the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

• 1984, space shuttle astronauts Bruce McCandless the Second and Robert L. Stewart went on the first untethered space walk

• 2003, Tom Christerson, 71, the longest-living recipient of a fully

self-contained artificial heart, died at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, after 512 days on the AbioCor