| 7 February 1055 | Kiev [administration] | Jaroslav I, Great Prince of Kiev, dies. In his will, Jaroslav divides his lands among his five sons who immediately fall out over their inheritance and civil war follows. Kiev and Novgorod are inherited by Jaroslav's eldest son Iziaslav, who is theoretically superior in status to his brother princes. |
| 7 February 1477 | England [births and deaths] | Thomas More, English humanist and statesman, Chancellor of England 1529–32, born (–1535). |
| 7 February 1550 | Papal States, Italy [political events] | After a very long conclave, Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, co-president of the Council of Trent, is elected as Pope Julius III, the successor to Pope Paul III, who died on 10 November 1549. |
| 7 February 1812 | England [births and deaths] | Charles Dickens, English novelist of the Victorian era, born in Portsmouth, England (–1870). |
| 7 February 1878 | Papal States [political events] | Cardinal Joachim Pecci is elected as Pope Leo XIII. |
| 7–21 February 1915 | Russian Empire, Germany, Austria-Hungary [World War I (1914–18)] | In the Winter Battle of Masuria on the Eastern Front, the German and Austro-Hungarian armies force the Russian troops to retreat. |
| 7 February 1974 | Grenada [decolonization] | The Caribbean island of Grenada becomes independent within the Commonwealth. |
| 7 February 1990 | USSR [political events] | The Soviet Communist Party votes to end its monopoly on political power. |
| 7–22 February 1998 | Japan [Olympic Games] | The 18th Winter Olympic Games are held at Nagano, Japan. They are the largest to date, with over 2,400 athletes from 72 countries taking part. Snowboarding, curling, and women's ice hockey are included as medal sports for the first time. Tara Lipinski of the USA aged 15 years 255 days won the women's figure skating title to become the youngest-ever individual Winter Olympic gold medallist. |
| 7 February 1999 | Jordan [births and deaths] | Hussein bin Talal, King of Jordan 1953–99, dies in Jordan (63). |
| 7 February 1999 | France, Kosovo [Balkan conflicts (c. 1991–2000)] | Serbs and ethnic Albanian leaders from Kosovo meet at Rambouillet chateau outside Paris, France, to begin peace talks, with the threat of NATO attacks if they do not find a peaceful solution to the violence in the region within two weeks. |
| 7 February 2005 | [sailing] | English sailor Ellen MacArthur completes her record-breaking, single-handed journey round the world in a 70-foot catamaran, reaching the finishing line off northern France at the end of a 27,000-mile voyage in just under 72 days. She cuts more than a day off the previous record set in February 2004. |
