- Feb 1 2nd Norwegian government of Quisling forms
- Feb 2 LA Times urges security measures against Japanese-Americans
- Feb 2 US auto factories switch from commercial to war production
- Feb 3 1st Japanese air raid on Java
- Feb 3 Baseball owners agree to permit each club up to 14 night games in 1942
- Feb 4 Clinton Pierce becomes 1st US general wounded in action in WW II
Film Release
Feb 5 "Woman of the Year" film directed by George Stevens, starring Katherine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy opens at Radio City
Spencer Tracy
Event of Interest
Feb 8 Congress advises FDR that, Americans of Japanese descent should be locked up en masse so they wouldn't oppose the US war effort
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Event of Interest
Feb 10 Glenn Miller awarded 1st ever gold record for selling 1 million copies of "Chattanooga Choo Choo"
Glenn Miller
Historic Invention
Feb 10 American chemist James Franklin Hyde is granted a patent for fused silica
James Franklin Hyde
Adolf Hitler
- Feb 14 Japanese parachutists land near oil center Palembang, Sumatra
- Feb 14 Rotterdam's Maas tunnel opens
- Feb 14 The Polish resistance movement, the Home Army, is formed and will eventually become the largest resistance movement in occupied Europe
- Feb 14 World War II: Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore.
- Feb 15 German U-boat shells Antillian oil refinery
- Feb 15 Japanese troops march into Palembang, South Sumatra
- Feb 15 World War II: British ruled Singapore surrenders to the Japanese
- Feb 16 German submarines attack Aruba oil refinery
- Feb 16 Bangka Island massacre: Japanese soldiers machine-gun 22 Australian Army nurses and 60 Australian and British soldiers and crew members from two sunken ships. Only one nurse and two soldiers survive.
- Feb 18 Japanese troop land on Bali
- Feb 19 About 150 Japanese warplanes attack the Australian city of Darwin
- Feb 19 Bill Longson beats Managoff & Sandor Szabo, to become wrestling champ
- Feb 19 Dutch actors protest obligatory membership of Culture Chamber
- Feb 19 FDR orders detention & internment of all west-coast Japanese-Americans
- Feb 19 Japanese troops land on Timor
- Feb 19 Tommy Dorsey & his orchestra recorded "I'll Take Tallulah"
- Feb 19 NY Yankees annouce 5,000 uniformed soldiers admitted free at each of their upcoming home games
- Feb 20 Lt E H O'Hare single-handedly shoots down 5 Japanese heavy bombers, becomes America's first World War II flying ace
- Feb 21 US female Figure Skating championship won by Jane Vaughn
- Feb 21 US male Figure Skating championship won by Bobby Specht
Event of Interest
Feb 22 World War II: President Franklin Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defenses collapse
Douglas MacArthur
Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Feb 23 Japanese submarine fires on oil refinery in Ellwood, California
- Feb 24 Voice of America begins broadcasting (in German)
- Feb 24 The "Battle of Los Angeles" takes place, lasting until the next day
- Feb 26 German battle cruiser Gneisenau deactivated by bomb
- Feb 26 Radio Orange calls for March 1 day of prayer in Dutch Indies
- Feb 26 Werner Heisenberger informs nazis about uranium project "Wunderwaffen"
- Feb 27 1st transport of French Jews to nazi-Germany
- Feb 27 Battle of Java Sea began: 13 US warships sunk and 2 Japanese
- Feb 27 J S Hey discovers radio emissions from Sun
- Feb 28 1st weapon drop on Netherlands
- Feb 28 Japanese land in Java, last Allied bastion in Dutch East Indies
- Feb 28 Race riot, Sojourner Truth Homes, Detroit