- Feb 1 Aleide de Gasperi forms Italian government of christian-dems & communists
Event of Interest
Feb 1 Dmitri Shostakovich named professor at conservatoire of Leningrad

Dmitri Shostakovich

Donald Bradman
Event of Interest
Feb 6 Magnum Photos founded in Paris by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David Seymour

Robert Capa

Henri Cartier-Bresson
Event of Interest
Feb 9 Bank robber Willie Sutton escapes jail in Philadelphia

Willie Sutton
- Feb 10 Italy cedes most of Venezia Giulia to Yugoslavia
- Feb 10 Netherlands Radio Union forms
- Feb 10 Province of Petsamo returned to Soviet Union by Finland
- Feb 10 WW II peace treaties signed
- Feb 12 Daytime fireball & meteorite fall seen in eastern Siberia
- Feb 12 Record 100.5-kg sailfish caught, C W Stewart, Galapagos Islands
Event of Interest
Feb 12 French fashion designer Christian Dior presents his first influential collection, named the "New Look"

Christian Dior
- Feb 15 "Toplitzky of Notre Dame" closes at Century Theater NYC after 60 performances
- Feb 16 Morton Gould's 3rd Symphony, premieres
- Feb 17 Dutch RC bishops publish manifest against "godless communism"
- Feb 17 Voice of America begins broadcasting to USSR
- Feb 18 24 die in a train crash in Gallitzin, Pennsylvania
- Feb 18 Gian Carlo Menotti's opera "Telephone" premieres in NYC
- Feb 19 CBS radio premiere of Villa-Lobos' "Bachianas Brasilieras No 3"
- Feb 20 Chemical mixing error causes explosion that destroys 42 blocks in LA
Event of Interest
Feb 20 Earl Mountbatten of Burma appointed as last viceroy of India to oversee the move to independence

Lord Mountbatten
- Feb 20 State of Prussia ceases to exist.
Event of Interest
Feb 21 1st instant developing camera demonstrated by Edwin Land at the Optical Society of America in NYC

Edwin Land
- Feb 21 Whipper Billy Watson beats Bill Longson, to become wrestling champ
Event of Interest
Feb 23 US General Eisenhower opens drive to raise $170M in aid for European Jews

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Golden Globes
Feb 26 4th Golden Globes: "The Best Years of Our Lives", Gregory Peck, & Rosalind Russell win

Gregory Peck
- Feb 27 French explorer Paul-Emile Victor founds French Polar Expeditions to oversee French scientific missions
February 28 Massacre
Feb 28 February 28 Massacre: Anti-government uprising in Taiwan is violently put down by Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang-led Republic of China government with the loss of 18,000-28,000 lives. Marks the beginning of the White Terror.
Learn More