Event of Interest
Feb 1 Nine Malay sultanates and two British Straits Settlements (Penang and Malacca) form the Federation of Malaya
Tunku Abdul Rahman
- Feb 1 Palestine Post building in Jerusalem bombed
- Feb 1 Finland goes 1-2 in the Nordic combined event at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics; Heikki Hasu takes gold ahead of team mate Martti Huhtala
- Feb 1 Johnny Palmer sets a 36-hole PGA Tour scoring record with rounds of 62-64 in the Tucson Open; finishes runner-up by 1 stroke to Skip Alexander who cards tournament record total 264
Historic Publication
Feb 1 Important South African anti-apartheid novel "Cry the Beloved Country" by Alan Paton is published in the US
Alan Paton
- Feb 2 President Harry Truman urges congress to adopt a civil rights program
- Feb 4 Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) declares independence from UK
- Feb 4 After winning the men’s downhill, French alpine skier Henri Oreiller takes the combined gold medal at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics; becomes most successful athlete at these Games with a slalom bronze
- Feb 5 "Nature of Things" science show premieres on NBC prime time
- Feb 5 18 year old Dick Button becomes first American men's figure skating Olympic gold medallist at the St. Moritz Winter Games; first to complete a double axel in competition; retains title in 1952
- Feb 5 Gretchen Fraser becomes 1st US woman Olympic slalom champion
- Feb 6 1st radio-controlled airplane flown
Donald Bradman
- Feb 6 KNXT (now KCBS) TV channel 2 in Los Angeles, CA (CBS) 1st broadcast
- Feb 6 World & European champion Barbara Ann Scott becomes the first Canadian to win a women's figure skating Olympic gold medal at the St. Moritz Winter Games
- Feb 6 Nils Karlsson wins the 50k cross country gold medal at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics; Swedish skiers win all 3 cross-country events at the Games
- Feb 7 "Cradle Will Rock" closes at Mansfield Theater NYC after 34 performances
Event of Interest
Feb 7 Omar Bradley succeeds Dwight Eisenhower as US Army Chief of Staff
Omar Bradley
Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Feb 7 After winning Lake Placid (1932) and Garmisch-Partenkirchen (1936) Olympic ski jumping gold medals, Birger Ruud comes out of retirement to win silver in St. Moritz in a Norwegian medal sweep
- Feb 8 V Winter Olympic Games close at St Moritz, Switzerland
- Feb 8 Canada wins its 5th Olympic ice hockey gold medal at the St. Moritz Winter Games; Canadians complete round-robin event undefeated with forward Wally Halder tournament top scorer with 29 points
- Feb 8 Canada beats Switzerland, 3-0 to regain the Olympic ice hockey title at the St. Moritz Winter Games; forward Walter Halder top scores with 29 points in Canada’s 5th Olympic title
- Feb 9 WLWT TV channel 5 in Cincinnati, OH (NBC) begins broadcasting
- Feb 10 Greek Gen Markos' guerrilla army bombs Saloniki
- Feb 11 Billy Griffith scores cricket century on debut Eng v WI, out for 140
- Feb 11 John Costello follows Eamon Da Valera as premier of Ireland
- Feb 11 Test cricket debut of Frank Worrell for the West Indies vs. England at Port-of-Spain
- Feb 12 1st Lt Nancy Leftenant becomes 1st African American in army nursing corps
- Feb 13 West Indian batsman Andy Ganteaume scores 112 for W Indies in his only Test Cricket innings
- Feb 13 Ice Pairs Championship at Davos won by Lannoy & Baugniet of BEL
- Feb 13 Men's Figure Skating Championship in Davos won by Richard Button USA
- Feb 13 Wright Flyer, 1st plane to fly, returns to US from England
Event of Interest
Feb 15 Mao Zedong's army occupies Yenan
Mao Zedong
- Feb 16 1st newsreel telecast, "20th Century Fox-Movietone News", shown on NBC
- Feb 16 Miranda, famous moon of Uranus, photographed for 1st time
- Feb 20 Czechoslovakia's non-communist minister resigns
- Feb 21 NASCAR is incorporated.
- Feb 22 Arabs bomb attack in Jerusalem, 50 die
- Feb 24 Communist Party seizes complete control of Czechoslovakia
- Feb 25 Communists seize Czechoslovakia and C Gottwald becomes premier
- Feb 29 Stern-group bomb Cairo-Haifa train, 27 British soldiers died