Events in History
- Feb 3 Canada's original Parliament buildings in Ottawa burn down
- Feb 3 Tristan Tzara publishes the Dada manifesto in Zurich, Switzerland
Music Recording
Feb 5 Enrico Caruso records "O Solo Mio" for the Victor Talking Machine Co
Enrico Caruso
Event of Interest
Feb 10 Biggest oil well gusher ever - Edward L. Doheny's Cerro Azul No. 4 first gushes 600 feet in the air near Tampico, Mexico
Edward L. Doheny
- Feb 11 Emma Goldman arrested for lecturing on birth control
- Feb 11 Germany and Austria-Hungary notify the US that they will sink any armed merchant ships starting on 1 March
- Feb 16 Russian troops conquer the Ottoman Empire city of Erzurum during WWI
- Feb 16 The US rejects the right of Germany and Austria-Hungary to sink armed merchant ships
- Feb 16 The German ambassador in Washington announces that Germany will pay an indemnity for American lives lost on the Lusitania
- Feb 18 The last German garrison in the German colony of Cameroons surrenders
- Feb 21 World War I: Battle of Verdun begins with a German offensive, leads to an estimated 1 million casualties and becomes the longest battle of the entire war (9 months)
- Feb 22 The House-Grey Memorandum, drafted by US and Britain, states: 'Should the Allies accept [the American idea of a conference to end the war] and should Germany refuse it, the United States would "probably" enter the war against Germany'
- Feb 23 US Congress authorizes McKinley Memorial $1 gold coin
- Feb 25 Battle of Verdun: German troops conquer Fort Douaumont without firing a shot, the largest and highest fort defending the city of Verdun during World War I
- Feb 26 Germans sink French transport ship Provence II, killing 930
- Feb 26 Russian troops conquer Kermansjah Persia
Birthdays in History
- Feb 1 Gordon Hobday, Lord Lieutenant (Nottinghamshire)
- Feb 2 Xuân Diệu, Vietnamese poet (d. 1985)
- Feb 3 Vivien Signy, nurse (d. 1997)
- Feb 4 Basil Hembry, farmer/campaigner
- Feb 4 Gavin Buchanan Ewart, English poet (Pleasures of the Flesh)
- Feb 4 Shah Maghsoud Sadegh Angha, 41st master of the Oveyssi-Shahmaghsoudi Sufi Order (d. 1980)
- Feb 6 John Crank, British mathematician, born in Hindley, United Kingdom (d. 2006)
- Feb 10 Edward R. Roybal, American politician (Rep-D-CA, 1963-93), born in Pecos, New Mexico (d. 2005)
- Feb 11 Bernice Levin Neugarten, social scientist/gerontologist
- Feb 12 Joseph L Alioto, American politician (Mayor-San Francisco), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1998)
- Feb 14 Masaki Kobayashi, Japanese director (Joi-uchi)
- Feb 14 Marcel Bigeard, French general
- Feb 15 Ian Ballantine, publisher (Ballantine Books)
- Feb 18 Betty Phyllis Gathergood, curator
- Feb 18 Jean Drapeau, mayor of Montreal (1954- )
- Feb 23 William Walsh, academic
- Feb 24 Gene Mitchell, museum director
- Feb 25 Ian Wallace, British CEO
- Feb 25 Reinhard Bendix, German sociologist (d. 1991)
Deaths in History
- Feb 6 Anne C A I van Diest, Belgian physician/feminist, dies at 73
- Feb 6 Rubén Darío, Nicaraguan writer (b. 1867)
- Feb 12 Richard Dedekind, German mathematician (Nature & Meaning of Numbers), dies at 84
- Feb 14 Petko Todorov, Bulgarian writer (Zmejova), dies at 36
- Feb 16 Jeltje de Bosch Kemper, Dutch feminist, dies at 79
- Feb 16 [Gerard] Jan Ligthart, Dutch educator (Ot & Sien), dies at 57
- Feb 19 Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist/philosopher/psychologist, dies at 78
- Feb 20 Klas Arnoldson, Swedish politician and pacifist (Nobel Peace 1908), dies at 71
- Feb 28 Henry James, American-British writer (Bostonians), dies at 72