Events in History
- Feb 2 1st siyyum of Talmud celebrated by Daf Yomi students
- Feb 2 1st use of a rocket to deliver mail (Austria)
Event of Interest
Feb 3 Arkansas legislature passes motion to pray for soul of journalist H. L. Mencken, after he calls the state the "apex of moronia"
Hawke's Bay Earthquake
Feb 3 New Zealand's worst natural disaster, the Hawke's Bay earthquake, kills 256 and injures thousands, devastating Napier and the Hawke's Bay region
- Feb 5 Maxine Dunlap becomes 1st US women to earn a glider pilot license
- Feb 8 Gas explosion Fire in Fushun-coal mine, Manchuria kills 3,000
- Feb 10 New Delhi becomes the capital of India
- Feb 12 Vatican Radio begins broadcasting with the callsign HVJ
- Feb 14 Spanish government of General Damasco Berenguer falls
- Feb 16 Extreme right wing politician Pehr Evind Svinhufvud becomes President of Finland
- Feb 17 Hockey's Hershey Bears (now with AHL) 1st game
- Feb 20 Congress allows California to build Oakland-Bay Bridge
- Feb 21 Alka Seltzer introduced
- Feb 28 British politician Oswald Mosley founds the New Party
Birthdays in History
Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007)
Feb 1 Russian politician and 1st President of Russian Federation (1991-99), born in Butka, Sverdlovsk,
- Feb 1 Mark Richmond, CEO (Science & Engineering Research Council)
- Feb 2 Dries van Agt, Dutch Prime Minister (CDA, 1977-82), born in Geldrop, Netherlands
- Feb 2 Judith Viorst, American author
- Feb 4 Isabel Martínez de Perón [Maria Martinez], wife of Juan Perón and President of Argentina (1974-76), born in La Rioja, Argentina
- Feb 9 Robert Morris, American sculptor and painter, born in Kansas City, Missouri
- Feb 10 Thomas Bernhard, Austrian novelist, playwright and poet whose work some describe as "the most significant literary achievement since World War II", born in Heerlen, Netherlands (d. 1989)
- Feb 12 Constance Morella, American politician (Rep-R-Maryland 1987-2003), born in Somerville, Massachusetts
- Feb 12 Janwillem van de Wetering, Dutch author
- Feb 15 W K Reid, British ombudsman
- Feb 16 Alfred Kolleritsch, Austrian writer, born in Eichfeld
- Feb 16 George E. Sangmeister, American politician (Rep-D-Illinois 1989-95), born in Frankfort, Illinois (d. 2007)
- Feb 18 Johnny Hart, American cartoonist (B.C., Wizard of Id), born in Endicott, New York (d. 2007)
- Feb 18 Maxwell Thurman, American General
- Feb 18 Swraj Paul, Indian/British industrial/multi-millionaire (Caparo)
Toni Morrison (1931-2019)
Feb 18 American writer (Tar Baby, Beloved, Song of Solomon), first African American woman to win a Nobel Prize (2010), born in Lorain, Ohio
- Feb 23 Tom Wesselmann, American collage artist and sculptor (Great American Nudes) (d. 2004)
- Feb 24 Inge Bernstein, British judge
- Feb 24 Lev Vasilyevich Vorobyov, Russian cosmonaut
- Feb 24 Maezumi Hakuyu Taizan Koun, teacher Rinzai/Soto lines of Zen Buddhism
- Feb 24 Marta Marzotto, Italian countess and designer, born in Reggio Emilia (d. 2016)
- Feb 25 Edward Kellett-Bowman, British MEP
- Feb 25 J R Stephenson, Lt-col/secretary (MCC)
- Feb 27 Andrew Sloan, Chief Constable (Strathcourt)
- Feb 28 Gustav Thoni, Italian skier (World Cup-1971, 72, 73, 75)
- Feb 28 Iajuddin Ahmed, Bikrampur, British Raj, President (Bangladesh, 2002-2009), (d. 2012)
- Feb 28 Jack Thieuloy, French writer, born in Beaucaire (d. 1996)
Weddings in History
Amelia Earhart
Feb 7 American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart (33) weds publisher George Palmer Putnam (43) in Noank, Connecticut
Deaths in History
- Feb 2 Theodor Batthynyi, Hungarian contra-revolutionary, dies at 71
- Feb 3 Hans Schardt, Swiss geologist, dies at 72
- Feb 11 Charles Algernon Parsons, British inventor (steam turbine), dies at 76
- Feb 12 Samedbey Mehmandarov, Russian general (b. 1855)
- Feb 18 Milan Šufflay, Croatian historian and politician, dies at 51
- Feb 26 Otto Wallach, German chemist (Nobel 1910), dies at 83
- Feb 27 Chandra Sekhar Azad, Indian revolutionary (Hindustan Socialist Republican Army), dies at 24
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists