Events in History
- Feb 4 1st radioactive substance produced synthetically (radium E)
- Feb 5 National Wildlife Federation forms
- Feb 7 A flag is authorized for US Vice President
- Feb 8 Pandit Jawaharlal succeeds Mahatma Gandhi as chairman of India Congress Party
- Feb 11 Pumping begins to build Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay
- Feb 14 National Negro Congress organizes in Chicago
- Feb 14 US male Figure Skating championship won by Robin Lee
- Feb 15 -60°F (-51°C), Parshall, North Dakota (state record)
Volkswagen Beetle
Feb 15 Adolf Hitler announces construction of the Volkswagen Beetle (the People's Car, aka the Käfer/Beetle)
Election of Interest
Feb 19 Manuel Azaña becomes Prime Minister of Spain for the second time
Historic Event
Feb 26 Adolf Hitler introduces Ferdinand Porsche's "Volkswagen"
- Feb 26 Military coup in Japan
Historic Event
Feb 29 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs 2nd Neutrality Act
Birthdays in History
- Feb 1 G H Blake, Principal (Collingwood College, Durham U)
- Feb 1 Azie Taylor Morton, 35th Treasurer of the United States (d. 2003)
- Feb 4 Daan van Golden, Dutch sculptor
- Feb 6 J. Howard Marshall III, American businessman, born in San Francisco, California
- Feb 10 Olwyn Bowey, British artist, born in Stockton-on-Tees, Durham
- Feb 10 Sylvia Williams, museum director/curator
- Feb 12 Fang Lizhi, Chinese astrophysicist/dissident (Tiananmen Square, 1989), born in Beijing, China (d. 2012)
- Feb 14 Fanne Foxe [Annabella Battistella], Argentine-American exotic dancer famous for her involvement in a sex scandal with Wilbur Mills, born in Nueve de Julio, Argentina
- Feb 14 Takuo Aoyagi, Japanese engineer who invented the pulse oximeter, born in Niigata Prefecture, Japan (d. 2020)
- Feb 16 Jill Kinmont, American skier
Carl Icahn
Feb 16 Carl Icahn, American businessman (Icahn Enterprises), born in NYC, New York
- Feb 16 Murray Weideman, Australian rules football CHF (Collingwood VFL premiers 1953, 58 [c]; B&F 1957, 61, 62; Victoria 1956-60) and coach (Collingwood 1975-76), born in Melbourne, Australia (d. 2021)
- Feb 18 Jean M. Auel, Finnish-American writer (Earth's Children series), born in Chicago, Illinois
- Feb 19 Marin Sorescu, Romanian poet, playwright and artist (Iona, House under surveillance), born in Bulzești, Dolj County (d. 1996)
- Feb 19 Ione Mylonas Shear, American archeologist (Bronze Age Greece), born in Champaign, Illinois (d. 2005)
- Feb 21 Barbara Jordan, American politician (Rep-D-Tx, 1972-78), born in Houston, Texas
- Feb 22 J. Michael Bishop, American immunologist & microbiologist (Nobel Prize 1989), born in York, Pennsylvania
- Feb 27 Roger M. Mahoney, American cardinal (Archbishop of Los Angeles, 1985–2011), born in Hollywood, California
- Feb 27 Ron Barassi, Australian rules footballer, born in Castlemaine, Australia
- Feb 29 Jack R Lousma, American USMC Colonel, naval aviator, and NASA astronaut (Skylab 3; STS-3), born in Grand Rapids Michigan
Weddings in History
Emilio G. Segrè
Feb 2 Physicist Emilio G. Segrè (31) weds jewish woman Elfriede Spiro at the Great Synagogue of Rome in Italy
Deaths in History
- Feb 1 Georgios Kondylis, Prime Minister of Greece & general of the Greek army, dies at 56
- Feb 2 Owen Seaman, British poet and editor (Punch), dies at 74
- Feb 3 Sophie of Schönburg-Waldenburg, consort of William of Wied, Prince of Albania (b.1885)
- Feb 4 Wilhelm Gustloff, German leader of the Swiss Nazi party (b. 1895)
- Feb 9 Jacques Bainville, French historian/essayist/journalist, dies at 57
- Feb 16 James Harvey Robinson, American historian (Ordeal of Civilization), dies at 72
- Feb 17 Erich Schaeder, German theologist (Theozentrische), dies at 74
- Feb 19 Charles Harding Firth, British historian (b. 1857)
- Feb 22 John Hope, American educator (President of Atlanta Baptist/Morehouse College,1906-36 and Atlanta University, 1929-36), dies at 67
- Feb 22 Johan Skjoldborg, Danish writer (Dynaes Digte), dies at 74
Ivan Pavlov
Feb 27 Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist and pioneer in psychology (Nobel Prize 1904), dies at 86