Events in History
Event of Interest
Feb 1 German occupiers make Vidkun Quisling Norwegian premier
- Feb 1 Mussert forms pro-Nazi shadow cabinet in Netherlands
- Feb 2 German 6th Army surrenders after Battle of Stalingrad in a major turning point in Europe during World War II
- Feb 3 "The Four Chaplains" drown after giving up their life jackets to others as the US Army transport ship Dorchester sinks in the North Atlantic [1]
The Good Person of Szechwan
Feb 4 Bertolt Brecht's play "The Good Person of Szechwan" premieres in Zurich
- Feb 5 Amsterdam resistance group CS-6 shoots nazi general Seyffardt
- Feb 5 Clandestine Radio Atlantiksender, Germany, 1st transmission
- Feb 6 1st Spitfire in action above Darwin, Australia, Mu Ki-46 shot down
- Feb 7 Shoe rationing begins in US (may purchase up to 3 more pairs in 1942)
- Feb 8 Red Army recaptures Kursk on the eastern front
- Feb 9 Japanese troops evacuate Guadalcanal, ending the epic World War II battle on the Solomon Islands in the Pacific
48-hour Work Week
Feb 9 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order setting a minimum 48-hour work week in a number of critical war industries
Event of Interest
Feb 11 US General Eisenhower selected to command the allied armies in Europe; British General Montgomery not best pleased
- Feb 12 General Eisenhower departs Algiers for Tebessa
- Feb 13 German assault on Sidi Bou Zid Tunisia, General Dwight D. Eisenhower visits front
- Feb 13 Women's US Marine Corps created
- Feb 14 German offensive against US troops through de Faid-pass, Tunisia begins, starting the Battle of Sidi Bou Zid
- Feb 14 The Soviet Union recaptures the city of Rostov-on-Don, liberating Russia from the German 17th Army during WWII
We Can Do It!
Feb 15 Wartime propaganda poster "We Can Do It!" produced by J. Howard Miller and posted on the walls of Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company's plants in the Midwest
- Feb 15 Women's camp Tamtui on Ambon (Moluccas) hit by allied air raid
- Feb 16 -32°F (-36°C), Falls Village, Connecticut (state record)
Contract of Interest
Feb 16 British premier Winston Churchill contracts pneumonia
- Feb 16 Sign on Munich facade: "Out with Hitler! Long live freedom!" done by "White Rose" student anti-Nazi resistance group, caught on 2/18, beheaded on 2/22
- Feb 16 Withdrawing Afrika Korps reaches Mareth-line in North Africa
- Feb 16 World War II: The USSR reconquers Kharkov
Event of Interest
Feb 17 Adolf Hitler visits field marshal Erich von Manstein's headquarters in Zaporozje, Ukraine and stays until the 19th
Event of Interest
Feb 17 Dow Chemical and Corning Glass Works form a joint venture to explore and produce silicon materials, based upon the work of James Franklin Hyde
- Feb 17 Dutch churches protest at Seyss-Inquart against persecution of Jews
Event of Interest
Feb 17 Major General Omar Bradley flies to Washington, D.C.
- Feb 18 1st edition of Dutch resistance newspaper "Trouw"
- Feb 18 German Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbells demands "total war" from German citizens in speech at Berlin Sportpalast
- Feb 18 Members of student non-violent resistance group "White Rose" arrested by Nazis after distributing pamphlets in Munich, Germany
- Feb 19 German tanks under Major General Karl Buelowius attack Kasserine Pass, Tunisia
- Feb 20 Allied troops occupy Kasserine pass in Tunisia
- Feb 20 American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
- Feb 20 New volcano Paracutin erupts in farmer's corn field (Mexico)
- Feb 20 Phil Wrigley & B Rickey charter All-American Girls Softball League
- Feb 21 Dutch RC bishops protest against persecution of Jews
- Feb 22 3 members of White Rose student anti-Nazi resistance group are executed in Munich, Germany
- Feb 23 German troops pull back through Kasserine-pass Tunisia
- Feb 23 Major General Omar Bradley arrives in Dakar & Marrakesh
- Feb 24 Major General Omar Bradley flies to Algiers
- Feb 24 Texas League announces it will quit for the duration of WW II
- Feb 25 Vietminh forms Indo Chinese Democratic Front
- Feb 26 German assault moves to Beja, North Tunisia
- Feb 27 The Rosenstrasse protest starts in Berlin
- Feb 27 The Smith Mine #3 in Bearcreek, Montana, explodes, killing 74 men
Birthdays in History
- Feb 1 Josceline Dimbleby, cookery writer
- Feb 4 Alberto João Jardim, Portuguese president of the regional government of Madeira
- Feb 4 Ken Thompson, American computer scientist
- Feb 5 Chuck Winfield, American trumpet and flugelhorn player (Blood, Sweat & Tears - "Spinning Wheel"), born in Monessen, Pennsylvania
Nolan Bushnell (80 years old)
Feb 5 American electrical engineer (founded Atari, created Pong), born in Clearfield, Utah
- Feb 8 Pirzada Qasim, Pakistani poet and VC of Karachi University, born in Delhi, British India
Joseph Stiglitz (80 years old)
Feb 9 American economist and Nobel laureate (asymmetric information), born in Gary, Indiana
- Feb 11 Iain Cameron, British brigadier
- Feb 13 Friedrich Christian Delius, German writer, born in Rome, Italy
- Feb 13 Leo Frankowski, American sci-fi author (High Tech Knight, Flying Warlord), born in Detroit, Michigan (d. 2008)
- Feb 14 Israël "Ischa" Meijer, Dutch journalist, critic and author (Een Dik Uur Ischa, Boezemvriend), born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1995)
- Feb 16 James Beaton, British police officer (awarded George Cross for saving Princess Anne), born in St Fergus, Aberdeenshire
- Feb 18 Graeme Garden, Scottish writer (The Goodies), born in Aberdeen, Scotland
- Feb 19 Homer Hickam, American author (Rocket Boys) and retired NASA engineer, born in Coalwood, West Virgina
- Feb 19 Tim Hunt, British biochemist, (Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology for discovery of protein molecules), born in Neston, England
- Feb 20 Aleksandr Pavlovich Alexandrov, Russian cosmonaut (Soyuz T-9, TM-3)
- Feb 20 Lord McNally, British Minister of State for Justice
- Feb 21 Roberto Faenza, Italian director (Copkiller, Corrupt), born in Turin, Italy
- Feb 22 David Skaggs, American politician (Rep-D-Colorado), born in Cincinnati, Ohio
- Feb 22 Horst Köhler, German politician, born in Skierbieszów, Poland
- Feb 24 Hristo Prodanov, Bulgarian mountaineer
- Feb 24 Terry Semel, American business executive
- Feb 26 Bob van Reeth, Flemish architect, born in Temse, Belgium
- Feb 26 Dante Ferretti, Italian art director & costume designer, born in Macerata, Italy
- Feb 28 Hans Dijkstal, Dutch minister of the Interior (VVD, 1994-98)
Weddings in History
Sam Walton
Feb 14 Walmart founder Sam Walton (24) weds Helen Robson (23)
Augusto Pinochet
Feb 18 Chilean army officer, and future dictator, Augusto Pinochet (27) marries Lucía Hiriart (20)
Deaths in History
- Feb 3 Alexander Goode, American US Navy chaplain and rabbi (The Four Chaplains) drowns in the sinking of the Dorchester at 31 [1]
- Feb 3 Clark Poling, American US Army chaplain and Protestant minister (The Four Chaplains) drowns in the sinking of the Dorchester at 32 [1]
- Feb 3 George Fox, American US Army chaplain and Methodist minister (The Four Chaplains) drowns in the sinking of the Dorchester at 42 [1]
- Feb 3 John Washington, American US Army chaplain and Catholic priest (The Four Chaplains) drowns in the sinking of the Dorchester at 34 [1]
- Feb 5 Wim Gertenbach, Dutch resistance fighter (Slogan), shot by Nazis
- Feb 6 HA Seyffardt, Dutch lt-gen/NSB "minister", dies at 71
- Feb 9 World War II: Dutch fascist official Hermannus Reydon and his wife are shot by resistance members, his wife dies immediately and he dies six months later
- Feb 13 William Walraven, Dutch journalist and writer (Neglected Grouser), dies at 55
- Feb 14 David Hilbert, German mathematician (Hilbert spaces, invariant theory, axiomatization of geometry, dies at 81
- Feb 17 Konstantin Bogaevsky, Russian painter (b. 1872)
- Feb 18 Henri Polak, Dutch union leader and politician (soc-dem), dies at 74
- Feb 22 Christoph Probst, German medical student and anti-Nazi political activist, member of non-violent resistance group Weisse Rose (White Rose), executed by guillotine at 23
- Feb 22 Hans Scholl, German anti-Nazi political activist, founder of non-violent resistance group Weisse Rose (White Rose), executed by guillotine at 24
- Feb 22 Sophie Scholl, German anti-Nazi political activist, member of non-violent resistance group Weisse Rose (White Rose), executed by guillotine at 21
- Feb 26 Theodor Eicke, German Nazi official who developed the concentration camps, killed at 50 when his plane shot down
- Feb 27 Kostis Palamas, Greek poet, twice nominated for the Nobel prize (b. 1859)
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists