Events in History
- Feb 1 1st full-scale test of US Minuteman ICBM is successful
Event of Interest
Feb 1 British minister Enoch Powell makes medical insurance more expensive
Event of Interest
Feb 4 "Angolan War of Independence" begins
- Feb 4 Sputnik 7 launches into Earth orbit; probable Venus probe failure
- Feb 6 "Jail, No Bail" Jail-in movement starts in Rock Hill, South Carolina
- Feb 9 Joseph Ileo appointed Premier of Congo
- Feb 10 Niagara Falls hydroelectric project begins producing power
- Feb 11 Robert Weaver sworn in as Administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, the 1st African American to be appointed to a US cabinet-level position
- Feb 12 USSR launches Venera 1 toward Venus
- Feb 13 Soviet Union fires a rocket from Sputnik V to Venus
- Feb 14 Element 103, Lawrencium, 1st produced in Berkeley Calif
- Feb 15 Plane crash kills entire US figure skating team outside Brussels airport in Belgium enroute to World Championships in Prague from NYC; 73 crew and passengers (including 34 American skaters, coaches, officials, and other team members), and a farmer on the ground are lost
- Feb 16 1st all-solid-propellant rocket put in orbit, Wallops Island, Virginia
- Feb 16 China uses its 1st nuclear reactor
- Feb 16 NASA Explorer 9 mission launches satellite for the 1st time from Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia; this was also the 1st all-solid-propellant rocket put into orbit
- Feb 19 Albania disavows Chinese "Revisionism"
- Feb 21 Friedrich Durrenmatt's "Die Physiker" premieres in Zurich
- Feb 21 Gabon adopts constitution
- Feb 21 Mercury-Atlas 2 reentry Test reaches 172 km
- Feb 24 NASA Explorer S-45 mission; ionosphere beacon satellite fails to reach Earth orbit
- Feb 25 Paul Bikle in glider climbs from 1208 m at release to record 14,10
- Feb 27 The first congress of the Spanish Trade Union Organisation is inaugurated
Appointment of Interest
Feb 28 JFK names Henry Kissinger special advisor
Birthdays in History
- Feb 1 Daniel M. Tani, American astronaut, born in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania
- Feb 2 Max Vadukul, Indian-British photographer (The New Yorker; Rolling Stone; Vogue), born in Nairobi, Kenya
- Feb 4 Stewart O'Nan, American author (Snow Angels, The Names of the Dead), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Feb 6 Yuri Ivanovich Onufriyenko, Russian cosmonaut (Mir, Soyuz TM-23), born in Ryasne, Ukraine
- Feb 10 George Stephanopoulos, American journalist, political commentator, and political advisor (Clinton), born in Fall River, Massachusetts
- Feb 12 Jim Harris, Canadian author, environmentalist, and politician, born in Toronto, Ontario
- Feb 14 Phillip Hamilton, American author, born in Albany, New York
- Feb 18 Armin Laschet, German politician (CDU), born in Aachen, West Germany
- Feb 20 Claudia Cummins, Clintwood Va, 4th of 5 siblings born on 2/20
- Feb 21 Abhijit Banerjee, American economist, 2019 Nobel Prize for Economics, born in Mumbai, India
Deaths in History
- Feb 3 William Morrison, 1st Viscount Dunrossil, British politician (Governor-General of Australia 1960-61), dies at 67
- Feb 4 Piet[er] L. Kramer, Influential Dutch architect (Amsterdam School), dies at 79
- Feb 5 Anthony Gustav de Rothschild, British philanthropist, dies at 73
- Feb 11 Kate Carew [Mary Williams], American caricaturist, dies at 91
Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961)
Feb 11 Congolese revolutionary, 1st prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, assassinated by the Belgian government at 34
- Feb 20 Otto Huiswoud, Suriname-born political activist and editor-in-chief (Negro Worker), dies at 67
- Feb 21 Blaise Cendrars [Frederic Sauser-Hall], Swiss poet and writer, dies at 73
- Feb 21 Frederick McKinley Jones, American inventor (developments in refrigeration), dies of lung cancer at 67
- Feb 22 George de Cuevas, Chilean-born ballet impresario and choreographer (Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas), dies at 75 or 76
- Feb 26 Karl Albiker, German sculptor (Problem of the Plastic), dies at 83
- Feb 26 Mohammed V, Sultan of Morrocco 1925-57), King of Morocco (1957-61), dies at 51
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists