Events in History
- Feb 2 US Congressional Black Caucus organizes with Charles C. Diggs Jr. its first Chair
- Feb 3 A series of house searches by the British Army in Catholic areas of Belfast, resulting in serious rioting and gun battles
- Feb 3 OPEC mandates "total embargo" against any company that rejects 55 percent tax rate
- Feb 4 British car maker Rolls Royce declared itself bankrupt
- Feb 4 Government exhibit under construction in Brazil collapses, kills 65
- Feb 4 National Guard mobilized to quell rioting in Wilmington NC
- Feb 4 Lieutenant-General Vernon Erskine-Crum becomes General Officer Commanding of the British Army in Northern Ireland
- Feb 4 The NASDAQ stock exchange, the second-largest in the world - behind the New York Stock Exchange - is founded in New York City
- Feb 5 Apollo 14, 3rd US manned Moon expedition, lands near Fra Mauro Alan Shepard & Edward Mitchell (Apollo 14) walk on Moon for 4 hrs
- Feb 6 The Irish Republican Army shoots and kills Gunner Robert Curtis, the first British soldier to die during the 'Troubles'
- Feb 6 Bernard Watt (28), a Catholic civilian, is shot and killed by the British Army (BA) during street disturbances in Ardoyne, Belfast
- Feb 6 James Saunders (22), a member of the IRA, is shot and killed by the British Army during a gun battle near the Oldpark Road, Belfast
- Feb 7 Switzerland votes for national women's suffrage in a referendum
- Feb 8 Operation Lam Son 719 begins, a limited South Vietnamese incursion into Laos
- Feb 8 Nasdaq Composite stock market index debuts with 50 companies and a starting value of 100
- Feb 9 Apollo 14 returns to Earth
- Feb 9 Quake in San Fernando Valley kills 64 & causes over $½B damage
- Feb 10 American Mensa Ltd incorporates in New York
- Feb 10 John Guares "House of Blue Leaves" premieres in NYC
- Feb 10 Royal Albert Hall bans scheduled concert featuring Frank Zappa
- Feb 10 "Tapestry", second album by Carole King, is released (Grammy Award Album of the Year 1972)
- Feb 11 US, UK, USSR, others sign Seabed Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons
- Feb 13 12,000 South Vietnamese troops cross into Laos
Event of Interest
Feb 14 Richard Nixon installs secret taping system in the White House
Richard Nixon
- Feb 14 Tehran agreement signed; oil companies accept 55 percent tax rate, immediate increase in posted prices, and further successive increases
- Feb 14 13th Daytona 500: Richard Petty wins (144.462 MPH)
- Feb 15 After 1,200 years Great Britain abandons pence & shilling system for decimal currency
- Feb 15 A British soldier dies 7 days after being mortally wounded in an Irish Republican Army attack in North Ireland
- Feb 19 Walt Wesley becomes 1st Cleve Cavalier to score 50 pts in a game
- Feb 20 National Emergency Center erroneously orders US radio & TV stations to go off the air. Mistake wasn't resolved for 30 minutes
- Feb 21 Series of tornadoes cuts through Miss & La killing 117
- Feb 21 The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
- Feb 23 US army officer William Calley confesses & implicates Captain Medina during his trial for the My Lai Massacre
- Feb 24 Algeria nationalizes 51 percent of French oil concessions
- Feb 25 P Zindel's "And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little" premieres in NYC
- Feb 25 Northern Ireland Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark holds a meeting with Catholic Cardinal of Ireland William Conway, the first such meeting between men holding these offices since 1921
- Feb 26 Secretary-General U Thant signs United Nations proclamation of the vernal equinox as Earth Day.
- Feb 26 Two Royal Ulster Constabulary officers are shot and killed by the Irish Republican Army while on a mobile patrol in the Ardoyne area of Belfast, North Ireland
- Feb 27 Doctors in the first Dutch abortion clinic (the Mildredhuis in Arnhem) start to perform aborti provocati
- Feb 28 A British soldier dies in Derry after his vehicle had been attacked with petrol bombs (he died as a result of inhaling chemicals from fire extinguishers that were used to put out the fire)
Birthdays in History
Deaths in History
James Cash Penney
Feb 12 James Cash Penney, US founder (J C Penney), dies at 95
James Cash Penney