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 NYPD officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust while his fellow officers stood outside and failed to call for assistance
- Feb 3 OPEC mandates "total embargo" against any company that rejects 55 percent tax rate
- Feb 4 British automobile and aerospace company Rolls Royce Ltd enters voluntary liquidation
- Feb 4 Government exhibit under construction in Brazil collapses, kills 65
- Feb 4 Lieutenant-General Vernon Erskine-Crum becomes General Officer Commanding of the British Army in Northern Ireland
- Feb 4 National Guard mobilized to quell rioting in Wilmington NC
- Feb 4 The NASDAQ stock exchange, the second-largest in the world - behind the New York Stock Exchange - is founded in New York City
Historic Expedition
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 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 6 The Irish Republican Army shoots and kills Gunner Robert Curtis, the first British soldier to die during the 'Troubles'
- Feb 7 Switzerland votes for national women's suffrage in a referendum
- Feb 8 Nasdaq Composite stock market index debuts with 50 companies and a starting value of 100
- Feb 8 Operation Lam Son 719 begins, a limited South Vietnamese incursion into Laos
- 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 11 US, UK, USSR, others sign Seabed Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons
- Feb 13 12,000 South Vietnamese troops cross into Laos
Historic Event
Feb 14 Richard Nixon installs secret taping system in the White House
- Feb 14 Tehran agreement signed; oil companies accept 55 percent tax rate, immediate increase in posted prices, and further successive increases
- Feb 15 A British soldier dies 7 days after being mortally wounded in an Irish Republican Army attack in North Ireland
- Feb 15 After 1,200 years Great Britain abandons pence & shilling system for decimal currency
- Feb 19 Walt Wesley becomes 1st Cleve Cavalier to score 50 pts in a game
- Feb 21 Series of tornadoes cuts through Mississippi & Louisiana 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
Meeting of Interest
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 25 P Zindel's "And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little" premieres in NYC
- Feb 26 Two Royal Ulster Constabulary officers shot and killed by the Irish Republican Army while on 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
- Feb 3 Sarah Kane, English playwright (d. 1999)
- Feb 8 Maura Healey, American politician (1st woman governor of Massachusetts 2023-), born in Bethesda, Maryland
- Feb 19 Jeff Kinney, American author (Diary of a Wimpy Kid), born in Fort Washington, Maryland
- Feb 20 Shalanda Burt, US murderess
- Feb 20 Shawn McKenzie, American programmer
- Feb 27 Derren Brown, British psychological illusionist, born in Purley, London
- Feb 28 Tristan Louis, American writer
Deaths in History
James Cash Penney (1875-1971)
Feb 12 American department store founder (J C Penney), dies at 95
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists