Events in History
- Feb 1 1st scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35) introduced ($395)
Appointment of Interest
Feb 1 British Prime Minister Edward Heath announces the appointment of Lord Chief Justice Lord Widgery to undertake an inquiry into the 13 deaths on 'Bloody Sunday' (30 January 1972)
- Feb 1 Kuala Lumpur becomes a city by a royal charter granted by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
- Feb 1 The Ministry of Defence also issues a detailed account of the British Army's version of events during 'Bloody Sunday'
- Feb 2 Angry demonstrators burn the British Embassy in Dublin to the ground in protest at the shooting dead of 13 people on 'bloody sunday'
- Feb 3 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Feb 4 6th round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks ends in Vienna Austria
- Feb 5 Two IRA members are killed when a bomb they were planting exploded prematurely
- Feb 5 US airlines begin mandatory inspection of passengers & baggage
- Feb 6 A Civil Rights march held in Newry, County Down; very large turn-out with many people attending to protest at the killings in Derry the previous Sunday
- Feb 9 British government declares state of emergency after month-long coal miners' strike
- Feb 9 William Craig, who had been Northern Ireland Minister for Home Affairs, launches 'Ulster Vanguard' as an umbrella movement for the right-ring of Unionism
- Feb 10 Ras al Khaima joins United Arab Emirates
- Feb 10 Two British soldiers are killed in a land mine attack near Cullyhanna, County Armagh; an IRA member is shot dead during an exchange of gunfire with RUC officers
- Feb 10 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- Feb 14 Lord Widgery arrives in Coleraine, where the 'Bloody Sunday' (30 January 1972) Tribunal was to be based, and holds a preliminary hearing
- Feb 14 Luna 20 (Russia) launched to orbit & soft landing on Moon
- Feb 15 Dimitrios Papadopoulos becomes metropolitan of Imbros and Tenedos
- Feb 15 President Velasco Ibarra of Ecuador deposed for 4th time
- Feb 15 Sound recordings are granted U.S. federal copyright protection for the first time.
- Feb 16 German mass murderers "Three of Breda" freed
Britain Joins the European Community
Feb 17 British Parliament votes to join the European Common Market
Volkswagen Beetle
Feb 17 Sales of the Volkswagen Beetle model exceed those of Ford Model T
Event of Interest
Feb 17 US President Richard Nixon leaves Washington, D.C. for a groundbreaking trip to China
Nixon Meets Mao
Feb 21 Richard Nixon becomes the first US President to visit China, normalizing relations between the countries in a meeting with Chinese leader Mao Zedong in Beijing
- Feb 21 The first session of the Widgery Tribunal, investigating the events of 'Bloody Sunday' (30 January 1972), is held in Coleraine, County Derry
- Feb 22 Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani becomes Emir & Prime Minister of Qatar
- Feb 22 The Official IRA bombs Aldershot military barracks, the headquarters of the British Parachute Regiment, killing seven people; thought to be in retaliation for Bloody Sunday.
- Feb 22 US President Richard Nixon, meets with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in Beijing
- Feb 25 Attempted assassination of Irish Minister of State for Home Affairs John Taylor who is shot a number of times (the Official Irish Republican Army later claimed responsibility)
- Feb 26 Slag heap dam collapses above Buffalo Creek, West Virginia, kills 125
Event of Interest
Feb 27 US President Richard Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai issue Shanghai Communique
- Feb 28 The Asama-Sanso incident ends in Japan.
- Feb 28 US President Richard Nixon ends historic week-long visit to China
- Feb 29 Jack Anderson discloses Dita Beard (ITT) memo indicating antitrust charges were dropped for $400,000 contribution to Republican Party
Birthdays in History
Pedro Sánchez (51 years old)
Feb 29 Spanish economist and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (2018-), born in Madrid, Spain
Deaths in History
- Feb 2 Natalie Clifford Barney, American writer (b. 1876)
- Feb 5 Marianne Moore, American poetess (Pulitzer 1951), dies at 84
- Feb 6 Julian Steward, American anthropologist (cultural ecology), dies at 70
- Feb 11 Jan Wils, Dutch architect (Olympian Stadium, Amsterdam), dies at 80
- Feb 15 Edgar Snow, American author and journalist (Battle for Asia), dies at 66
- Feb 15 Jef [Josephus CF] Last, Dutch poet/Indonesian politician, dies at 73
- Feb 20 Maria Goeppert-Mayer, American-German atomic physicist (Nobel 1963), dies at 65
- Feb 20 Walter Winchell, American journalist, gossip columnist, radio host, and narrator (the Untouchables), dies at 74
- Feb 21 Eugène Tisserant, French Catholic candinal (b. 1884)
- Feb 26 Tom Manders, Dutch cabaret artist (Dorus), dies at 50
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists