February This Day in History, Historic Events
What Historic February Events Occurred on Your Birthday?
Our “This Day in History for February” section contains historical February events categorized by month and day. See what happened on your birthday, or any day of the year. Find out what happened on this day in February.
Major Historical February Events:
February 1, 1920 – Royal Canadian Mounted Police are established.
February 1, 1964 – G. I. Joe toy action figure hits the market. It originally sold for $2.49 by Hasbro.
February 2, 1949 – The first 45 RPM vinyl record is released.
February 6, 1964 – The G.I. Joe toy hits the market.
February 3, 1959 – Rock singers Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash.
February 4, 1938 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is released.
February 4, 1949 – Ruth Handler invents the Barbie Doll.
February 4, 2004 – Mark Zuckerberg creates Facebook social media platform.
February 5, 1922 – Reader’s Digest is first published.
February 6, 1926 – The first doughnut machine is sold.
February 6, 1935 – The board game Monopoly first went on sale.
February 6, 1943 – Frank Sinatra makes his singing debut on the radio show “Your Hit Parade”.
February 6, 1971 – Astronaut Alan Shepard hits three golf balls on the moon.
February 7, 1964 – The Beatles arrive in the U.S. for the first time.
February 8, 1910 – The Boy Scouts of America is founded.
February 9, 1964 – The Beatles appear on the Ed Sullivan Show.
February 9, 1861 – An act of Congress is passed authorizing the US Weather Bureau.
February 10, 1942 – Glenn Miller receives the first-ever gold record for selling a million copies of a song. And the song…..”The Chattanooga Choo Choo”
February 10, 1763 – France cedes Canada to England, ending the French and Indian War.
February Brings Valentine's Day, a Time for Love
February 11, 1809 – Robert Fulton patents the steamboat.
February 11, 1929 – The Vatican becomes a sovereign nation.
February 11, 1945 – The Yalta agreement is signed by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin.
February 12, 1870 – Women in the Utah Territory win the right to vote.
February 13, 1826 – The American Temperance Society is formed in Boston, MA.
February 13, 1866 – Jesse James robs his first(of many) banks.
February 13, 1917 – Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari is arrested on suspicion she is a German spy.
February 13, 2000 – The last original “Peanuts” comic strip appears in newspapers one day after the death of Charles M. Schulz, its creator.
February 14, 1826 – U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall declares that any act of Congress that conflicts with the Constitution is void.
February 13, 1849 – President John Knox Polk becomes the first sitting president to have his photograph taken.
February 14, 1929 – The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre occurred. Mobsters, dressed as policemen, gunned down seven members of a rival gang.
February 14, 1931 – The original film “Dracula” starring Bela Lugosi is released.
February 14, 1946 – J. Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly demonstrates the first computer, called the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) computer at the University of Pennsylvania.
February 14, 1951 – Sugar Ray Robinson becomes the world middleweight champion by defeating Jake LaMotta.
February 14, 1971 – President Richard M. Nixon installs a secret taping system in the White House.
February 15, 399 B.C. – Philosopher Socrates is sentenced to death in Athens for corrupting the minds of the youth in the city.
February 15, 1842 – The Post Office uses adhesive postage stamps for the first time.
February 15, 1936 – Adolph Hitler announces the construction of the Volkswagen Beetle.
February 15, 2013 – Asteroid “2012 DA14” at 150 feet across, is the closest approach to Earth of any object its size in history, passing less than 18,000 miles from Earth, within the orbit of geostationary satellites.
February 16, 600 – Pope Gregory the Great declares “God Bless You” is the proper response to a sneeze.
February 16, 1868 – Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks is formed.
February 16, 1883 – “Ladies Home Journal” is first published.
February 16, 1937 – Nylon is patented. But it won’t become popular for a few more decades.
February 16, 1948 – NBC TV begins its first nightly newscast.
February 17, 1621 – Myles Standish is elected the first commander of Plymouth Colony.
February 17, 1815 – President James Madison signs the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812.
February 18, 1861 – Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as President of the Confederate States of America.
February 18, 1885 – Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published.
February 18, 1930 – A ninth planet is discovered in the solar system and is named Pluto. The discoverer is Clyde Tombaugh. Note: To the dismay of many, in 2006, scientists reclassified Pluto as a “dwarf planet”.
February 18, 1913 – A prize is inserted into a Crackerjacks box for the first time.
February 18, 1979 – Snow falls in the Sahara Desert.
February 19, 1878 – Thomas Edison is granted a patent for his Gramophone (Phonograph).
February 19, 1913 – Prizes begin to be inserted into Cracker Jack boxes.
February 19, 1968 – Mister Rogers Neighborhood debuts on television.
February 20, 1869 – Congress bans dueling in the District of Columbia.
February 20, 1927 – Golfers in South Carolina are arrested for violating the Sabbath.
February 20, 1944 – Batman and Robin comic strip premieres in newspapers.
February 20, 1962 – John Glenn becomes the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth.
Historic February Events include -Alka Seltzer is sold for the first time. Oh, what a relief it is.
February 21, 1842 – John Greenough receives a U.S. patent for the sewing machine.
February 21, 1931 – Alka Seltzer is first sold.
February 21, 1972 – Richard Nixon becomes the first U.S. President to visit China.
February 22, 1879 – Frank Woolworth opens the first “Five Cent Store in Utica, N.Y.
February 22, 1888 – John Reid, the “Father of American Golf”, demonstrates golf in a cow pasture in Yonkers, NY.
February 22, 1959 – Inaugural Daytona 500 race is run.
February 23, 1836 – The Battle of the Alamo begins. It lasts 13 days.
February 23, 1874 – Walter Wingfield of Pimlico, England, patented the game of lawn tennis.
February 23, 1893 – Rudolf Diesel receives a patent in Germany for the oil-burning diesel engine.
February 23, 1896 – The Tootsie Roll rolls into stores in America. Created by Leo Hirshfield.
February 23, 1940 – Walt Disney releases Pinocchio to movie theaters.
February 23, 1945 – U.S marines raise the American flag over the Pacific island of Iwo Jima.
February 24, 1839 – William Otis of Philadelphia, PA patents the steam shovel.
February 24, 1868 – The first parade with floats is held for Mardi Gras in Mobile, AL.
February 24, 1909 – The Hudson Motor Company is founded.
February 24, 1981 – Britain’s Prince Charles announces his engagement to Lady Diana.
February 24, 1998 – Elton John is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
February 24, 2011 – Final launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery.
February 25, 1791 – The 1st Bank of the United States is chartered.
February 25, 1836 – Samuel Colt patents the revolver.
February 25, 1837 – Thomas Davenport patents the first electric printing press.
February 25, 1908 – The first tunnel under the Hudson River opens.
February 25, 1925 – Glacier Bay National Monument in Alaska is established.
February 25, 1964 – Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) wins his first World Heavyweight Title, defeating Sonny Liston.
February 26, 1919 – Congress creates the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.
February 26, 1993 – A bomb explodes at the World Trade Center killing 6 people.
February 26, 1983 – Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album is #1 on the charts and stays there for 37 weeks.
February 27, 1814 – Ludwig van Beethoven’s 8th Symphony in F premieres.
February 27, 1827 – Mardi Gras is celebrated in New Orleans for the first time.
February 27, 1960 – The U.S. Men’s Olympic hockey team defeats the U.S.S.R. to win Olympic Gold.
February 27, 1981 – Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder record “Ebony and Ivory”.
February 28, 202 B.C. – The Han dynasty begins a four-hundred-year rule with the coronation of Liu Bang as Emperor Gaozu of Han.
February 28, 1692 – The Salem Witch Hunts begin.
February 28, 1784 – Evangelist John Wesley charters the Methodist church.
February 28, 1849 – The California Gold Rush begins as the first boatload of prospectors arrive in San Francisco.
February 28, 1983 – The final episode of M.A.S.H. is aired.
February 29, 1872 – Yellowstone becomes the first National Park
Additional Resources
Famous Birthdays Who else was born on your Birthday? Find out!
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