History by month
February
29 days of history. Every date is an entry point to the events, births, and moments that shaped our world.
February 1
1968 South Vietnamese police chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan pulled a snub-nosed revolver from
February 2
1943 The German 6th Army under Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrendered at Stalingr
February 3
1959 A plane crash in a cornfield outside Clear Lake, Iowa, killed Buddy Holly, Ritch
February 4
1789 George Washington took the oath of office on April 30, 1789, in New York City, b
February 5
1917 Congress overrode President Wilson's veto to enact the Immigration Act of 1917 o
February 6
1899 Spain ceded Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States un
February 7
1990 The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party voted on February 7, 1990, t
February 8
1587 Elizabeth I hesitated for months before signing Mary Queen of Scots' death warra
February 9
1950 Senator Joseph McCarthy waved a piece of paper before an audience in Wheeling, W
February 10
1763 Britain, France, and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris on February 10, 1763, endi
February 11
1990 F.W. de Klerk unconditionally released Nelson Mandela from Victor Verster Prison
February 12
1818 Bernardo O'Higgins, the illegitimate son of a former Viceroy of Peru, signed Chi
February 13
1633 Galileo Galilei stood before the Roman Inquisition in April 1633 to answer charg
February 14
1929 Five men in overcoats and fedoras pushed through the door of the S-M-C Cartage C
February 15
1898 The forward magazines of the USS Maine detonated at 9:40 PM on February 15, 1898
February 16
1918 The Council of Lithuania unanimously adopted the Act of Independence on February
February 17
1865 Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's troops entered Columbia, South Carolina
February 18
1861 Jefferson Davis accepted the provisional presidency of the Confederate States of
February 19
1942 Executive Order 9066 authorized military commanders to exclude all people of Jap
February 20
1962 John Glenn squeezed into the Mercury capsule Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962,
February 21
1965 Three gunmen opened fire on Malcolm X as he began speaking at the Audubon Ballro
February 22
1924 Calvin Coolidge became the first sitting president to deliver a political speech
February 23
1455 Johannes Gutenberg produced the first copies of his 42-line Bible in his Mainz w
February 24
1803 Chief Justice John Marshall's opinion in Marbury v. Madison, issued on February
February 25
1870 Hiram Rhodes Revels took his seat as a Republican senator from Mississippi on Fe
February 26
1991 Saddam Hussein ordered Iraqi forces to withdraw from Kuwait on February 26, 1991
February 27
1922 The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Nineteenth Amendment in Leser v. Garnet
February 28
1953 James Watson and Francis Crick walked into the Eagle pub in Cambridge on Februar
February 29
1504 Christopher Columbus was stranded on Jamaica's north coast in February 1504, his