Quisling Premier
Feb 1 German occupiers make Vidkun Quisling Norwegian premier
- Feb 1 Mussert forms pro-Nazi shadow cabinet in Netherlands
- Feb 2 German 6th Army surrenders after the Battle of Stalingrad in a major turning point in Europe during World War II
- Feb 2 MLB Chicago Cubs return to original uniform after experimenting with a vest style
- Feb 3 "The Four Chaplains" drown after giving up their life jackets to others as the US Army transport ship Dorchester sinks in the North Atlantic [1]
"The Good Person of Szechwan"
Feb 4 Bertolt Brecht's play "The Good Person of Szechwan" premieres in Zurich
- Feb 5 Amsterdam resistance group CS-6 shoots nazi general Seyffardt
- Feb 5 Clandestine Radio Atlantiksender, Germany, 1st transmission
LaMotta vs. Robinson
Feb 5 Jake LaMotta defeats future multi-weight world boxing champion Sugar Ray Robinson by unanimous points decision in Detroit in the 2nd of their 6 meetings; his only win of their rivalry; Robinson’s first loss in his first 40 pro bouts
- Feb 6 1st Spitfire in action above Darwin, Australia, Mu Ki-46 shot down
Sinatra's Debut
Feb 6 Singer Frank Sinatra debuts on radio's "Your Hit Parade"
- Feb 7 Shoe rationing begins in US (may purchase up to 3 more pairs in 1942)
- Feb 8 Red Army recaptures Kursk on the eastern front
- Feb 9 Japanese troops evacuate Guadalcanal, ending the epic World War II battle on the Solomon Islands in the Pacific
- Feb 9 National League of Baseball seeks a buyer for the Philadelphia Phillies as owner Gerry Nugent falls in arrears
48-hour Work Week
Feb 9 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order setting a minimum 48-hour work week in a number of critical war industries
Eisenhower Given Command
Feb 11 US General Eisenhower selected to command the allied armies in Europe; British General Montgomery not best pleased
- Feb 12 General Eisenhower departs Algiers for Tebessa
- Feb 13 German assault on Sidi Bou Zid Tunisia, General Dwight D. Eisenhower visits front
- Feb 13 Women's US Marine Corps created
- Feb 14 German offensive against US troops through de Faid-pass, Tunisia begins, starting the Battle of Sidi Bou Zid
- Feb 14 The Soviet Union recaptures the city of Rostov-on-Don, liberating Russia from the German 17th Army during WWII
We Can Do It!
Feb 15 Wartime propaganda poster "We Can Do It!" produced by J. Howard Miller and posted on the walls of Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company's plants in the Midwest
- Feb 15 Women's camp Tamtui on Ambon (Moluccas) hit by allied air raid
- Feb 16 -32°F (-36°C), Falls Village, Connecticut (state record)
Contract of Interest
Feb 16 British premier Winston Churchill contracts pneumonia
- Feb 16 Sign on Munich facade: "Out with Hitler! Long live freedom!" done by "White Rose" student anti-Nazi resistance group, caught on 2/18, beheaded on 2/22
- Feb 16 Withdrawing Afrika Korps reaches Mareth-line in North Africa
- Feb 16 World War II: The USSR reconquers Kharkov
Event of Interest
Feb 17 Adolf Hitler visits field marshal Erich von Manstein's headquarters in Zaporozje, Ukraine and stays until the 19th
Scientific Discovery
Feb 17 Dow Chemical and Corning Glass Works form a joint venture to explore and produce silicon materials, based upon the work of James Franklin Hyde
- Feb 17 Dutch churches protest at Seyss-Inquart against persecution of Jews
Event of Interest
Feb 17 Major General Omar Bradley flies to Washington, D.C.
Sports History
Feb 17 NY Yankee Joe DiMaggio enlists into the US army
- Feb 18 1st edition of Dutch resistance newspaper "Trouw"
- Feb 18 A syndicate headed by New York lumberman William D Cox buys MLB's Philadelphia Phillies for $850,000; 33 year-old Cox is youngest owner in baseball
- Feb 18 German Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbells demands "total war" from German citizens in speech at Berlin Sportpalast
- Feb 18 Members of student non-violent resistance group "White Rose" arrested by Nazis after distributing pamphlets in Munich, Germany
- Feb 19 German tanks under Major General Karl Buelowius attack Kasserine Pass, Tunisia
- Feb 20 Allied troops occupy Kasserine pass in Tunisia
- Feb 20 American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
- Feb 20 New volcano Paracutin erupts in farmer's corn field (Mexico)
- Feb 20 Phil Wrigley & B Rickey charter All-American Girls Softball League
- Feb 21 Dutch RC bishops protest against persecution of Jews
- Feb 22 3 members of White Rose student anti-Nazi resistance group are executed in Munich, Germany
Tagus River Plane Crash
Feb 22 Plane crash in the Tagus River, Lisbon, Portugal kills 23 with 15 survivors including singer Jane Froman
- Feb 23 German troops pull back through Kasserine-pass Tunisia
- Feb 23 Major General Omar Bradley arrives in Dakar & Marrakesh
- Feb 24 Major General Omar Bradley flies to Algiers
- Feb 24 Texas League announces it will quit for the duration of WW II
- Feb 25 Vietminh forms Indo Chinese Democratic Front
- Feb 26 German assault moves to Beja, North Tunisia
- Feb 27 The Rosenstrasse protest starts in Berlin
- Feb 27 The Smith Mine #3 in Bearcreek, Montana, explodes, killing 74 men
- Feb 27 University of Munich professor Kurt Huber, advisor to student non-violent resistance group "White Rose", arrested by Nazis
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists