- Feb 1 Aleide de Gasperi forms Italian government of christian-dems & communists
Shostakovich Named Professor
Feb 1 Dmitri Shostakovich named professor at conservatoire of Leningrad
- Feb 1 NV United Dutch Fokker's Aircraft established
- Feb 3 -81°F (-63°C), Snag Yukon (North American record)
- Feb 3 1st black reporter in US Congressional press gallery (Percival Prattis)
Bradman's Duck
Feb 3 Bradman bowled by Alec Bedser for a duck in 4th Test Cricket
Magnum Photos Founded
Feb 6 Magnum Photos founded in Paris by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David Seymour
Willie Sutton Escapes
Feb 9 Bank robber Willie Sutton escapes jail in Philadelphia
The New Look
Feb 12 French fashion designer Christian Dior presents his first influential collection, named the "New Look"
- Feb 12 Record 100.5-kg sailfish caught by C. W. Stewart, near the Galapagos Islands
- Feb 15 Sammy Fain and George Marion Jr's musical "Toplitzky of Notre Dame" closes at Century Theater, NYC, after 60 performances
Symphony No. 3
Feb 16 Morton Gould's 3rd Symphony, premieres
- Feb 17 Dutch RC bishops publish manifest against "godless communism"
- Feb 17 Voice of America begins broadcasting to USSR
- Feb 18 24 die in a train crash in Gallitzin, Pennsylvania
- Feb 18 Gian Carlo Menotti's opera "Telephone" premieres in NYC
- Feb 19 CBS radio premiere of Villa-Lobos' "Bachianas Brasilieras No 3"
- Feb 20 Chemical mixing error involving perchloric acid at a metal plating company causes explosion that kills 17, injures over a hundred, and destroys at least 11 buildings in Los Angeles, California
Last Viceroy of India
Feb 20 Earl Mountbatten of Burma is appointed the last viceroy of India to oversee the move to independence
Polaroid Land Camera Model 95
Feb 21 1st instant developing camera demonstrated by Edwin Land at the Optical Society of America in NYC
Pro Wrestling
Feb 21 Whipper Billy Watson beats Bill Longson, to become wrestling champ
Event of Interest
Feb 23 US General Eisenhower opens drive to raise $170M in aid for European Jews
- Feb 25 Allied Control Council, the governing body of post-World War II occupied Germany and Austria. abolishes the State of Prussia
Golden Globes
Feb 26 4th Golden Globes: "The Best Years of Our Lives", Gregory Peck, & Rosalind Russell win
- Feb 27 French explorer Paul-Emile Victor founds French Polar Expeditions to oversee French scientific missions
February 28 Massacre
Feb 28 February 28 Massacre: Anti-government uprising in Taiwan is violently put down by Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang-led Republic of China government with the loss of 18,000-28,000 lives. Marks the beginning of the White Terror.
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists