- Feb 1 "General Electric Theater" premieres on CBS TV; Ronald Reagan later hosts
"You Are There"
Feb 1 "You Are There" with Walter Cronkite premieres on CBS television
- Feb 1 Dr A de Waal appointed as Netherlands' first female assistant secretary of state
- Feb 1 Flooding in Netherlands kills 1,835
- Feb 1 WEEK TV channel 25 in Peoria, IL (NBC) begins broadcasting
- Feb 3 J Fred Muggs, a chimpanzee, becomes a regular on NBC's Today Show
- Feb 5 "Peter Pan", animated film by Walt Disney opens at Roxy Theater, NYC
5th Emmy Awards
Feb 5 5th Emmy Awards: I Love Lucy, Thomas Mitchell and Helen Hayes win
CIA Director Dulles
Feb 9 General Walter Bedell Smith ends term as 4th Director of Central Intelligence Agency; Allen Dulles becomes Acting Director
- Feb 9 WNEP TV channel 16 in Scranton Wilkes-Barre, PA (ABC) 1st broadcast
- Feb 10 Ice Dance Championship at Davos won by Westwood & Demmy GRB
- Feb 10 Ice Pairs Championship at Davos won by Jennifer & John Nicks of GRB
Albright World Champion
Feb 10 Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Davos won by Tenley Albright USA
- Feb 10 Men's Figure Skating Champion in Davos won by Hayes Alan Jenkins USA
- Feb 11 J. Styne and Bob Hilliard's musical "Hazel Flagg" opens at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC for 190 performances
Event of Interest
Feb 11 President Eisenhower refuses clemency appeal for Rosenberg couple
- Feb 11 USSR breaks diplomatic relations with Israel
- Feb 12 USSR breaks relations with Israel
- Feb 13 Philadelphia A's change name of Shibe Park to Connie Mack Stadium
- Feb 14 "Trionfo di Afrodite (Triumph of Aphrodite)", the final work of Carl Orff's Trionfi trilogy premieres at La Scala in Milan, Italy
Sports History
Feb 16 Ted Williams safely crash-lands his damaged Panther jet, later awarded the Air medal
- Feb 17 DSB soccer team forms in Eindhoven (now PSV Eindhoven), Netherlands
- Feb 18 "Maggie" opens at National Theater NYC for 5 performances
- Feb 18 KOLN TV channel 10 in Lincoln, NB (CBS) begins broadcasting
- Feb 19 Georgia approves US 1st literature censorship board
- Feb 19 William Inge's "Picnic" premieres in NYC
- Feb 20 August A. Busch buys St. Louis Cardinals MLB club from Fred Saigh for $3.75 million; pledges not to move the team from St. Louis, Missouri
- Feb 20 US Court of Appeals rules that Organized Baseball is a sport & not a business, affirming the 25-year-old Supreme Court ruling
- Feb 21 "Maggie" closes at National Theater NYC after 5 performances
- Feb 21 Longest collegiate basketball game (6 OTs) Niagara beats Siena 88-81
Wonderful Town
Feb 25 Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green's musical "Wonderful Town", starring Rosalind Russell, opens at Winter Garden Theater, NYC; runs for 559 performances, wins 5 Tony Awards
Golden Globes
Feb 26 10th Golden Globes: "The Greatest Show on Earth", Gary Cooper, & Shirley Booth win
- Feb 26 Allen Dulles officially promoted from deputy director to become the 5th Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
Discovery of the DNA Double Helix
Feb 28 Francis Crick and James Watson discover the chemical structure of DNA-molecule (double-helix polymer) using studies of x-ray diffraction developed by Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists