- Feb 1 "Volare" ("Nel blu dipinto di blu") single released by Domenico Modugno (Grammy Award Record of the Year, Song of the Year 1958)
- Feb 1 1st US satellite (Explorer I) launched
- Feb 1 Egypt & Syria announce plans to merge into United Arab Republic
- Feb 1 Manchester United beats Arsenal, 5-4 at Highbury in the team's last game on British soil, 5 days prior to the plane crash at Munich airport that killed 7 players
- Feb 1 Tommy Taylor scores 2 goals and Duncan Edwards 1, in Manchester United's 5-4 win vs Arsenal at Highbury; pair amongst 7 players killed 5 days later when team’s charter plane crashes at Munich airport
- Feb 1 WFTV TV channel 9 in Orlando, FL (ABC) begins broadcasting
- Feb 2 Syria joins Egypt in United Arab Republic
- Feb 2 WRIK (now WLUZ) TV channel 7 in Ponce, PR (PTC) begins broadcasting
- Feb 3 Royal Teens' "Short Shorts" enters Top 40 chart & peaks at #3
- Feb 4 "Oh, Captain!" opens at Alvin Theater NYC for 192 performances
- Feb 4 MLB Hall of Fame fails to elect anyone for 1st time since 1950
- Feb 5 Clifton R Wharton confirmed as 1st US African American foreign minister (to Romania)
- Feb 5 Gamel Abdel Nasser nominated 1st President of United Arab Republic
- Feb 5 Test cricket debut of outstanding West Indian spin bowler Lance Gibbs, 2nd Test v Pakistan in Port-of-Spain
- Feb 5 Vanguard TV-3 back-up launches into Earth orbit; reaches 6 km
- Feb 6 21 dead in air crash at Munich-Riem Airport; 8 players and 3 staff are from the Manchester United football team
Williams Highest Paid
Feb 6 Future Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder Ted Williams becomes highest paid player in MLB when he re-signs with Boston Red Sox for $135,000
- Feb 7 1st showing of Dutch auto-transmission car, the DAF 600
- Feb 7 Dodgers officially become the Los Angeles Dodgers, Inc
- Feb 8 Edgar Whitehead succeeds Garfield Todd as premier of South Rhodesia
- Feb 8 French planes bomb Sakiet, Tunisia, 75 die
- Feb 8 KIRO TV channel 7 in Seattle, WA (CBS) begins broadcasting
- Feb 11 BBC pioneering series "Your Life in Their Hands" first broadcast presented by Dr. Charles Fletcher, 1st major TV series to deal with medicine
Event of Interest
Feb 11 China's 1st National People's Congress adopts the first edition of Hanyu Pinyin created by Zhou Youguang as the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese
- Feb 11 Marshal Chen Yi succeeds Chu En-lai as Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Feb 11 Ruth Carol Taylor is 1st African-American woman hired as flight attendant, Ithaca NY
- Feb 11 WTVC TV channel 9 in Chattanooga, TN (ABC) begins broadcasting
Sports History
Feb 12 Boston Celtic Bill Russell grabs 41 rebounds to beat Syracuse Nationals, 119-101
- Feb 12 General Miguel Ydegoras Fuentes elected President of Guatemala
- Feb 14 Arab Federation of Iraq & Jordan forms
- Feb 15 Ice Dance Championship at Paris won by June Markham/Courtney Jones GRB
- Feb 15 Ice Pairs Championship at Paris won by Barbara Wagner/Rob Paul of CAN
- Feb 15 Ladies' Figure Skating Championship in Paris won by Carol Heiss of USA
- Feb 15 Men's Figure Skating Championship in Paris won by David Jenkins USA
- Feb 15 Sjafroeddin Prawiranegara forms anti-government of Middle Sumatra
- Feb 17 Comic strip "BC" 1st appears
- Feb 17 WETV (now WPBA) TV channel 30 in Atlanta, GA (PBS) begins broadcasting
Music History
Feb 19 Carl Perkins leaves Sun Records for Columbia Records
The Brothers Karamazov
Feb 20 Adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov", starring Yul Brynner and featuring William Shatner's film debut, premieres at Radio City Music Hall, NYC
Arcaro's 4,000th Winner
Feb 20 American future Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Arcaro rides his 4,000th winner on Riding Ban in the 8th race at Santa Anita
- Feb 20 LA Coliseum approves 2-year pact allowing LA Dodgers to use facility whilst Dodger Stadium is completed in time for the 1962 MLB season
- Feb 21 "Portotino" opens at Adelphi Theater, NYC; runs for 3 performances
- Feb 21 British artist Gerald Holtom designs Nuclear Disarmament logo, based on blended semaphore signals for the letters N and D; it later became an international peace symbol
- Feb 21 Egypt-Syria as United Arab Republic elect Nasser president (99.9% vote)
- Feb 22 "Portotino" closes at Adelphi Theater NYC after 3 performances
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Feb 22 15th Golden Globes: "The Bridge on the River Kwai", Alec Guinness, & Joanne Woodward win
- Feb 22 Australian swimmer Jon Konrads sets 6 world records in 2 days
- Feb 22 Egypt & Syria form United Arab Republic (UAR)
- Feb 22 Indonesian air force bombs Padang, Sumatra and Menado, Celebes
F1 World Champion
Feb 23 5-time F1 World Drivers champion Juan Manuel Fangio is kidnapped by Cuban rebels from Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement; released soon after Cuban GP
- Feb 23 Arturo Frondizi elected President of Argentina
- Feb 23 Last Municipal arc light at Mission & 25th removed in San Francisco (installed 1913)
- Feb 23 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- Feb 27 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- Feb 28 West Indies 1-504 in reply to Pakistan 328, day 3 of 3rd Test Cricket
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists