- Feb 1 4 students stage 1st civil rights sit-in, at Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina
Laver Beats Fraser
Feb 1 Australian Championships Men's Tennis: In a classic all-Australian final Rod Laver beats Neale Fraser 5-7, 3-6, 6-3, 8-6, 8-6; Laver's first Grand Slam title
- Feb 1 Australian Championships Women's Tennis: Margaret Smith wins first of 11 Australian singles titles; beats fellow Australian Jan Lehane 7-5, 6-2
- Feb 1 Extreme right-wing rebels in Algiers surrender
- Feb 2 Michale Eufemia sinks 625 balls in pool match without a miss
"La Dolce Vita"
Feb 3 "La Dolce Vita" directed by Federico Fellini and starring Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg has its film premiere in Italy
Macmillan's "Winds of Change" Speech
Feb 3 British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan makes his famous "wind of change" speech in Africa, against the apartheid regime, angering South African politicians
- Feb 4 Giants move their offices to Candlestick Park
- Feb 4 Lionel Bart's musical comedy "Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'be" opens at Garrick Theatre, London; runs for 886 pefromances
- Feb 4 Voters fail to elect a new Baseball Hall of Fame member
- Feb 7 Old handwriting found in at Qumran, near the Dead Sea
Hoagy Carmichael Hollywood Star
Feb 8 American "Stardust" composer and character actor Hoagy Carmichael receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Russell's 50 Rebounds
Feb 8 Boston Celtic Bill Russell becomes 1st NBAer with 50 rebounds (51)
House of Windsor
Feb 8 Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issues an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name "Mountbatten-Windsor"
Lincoln, the Great Commoner
Feb 10 Charles Ives' composition "Lincoln, the Great Commoner" premieres
- Feb 12 Chinese army kills 12 Indian soldiers
- Feb 13 "Beg, Borrow or Steal" opens at Martin Beck Theater NYC for 5 performances
- Feb 13 "Saratoga" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 80 performances
- Feb 13 France becomes the 4th nuclear nation by exploding their 1st device, a 70 kilo-ton "Gerboise Bleue" atomic bomb in the French Algerian Sahara desert [1]
Music Recording
Feb 13 Frank Sinatra launches Reprise label, after a failed attempt to buy the Verve label;
Sports History
Feb 18 Continental League President Branch Rickey and Toronto team owner Jack Kent Cooke announce the opening date of their new baseball league as April 18, 1961
- Feb 18 VIII Winter Olympic Games open in Squaw Valley, California
- Feb 18 Walter O'Malley, LA Dodger owner, purchases Chavez Ravine for $494,000
- Feb 19 Bil Keane's "Family Circus" cartoon strip debuts
- Feb 19 Protest strike in Poznan, Poland
- Feb 19 Swedish cross country skier Sixten Jernberg follows his 50k gold medal in Cortina d'Ampezzo (1956) with victory in 30k event at the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics
- Feb 19 Three time Canadian world champions Barbara Wagner and Robert Paul win the pairs figure skating Olympic gold medal at Squaw Valley, California
- Feb 20 Soviet females sweep the 10k cross country event at Squaw Valley; first medal sweep for the Soviets at a Winter Olympics; Maria Gusakova wins from Lyubov Kozyreva and Radya Yeroshina
- Feb 21 Biathlon debuts at the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics; Klas Lestander from Sweden becomes the first Olympic champion ahead of Finland's Antti Tyrväinen and Soviet Aleksandr Privalov
- Feb 22 German skier Georg Thoma becomes the first non-Nordic athlete to win the Nordic combined event at the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics
- Feb 23 Carol Heiss wins the women's figure skating gold medal at the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics; US takes the singles double after David Jenkins wins men's event
- Feb 23 Demolition begins on Brooklyn's Ebbets Field (opened in 1913)
- Feb 24 Austria goes 1-2 in the men's slalom at the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics; Ernst Hintersteer wins gold ahead of teammate Hias Leitner
Event of Interest
Feb 24 Italian government of Antonio Segni falls
- Feb 25 John Cage's "Music for Amplified Toy Pianos" premieres
Event of Interest
Feb 25 Lillian Hellman's "Toys in the Attic" premieres in NYC
- Feb 26 David Jenkins wins the men's figure skating gold medal at the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics; US takes the singles double after Carol Heiss wins women's event
Event of Interest
Feb 26 Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev voices support for Indonesia
- Feb 26 USA's David Jenkins wins Olympic Gold for men's figure skating
Film & TV History
Feb 26 Vera Miles stars in"Mirror Image" episode of CBS anthology series "The Twilight Zone"
- Feb 26 Verne Gagne beats Doctor X in Omaha, to become NWA wrestling champ
- Feb 27 Five Nations Rugby Championship is won jointly by England and France with the pivotal game a 3-3 draw between the teams at Stade Colombes, Paris
- Feb 27 Oil pipe line from Rotterdam to Ruhrgebied opens
Olympic Games
Feb 27 US Olympic Ice Hockey Team beats USSR 3-2 en route to gold medal
- Feb 27 Veikko Hakulinen of Finland wins his 3rd career Olympic cross country gold medal as part of Finland's 4 x 10k relay team at Squaw Valley, CA; winner: 50k (Oslo, 1952) and 30k (Cortina d’Ampezzo, 1956)
- Feb 28 Home team United States wins its first Olympic ice hockey gold medal at Squaw Valley; with 9-4 win over Czechoslovakia
- Feb 28 VIII Winter Olympic Games close in Squaw Valley, California
Playboy Club
Feb 29 1st Playboy Club, featuring bunnies, opens in Chicago
- Feb 29 Agadir earthquake in Morocco kills a third of the population (12,000-15,000)
- Feb 29 KRET TV channel 23 in Richardson, TX (PBS) begins broadcasting
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists