Nixon Announces Candidacy
Feb 1 Former US VP Richard Nixon announces candidacy for president
Execution of a Viet Cong Prisoner
Feb 1 Saigon police chief Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executes Viet Cong officer Nguyễn Văn Lém with a pistol shot to head. The execution is captured by photographer Eddie Adams and becomes an anti-war icon.
Lombardi Steps Down
Feb 1 Vince Lombardi steps down as NFL Green Bay Packers head coach in favor of longtime assistant Phil Bengtson; stays on as Packers' general manager for 1968
Eckert Replaces Kuhn as Commissioner
Feb 4 Bowie Kuhn replaces William Eckert as 5th commissioner of baseball
- Feb 4 Walter Marks' musical "Golden Rainbow", starring Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé opens at the Shubert Theater, later transferring to the George Abbott Theatre, NYC; runs for 383 performances
- Feb 5 A fishing trawler from Hull sinks off the coast of Iceland
- Feb 5 KDTV TV channel 39 in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas (IND) begins broadcasting
- Feb 5 Skater Kees Verkerk wins olympic gold in the 1500m
- Feb 6 Dutch 2nd Chamber condemns US bombing of North Vietnam
Eisenhower's Hole-in-one
Feb 6 Former President Dwight Eisenhower shoots a hole-in-one
- Feb 6 KESD TV channel 8 in Brookings, SD (PBS) begins broadcasting
- Feb 6 X Winter Olympic Games opens in Grenoble, France
Price
Feb 7 Arthur Miller's stage drama "Price" opens at Morosco Theatre, later moving to the 46th Street Theatre, NYC; runs for 429 performances
- Feb 7 Belgium government of Vanden Boeynants falls
- Feb 7 WLED TV channel 49 in Littleton, NH (PBS) begins broadcasting
- Feb 8 Film "Planet of the Apes", based on Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel "La Planète des singes" premieres in New York City
- Feb 8 Orangeburg Massacre: highway patrol officers kill 3 students and injure 27 others demonstrating at South Carolina State University, 1st student killing by law enforcement in the US
- Feb 9 A rare 3-way tie for silver in the women's 500m speed skating at the Grenoble Winter Olympics; Soviet Lyudmila Titova wins from American trio of Jenny Fish, Mary Meyers and Dianne Holum
- Feb 9 Rotterdam metro opened by Princess Beatrix
- Feb 9 World champion Jean-Claude Killy of France wins the downhill at the Grenoble Winter Olympics; first of 3-event clean sweep of the alpine skiing events at the Games
- Feb 10 "Spooky" by Classics IV hits #3
Fleming Olympic Champion
Feb 10 American 2-time world champion Peggy Fleming comfortably wins Olympic women's figure skating gold medal at the Grenoble Winter Games
- Feb 11 Israeli-Jordan border fight
- Feb 11 Jeffrey Kramer survives 76-m jump, Washington Bridge, Hudson River New York
- Feb 11 Madison Square Garden III closes Madison Square Garden IV opens (NYC)
Golden Globes
Feb 12 25th Golden Globes: "In the Heat of the Night", Rod Steiger, & Edith Evans win
- Feb 12 Dutch speed skater Ans Schut wins women's 3,000m event at Grenoble Winter Olympics; first 10 finishers beat previous Olympic record set in Squaw Valley (1960)
- Feb 12 Frenchman Jean Claude-Killy follows his win in the downhill with victory in giant slalom at Grenoble Winter Olympics; clean sweeps 3 alpine skiing events with success in the slalom
- Feb 13 After winning giant slalom in Innsbruck (1964) French skier Marielle Goitschel takes out the slalom gold medal at the Grenoble Winter Olympics
- Feb 13 Swedish 10k cross country champion Toini Gustafsson wins her 2nd gold medal at the Grenoble Winter Olympics in the 5k event ahead of Soviet pair Galina Kulakova and Alvetina Kolchina
- Feb 13 US sends 10,500 additional soldiers to Vietnam
- Feb 14 Norwegian 15k Olympic cross country champion Harald Grønningen wins his second gold medal of the Grenoble Winter Olympics in the 4 x 10k relay
- Feb 14 Soviet Union goes 1-2 in pairs figure skating at the Grenoble Winter Olympics; husband & wife team Oleg Protopopov and Liudmila Belousova edge teammates Tatiana Zhuk and Alexander Gorelik
- Feb 14 WHKY TV channel 14 in Hickory, NC (IND) begins broadcasting
- Feb 15 ABA basketball Anaheim Amigos Les Salvage scores 10 3-point baskets in game vs Denver Rockets
- Feb 15 Biathlon 4 x 7.5k relay debuts at the Grenoble Winter Olympics with the Soviet Union taking the gold medal ahead of Norway and Sweden
- Feb 15 Fred Anton Maier of Norway skates a world record 7:22.4 in winning the 5,000m at the Grenoble Winter Olympics; Dutch 1,500m champion Kees Verkerk is just 0.8s behind for silver
- Feb 15 WVUT TV channel 22 in Vincennes, Indiana (PBS) begins broadcasting
Music History
Feb 16 Beatles George Harrison, John Lennon and their wives fly to India for transcendental meditation study with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Music History
Feb 16 Elvis Presley receives a gold record for "How Great Thou Art"
- Feb 16 Italy completes the bobsleigh double at the Grenoble Winter Olympics with victory in the 4-man; Eugenio Monti and Luciano de Paolis double up for gold winning 2-man earlier
- Feb 16 US 1st 911 phone system goes into service in Haleyville, Alabama
- Feb 17 Frenchman Jean Claude-Killy completes a clean sweep of the alpine skiing events at the Grenoble Winter Olympics when he wins the slalom; also takes out the downhill and giant slalom
- Feb 17 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield, Massachusetts opens
- Feb 17 Norwegian cross country skier Ole Ellefsæter wins 50k event at the Grenoble Winter Olympics; 2nd gold medal of the Games (4 x 10k relay)
- Feb 17 Soviet Union wins its 3rd Olympic ice hockey gold medal in Grenoble; clinch title with final round, 5-0 win over Canada; Soviet LW Anatoli Firsov top scores with 16 points
- Feb 18 After winning men's luge singles Olympic gold medal in Innsbruck (1964), Thomas Köhler of Germany teams with Klaus Bonsack to take out the doubles in Grenoble
- Feb 18 Britain commences a trial of year-round daylight saving time (BST - British Standard Time, one hour ahead of GMT)
Music History
Feb 18 British guitarist David Gilmour joins progressive rock group Pink Floyd
- Feb 18 Thousands of people in West Berlin demonstrate against US involvement in the Vietnam War
- Feb 18 X Winter Olympic Games close in Grenoble, France
- Feb 19 1st US statewide teachers' strike begins in Florida [note: a two-day walk out in Utah in 1963 is considered first by some]
- Feb 19 Children's educational TV program "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" debuts on NET (now PBS)
- Feb 20 Chinese space agency, The China Academy of Space Technology is established in Beijing
- Feb 20 State troopers used tear gas to stop demonstration at Alcorn A & M
- Feb 21 150,000 demonstrate against leftist students in West Berlin
- Feb 21 Baseball announces a minimum annual salary of $10,000
NBA Record
Feb 23 Wilt Chamberlain becomes 1st NBAer to score 25,000 points
- Feb 24 "Darling of the Day" closes at George Abbott NYC after 31 performances
Scientific Discovery
Feb 24 Discovery of 1st pulsar announced (CP 1919) by Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish
- Feb 24 Gary Unger begins NHL consecutive game record of 914 games
- Feb 24 US troops reconquer Hue Vietnam
Daytona 500
Feb 25 10th Daytona 500: Cale Yarborough driving for Wood Brothers Racing wins by less than a second from LeeRoy Yarbrough; grid set exclusively by qualifying times
- Feb 25 430 Unification Church couples wed in Korea
- Feb 25 Archbishop Makarios re-elected president of Cyprus
- Feb 26 Clandestine Radio Voice of Iraqi People (Communist) final transmission
Vietnam War
Feb 27 CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite delivers a scathing editorial on America's chances of winning the Vietnam War
Music Premiere
Feb 29 Howard Hanson's 6th Symphony, premieres
- Feb 29 National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Comm) reports against racism & demands aid given to blacks
- Feb 29 US end regular flights with nuclear bombs
- Feb 29 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists