Historical Events On February 1 - On This Day

• February

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• 10
• 11
• 12
• 13
• 14
• 15
• 16
• 17
• 18
• 19
• 20
• 21
• 22
• 23
• 24
• 25
• 26
• 27
• 28
• 29

1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829

• Summary
• Events
• Birthdays
• Deaths
• Weddings
• Film & TV
• Music
• Sport

• 772 Adrian I begins his reign as pope of the Catholic Church
• 772 Pope Adrian I [Hadrian I] is elected

1327 Edward III is crowned King of England aged 14, though the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer

1587 Queen Elizabeth I of England signs the death warrant for her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots

• 1622 English East India Company forces capture the Portuguese fort on the island of Hormus in the Persian Gulf, an important trading center on the route to Mughal India
• 1662 Dutch garrison on Formosa surrenders to Chinese pirates
• 1669 French King Louis XIV limits religious freedom

1709 British sailor Alexander Selkirk is rescued by William Dampier after being marooned alone on an island in the South Pacific for four years, inspiring Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe"

1713 The Kalabalik or Tumult in Bender - Ottoman troops of sultan Ahmed III attack camp and seize his unwelcome guest, King Charles XII of Sweden

• 1717 Henri d'Aguesseau is first appointed Chancellor of France
• 1717 Silent Sejm session of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth parliament marks the end of Augustus II's attempts to create an absolute monarchy and the start of Russia's influence and control over the Commonwealth [1]
• 1732 Parliament of Ratisborn accepts Pragmatic Sanctions
• 1742 Sardinia and Austria sign military alliance Convention of Turin

1783 English-German astronomer William Herschel announces the star Lambda Herculis is close to the solar apex

• 1788 First US steamboat patent is issued by Georgia to Briggs and Longstreet
• 1789 Chinese troops are driven out of Vietnam's capital, Thăng Long
• 1790 US Supreme Court convenes for 1st time (NYC)
• 1793 France declares war on Great Britain and Netherlands
• 1793 Patent granted Ralph Hodgson, NY, for oiled silk & linen
• 1796 The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to York
• 1809 Dutch King Louis Napoleon accepts metric system
• 1810 1st insurance company managed by African Americans, The African Insurance Company opens in Philadelphia
• 1810 Seville, Spain surrenders to the French without a fight
• 1810 US Population: 7,239,881, African American population: 1,377,808 (19%)

1814 Lord Byron's "Corsair" sells 10,000 copies on day of publication

• 1814 Volcano Mayon on Luzon Philippines erupts killing 1,200
• 1840 Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, 1st in US, incorporated
• 1842 1st adhesive postage stamps in US isssued, by Alexander Greig's City Despatch Post company, in New York City
• 1843 Oldest continuous writer of insurance in America opens, the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York (MONY)
• 1846 Theophile Gautier publishes "Hashish Club" about his initiation
• 1856 Auburn University is chartered as the East Alabama Male College.
• 1860 1st rabbi to open House of Representatives, Morris Raphall of NYC
• 1861 Dike breaks in Gelderland, Netherlands
• 1861 Texas secedes from the Union (which precipitates the American Civil War)
• 1862 Julia Howe publishes "Battle Hymn of Republic"

1862 Ralph Waldo Emerson and Charles Sumner meet with President Abraham Lincoln at The White House, Washington

• 1864 -Feb 8th] Battle of Yazoo River, MS
• 1864 Second Schleswig War begins when Prussian and Austrian forces cross into Schleswig challenging Danish control
• 1865 JS Rock, 1st African American lawyer to practise in US Supreme Court, admitted to bar
• 1865 US President Lincoln signs 13th Amendment of US Constitution, abolishing slavery in US; celebrated as National Freedom Day [1]
• 1867 Operative Bricklayers' Society unionist in London, England start working 8-hour days, instead of 9
• 1871 Jefferson Long of Georgia is first African American to make an official speech in US House of Representatives (opposing leniency to former Confederates)
• 1880 The first edition of theatrical newspaper The Stage is published.
• 1881 US Assay Office in St Louis, Missouri authorized
• 1883 French Lt-Colonel Gustave Borgnis-Desbordes reaches Bamako on the Niger
• 1884 First volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, A-Ant, is published
• 1887 Harvey Wilcox of Ks subdivides 120 acres he owned in Southern California & starts selling it off as a real estate development (Hollywood)
• 1892 Mrs William Astor invites 400 guests to a grand ball at her mansion thus beginning use of "400" to describe socially elite

1893 Giacomo Puccini's opera "Manon Lescaut" premieres in Turin

1893 Thomas Edison completes the world's first movie studio in West Orange, New Jersey

• 1896 Giacomo Puccini's opera "La Boheme" premieres in Turin
• 1897 1st auto insurance policy in US issued, by Travelers Insurance Company
• 1897 Shinhan Bank, the oldest bank in South Korea, opens in Seoul.
• 1902 China's empress Tzu-hsi forbids binding woman's feet
• 1902 Hermann Sudermanns "Es lebe das Leben" premieres in Berlin

1902 US Secretary of State John Hay protests granting Russia exclusive privileges in China, on ground that it runs contrary to the 'open door' policy granting all nations equal rights there

1904 Elihu Root, then Secretary of War, resigns from the cabinet of President William McKinley and is succeeded by William Howard Taft

1904 Italian tenor Enrico Caruso makes his first recordings in America, singing "Questa o quella" and "La donna è mobile" from Giuseppe Verdi's "Rigoletto" in Carnegie Hall, NYC, for Victor Talking Machine Company

• 1905 Dutch soccer club ADO Den Haag forms in The Hague; ADO represents the amateur branch of the club
• 1905 Hungarian premier Count István Tisza resigns
• 1906 1st federal penitentiary building completed, Leavenworth, Kansas
• 1906 Dorothy Grey, wife of British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey is fatally injured in a motor accident
• 1908 In a high-profile trial American railway heir Harry Kendall Thaw is found not guilty of murdering architect Stanford White on grounds of insanity in a New York court [1]

1908 King Carlos I of Portugal and his heir, Prince Luís Filipe, are assassinated by Republican sympathizers in Terreiro do Paço, Lisbon

• 1909 US Assay Office in Salt Lake City, Utah, opens
• 1909 US forces withdraw from Cuba after liberal Jose Miguel Gomez becomes president; ensuing political instability will bring a threat of US intervention in 1912
• 1910 1st British labour exchange opens
• 1910 Dragoumis government forms in Greece

1913 American all-round athlete Jim Thorpe signs to play baseball with the NY Giants; unlike his other sporting endeavours the Olympic-medal winner's career in MLB was uninspiring (1913-19)

• 1914 Chicago White Sox and New York Giants play a 10-inning, 3-3 tie in Cairo, Egypt in an exhibition MLB game; part of special 56-game world tour
• 1914 Pennsylvania State Board of [motion picture] censors appointed
• 1914 Tanganyika Railway opens in eastern Africa
• 1917 German Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz announces unrestricted submarine warfare against allied shipping

1918 Franz Lehar's opera "Wo die Lerche singt" ("Where The Lark Sings") premieres at the Király Theatre in Budapest, Hungary

• 1918 German spy Lothar Witzke arrested by CIP agent Byron S. Butcher at the US border at Nogales - only German spy sentenced in the US during WWI [1]

1918 Jerome Kern, Guy Bolton & P. G. Wodehouse's musical "Oh Lady! Lady!!", premieres at the Princess Theatre, NYC; runs for 219 performances

1918 Russia adopts the Gregorian calendar (making the day February 14)

• 1919 Brooklyn Robins trade former National League MVP Jake Daubert to Cincinnati Reds for outfielder Tommy Griffith; result of a salary grievance
• 1920 1st commercial armored car introduced (St Paul, Minn)
• 1920 Royal Canadian Mounted Police forms as Royal Northwest Mounted Police merge with Dominion Police
• 1923 Allied ultimatum on Lithuanian occupation of Memel

1923 Fascists Voluntary Militia forms in Italy under Benito Mussolini

1923 Noël Coward's stage comedy "The Young Idea" premieres at the Savoy Theatre, London; runs for 60 performances

• 1924 Amsterdam's Netherlands Press Museum opens

1924 Ramsay MacDonald's incoming Labour government formally recognizes the Soviet Union

• 1925 1st national conference of KPD's Rotfrontkämpferbund in Berlin
• 1926 Kirghiz Autonomous Region in RSFSR becomes Kirghiz ASSR
• 1926 Land at Broadway & Wall Street sold at a record $7 per sq inch
• 1929 "The Broadway Melody" directed by Harry Beaumont and starring Bessie Love is released. 1st film with sound to win an Oscar (Outstanding Picture 1930)
• 1929 1st clean & jerk of 400 lbs (182 kg), Charles Rigoulet, 402½ lbs
• 1929 Pi Alphha Phi, the first Asian-American interest fraternity in the United States, is founded at UC Berkeley

1930 Arnold Schoenberg's opera "Von heute auf morgen" ("From Today to Tomorrow") premieres at the Oper Frankfurt in Frankfurt, Germany

• 1933 Colonial government arrests Anton de Kom in Paramaribo Suriname
• 1933 Dutch bishops forbid membership of non-catholic unions

1933 German Parliament is dissolved by President Paul von Hindenburg by the request of new chancellor Adolf Hitler

• 1934 Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss dissolves all political parties but his own right-wing Fatherland Front (Vaterländische Front)
• 1935 1st "March of Time" newsreel premieres at the Capitol
• 1935 James T Farrell finishes his "Studs Lonigan" trilogy
• 1937 Stapleton, Staten Island, becomes a customs-free port

1939 Benny Goodman and his Orchestra record "And the Angels Sing", a reworking of trumpeter Ziggy Elman's "Fralich in Swing", with Martha Tilton singing lyrics added by Johnny Mercer, for Victor Records in NYC; it becomes a chart topper

• 1940 NBC performs the first inter-city television broadcast from its station in New York City to another in Schenectady, New York by General Electric relay antennas.
• 1940 Soviet Union begins new offensive against Finland

1942 Second Norwegian government of Vidkun Quisling forms

• 1943 German occupiers make Vidkun Quisling Norwegian premier
• 1943 Mussert forms pro-Nazi shadow cabinet in Netherlands
• 1944 Supreme Soviet increases Soviet republics' autonomy
• 1944 US 7th Infantry/4th Marine Division lands on Kwajalein/Roi/Namur
• 1945 US Army arrives at Siegfriedlinie

1946 Norwegian politician Trygve Lie elected the 1st Secretary General of the United Nations

• 1946 Republic of Hungary proclaims Zoltán Tildy as its communist president
• 1946 The National Assembly proclaims Hungary a republic
• 1947 Aleide de Gasperi forms Italian government of christian-dems & communists

1947 Dmitri Shostakovich named professor at conservatoire of Leningrad

• 1947 NV United Dutch Fokker's Aircraft established
• 1948 Finland goes 1-2 in the Nordic combined event at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics; Heikki Hasu takes gold ahead of teammate Martti Huhtala

1948 Important South African anti-apartheid novel "Cry the Beloved Country" by Alan Paton is published in the US

• 1948 Johnny Palmer sets a 36-hole PGA Tour scoring record with rounds of 62-64 in the Tucson Open; finishes runner-up by 1 stroke to Skip Alexander who cards tournament record total 264

1948 Nine Malay sultanates and two British Straits Settlements (Penang and Malacca) form the Federation of Malaya

• 1948 Palestine Post building in Jerusalem bombed

1950 Green Bay Packers founder, player and coach Curly Lambeau resigns after 31 seasons and 6 NFL titles to his credit

• 1950 Urko Kekkonen elected Prime Minister of Finland

1950 USSR demands condemnation of Emperor Hirohito for war crimes

• 1951 -50°F (-46°C), Gavilan, New Mexico (state record)
• 1951 1st X-ray moving picture process demonstrated
• 1951 Arms manufacturer Alfred Krupp (43) and 28 other convicted German war criminals granted amnesty
• 1951 UN condemns People's Republic of China as aggressor in Korea
• 1951 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site; 1st live television broadcast of such detonation by KTLA in Los Angeles, California at 5:30 AM local time
• 1952 First TV detector van begins operating in the UK to identify users of unlicensed television sets
• 1952 General strike against French colonial rule in Tunisia
• 1952 SN Behrman's "Jane" premieres in NYC
• 1953 "General Electric Theater" premieres on CBS TV; Ronald Reagan later hosts

1953 "You Are There" with Walter Cronkite premieres on CBS television

• 1953 Dr A de Waal appointed as Netherlands' first female assistant secretary of state
• 1953 Flooding in Netherlands kills 1,835
• 1953 WEEK TV channel 25 in Peoria, IL (NBC) begins broadcasting
• 1954 Dutch soccer club De Graafschap "The County" forms in Doetinchem, Netherlands
• 1954 Scapino Ballet Studio in Amsterdam destroyed by fire
• 1954 US TV soap opera "The Secret Storm" premieres on CBS
• 1955 H. C. Hansen appointed premier of Denmark
• 1955 Hap Day becomes the first man to serve as Toronto Maple Leafs' captain, coach and general manager when he is appointed to run the famous Canadian NHL club
• 1956 Hague Daily Newspaper reveals war crimes of Hague mayor Schokking
• 1956 Hayes Alan Jenkins leads only US sweep of Olympic men's figure skating medals at the Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Games; Ronald Robertson wins silver with bronze to Jenkins' younger brother, David
• 1956 WSAV TV channel 3 in Savannah, GA (NBC) begins broadcasting
• 1957 1st black pilot (PH Young) on a US scheduled passenger airline

1957 Felix Wankel's first working prototype DKM 54 of the rotary Wankel engine was running at the NSU research and development department Versuchsabteilung TX in Germany

• 1957 Gijsbert of Hall appointed mayor of Amsterdam
• 1957 MLB club owners accept new 5-year pension plan proposed by the players, but reject request to increase minimum salary from $6,000 to $7,500
• 1958 "Volare" ("Nel blu dipinto di blu") single released by Domenico Modugno (Grammy Award Record of the Year, Song of the Year 1958)
• 1958 Egypt & Syria announce plans to merge into United Arab Republic
• 1958 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
• 1958 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
• 1958 WFTV TV channel 9 in Orlando, FL (ABC) begins broadcasting
• 1959 Heiss sisters go 1-2 in US women's Figure Skating C'ships; defending champion Carol wins from Nancy; David Jenkins wins his third straight men's title
• 1959 Outfielder Zack Wheat, a Brooklyn Robins favourite of the 1910s and 1920s, is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame; Wheat hit .317 over 19-year career, and batted .300 or better 14 times
• 1959 Swiss men vote against voting rights for women
• 1959 WVUE TV channel 8 in New Orleans, LA (ABC) begins broadcasting
• 1960 1st civil rights sit-in, at Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina; four Black students - Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, David Richmond, and Ezell Blair Jr. - spend the day waitng to be served at the segregated lunch counter in a peaceful protest

1960 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

• 1960 Extreme right-wing rebels in Algiers surrender
• 1961 1st full-scale test of US Minuteman ICBM is successful
• 1961 Australian cricket tail-enders Ken Mackay (62no) and Lindsay Kline (15no) hang on for 100 minutes to earn a famous draw on the final day vs West Indies in 4th Test in Adelaide

1961 British minister Enoch Powell makes medical insurance more expensive

1961 John Huston's film drama "The Misfits" officially premieres at the Loews Capitol in NYC, after a sneak preview at Reno, Nevada's Grenada Theatre; the final movie for both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe was written by Monroe's husband Arthur Miller, and also featured Montgomery Cliff

• 1962 "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", the debut novel by Ken Kesey is published by Viking Press
• 1962 MLB's National League releases its first 162-game schedule due to expansion (18 games between opponents)
• 1963 Nyasaland (now Malawi) becomes self-governing under Hastings Banda
• 1964 Afobaka Dam is completed on the Suriname River
• 1964 French sisters Christine Goitschel (gold) and Marielle Goitschel (silver) become first female siblings to win Olympic gold and silver in the same event when they dominate the slalom in Innsbruck
• 1964 Indiana Governor Mathew Walsh tries to ban "Louie Louie" for obscenity
• 1964 The Beatles' first #1 hit "I Want to Hold Your Hand," tops the Hot 100, stays #1 for 7 weeks before being replaced by "She Loves You", also by The Beatles

1965 Dutch Queen Juliana opens Brienenoord Bridge in Rotterdam

1965 Former world heavyweight boxing champion Floyd Patterson beats Canadian George Chuvalo by unanimous decision in a 12-round non-title clash at New York’s Madison Square Garden; 'The Ring' names bout Fight of the Year.

1965 Martin Luther King Jr. and 700 demonstrators arrested in Selma, Alabama

• 1965 NL adopts emergency team replacement plan to restock any club struck by disaster

1965 Peter Jennings, 26, becomes anchor of ABC's nightly news

• 1967 Severe bushfires in Tasmania destroy $11 million & take 60 lives

1967 The 10-team American Basketball Association (ABA) with George Mikan as Commissioner is formed and lasts 9 years; its three-point shot remains a feature of the game

• 1967 WCLP TV channel 18 in Chatsworth, GA (PBS) begins broadcasting

1968 Former US VP Richard Nixon announces candidacy for president

• 1968 Saigon police chief Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executes Viet Cong officer Nguyễn Văn Lém with a pistol shot to the head. The execution is captured by photographer Eddie Adams and becomes an anti-war icon.
• 1968 The Pennsylvania Railroad and New York Central merge into Penn Central

1968 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

• 1968 World trade conference Unctad 2 opens in New Delhi

1969 In his first start in a Ford, legendary driver Richard Petty wins the Motor Trend 500 at Riverside, California; previous 92 NASCAR victories were in Plymouths

• 1969 Tim Wood wins second of 3 straight US Men's Figure Skating titles whilst Janet Lynn takes first of her 5 consecutive Women's National Championships in Seattle
• 1969 WPGH TV channel 53 in Pittsburgh, PA (IND) begins broadcasting

1970 Former MLB Commissioner Ford Frick as well as ex-players Earle Combs and Jesse Haines are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame

1970 Northern Ireland PM Chichester-Clark meets British Home Secretary James Callaghan to discuss the economy of Northern Ireland

1970 Rangers' goalie Terry Sawchuk records his 447th (and final) victory, and 103rd career shutout when New York beats the Pittsburgh Penguins, 6-0; both are NHL records at the time

• 1970 Stalled commuter train rammed by express in Argentina, 139 die
• 1970 West-Germany & USSR sign gas contract
• 1970 WMAA TV channel 29 in Jackson, MS (PBS) begins broadcasting
• 1972 1972 NFL Draft: Walt Patulski from University of Notre Dame first pick by Buffalo Bills

1972 British Prime Minister Edward Heath announces the appointment of Lord Chief Justice Lord Widgery to undertake an inquiry into the 13 deaths on 'Bloody Sunday' (30 January 1972)

• 1972 Kuala Lumpur becomes a city by a royal charter granted by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.

1972 Reprise Records releases "Harvest", the 4th studio album by Neil Young; becomes best selling album in US, 1972

• 1972 The first scientific handheld calculator, the HP-35, is introduced for $395
• 1972 The Ministry of Defence also issues a detailed account of the British Army's version of events during 'Bloody Sunday'
• 1972 Wings release single "Give Ireland Back to the Irish" in UK
• 1973 Outfielder Monte Irvin is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Special Committee on the Negro Leagues; fourth inductee through the committee

• Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next

• 31 Jan
• Historical Events Calendar
• Feb 2

• 

  How Portugal Lost Its Monarchy

  February 1, 1908
• 

  The Hidden Depths of Mark Twain

  February 2, 1863
• 

  America’s First Woman Doctor

  February 3, 1821
• 

  I'm Not Gay Insists 'Fruit-Flavoured, Mincing' Liberace

  February 4, 1987

• February

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• 10
• 11
• 12
• 13
• 14
• 15
• 16
• 17
• 18
• 19
• 20
• 21
• 22
• 23
• 24
• 25
• 26
• 27
• 28
• 29

1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829 SummaryEventsBirthdaysDeathsWeddingsFilm & TVMusicSport

• Summary
• Events
• Birthdays
• Deaths
• Weddings
• Film & TV
• Music
• Sport

Full Events Calendar

• All Days 12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031
• All Months JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
• All TypesEventsBirthdaysDeathsWeddings
• Search

Search the largest and most accurate independent site for today in history.

• All Days 12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031
• All Months JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
• All TypesEventsBirthdaysDeathsWeddings
• Search