The Reichstag fire in Berlin on February 27, 1933, allows Adolf Hitler to claim on the following day that it was a communist conspiracy and to seize emergency powers, which suspended civil liberties, allowed for mass arrests, and enabled the crackdown on political opposition. Leading ultimately to Nazi dictatorship in Germany.
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What Happened in February?
Emperor ascensions, legendary battles, and assassinations. Discover what happened this month in history. Explore pivotal events from February that helped shape the world. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.
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The 44-day Flint sit-down strike ends on February 11, 1937 with a General Motors agreement recognizing the United Auto Workers union (UAW) as the bargaining agent for its employees.
The fundamental patent for the synthetic polymer's formula and creation process for Nylon was issued on February 16, 1937, to E.I. DuPont. The principal Inventor credited was Wallace Hume Carothers, chemist and the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont.
The invention of Nylon, the first truly synthetic fiber, revolutionized the materials industry, creating new possibilities in plastics and textiles as it replaced natural fibers like silk leading to widespread use in textiles and consumer goods, as well as parachutes during WWII.
Just slightly over two months after the patent was issued, Dr. Carothers committed suicide on April 29, 1937. He suffered from Chronic Depression.
A Nazi rally with more than 20,000 people was held at the Madison Square Garden on February 20, 1939. It was sponsored by the German American Bund, an organization with headquarters in Manhattan and thousands of members across the United States.
The stage had a large image of Washington hung between American flags — and swastikas. Their vision for America was a combination of white supremacy, fascist ideology and American patriotism. More
According to the American Diplomacy Journal, the Voice of America (VOA) delivered its first official broadcast in German on February 1, 1942. Not on February 24, 1942 as it is often stated by historians. Announcer William Harlan Hale famously opened the broadcast by stating: "The news may be good. The news may be bad. We shall tell you the truth". Read the American Diplomacy research article.
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, on February 19, 1942, ten weeks after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The order authorized the forced removal of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to "relocation centers" further inland.
The implementation resulted in the incarceration of more than 110, 000 Japanese Americans, Two thirds of those incarcerated were U.S. citizens. For the next two and a half years, they endured extremely difficult living conditions and poor treatment by their military guards. During the course of World War II, 10 Americans were convicted of spying for Japan, but not one of them was of Japanese ancestry. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill to recompense each surviving internee with a tax-free check for $20,000 and an apology from the U.S. government. More
The USS Langley, the U.S. Navy's first aircraft carrier is attacked by Japanese aircraft on February 27, 1942, while transporting U.S. Army P-40's to the Netherlands East Indies. The damaged carrier was scuttled by her escorting destroyers. More
British physicist James Stanley Hey discovered that the Sun emits radio waves, on February 27, 1942. His accidental discovery gave birth to solar radio astronomy and was crucial for both military radar development and the expansion of astronomy beyond the visible spectrum.
Hay had been tasked with solving WWII radar jamming; determined that the intense, noise-like interference was originating from a large sunspot and not from enemy jamming. Proving the Sun was a source of, not just visible light, but radio emission from an active sunspot. The finding was kept quiet for military reasons, Hey went back to study the radio waves after the war and confirmed in 1946 that these intense radio bursts from the Sun coincided with solar flares. More
The battle of Stalingrad ends on February 2, 1943 after 5 months of fighting as the German 6th Army surrenders in a major turning point in World War II. The battle of Stalingrad was one of history's deadliest battles.
The total casualties were estimated to be between 1.7 to 2 million people dead. Soviet casualties reached around 1.1 million, including an estimated 40,000 civilians, while Axis casualties (including German, Romanian, Italian, and Hungarian forces) were approximately 800,000.
The Parícutin volcano in Mexico's Michoacán State, erupts on February 20, 1943 following several weeks of earthquakes. The eruptions continued for nine years, displacing thousands and burying two towns and destroying farmlands. No direct fatalities were recorded.
The Yalta Conference starts on February 4, 1945 , it was attended by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin to discuss post-World War II plans.
The Conference took place in a Russian resort town in the Crimea from February 4–11, 1945, with important decisions made regarding the future progress of the war and the postwar world. More
U.S. paratroopers along with amphibious forces, landed on Corregidor Island, Philippines on February 16, 1945 with the objective of recapturing it from Japanese forces. The surprise attack lead to the island's liberation within two weeks securing the entrance to Manila Bay. General Douglas MacArthur returned to the island on March 2, 1945.
The U.S. Marines begin the invasion of Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945, during the final phases of World War II. The Japanese put up fierce resistance. resulting in about 21,000 Japanese troops killed and some 1,000 captured. U.S. casualties totaled about 28,000, including about 6,800 killed. Iwo Jima and the other Volcano Islands were administered by the United States from 1945 until they were returned to Japan in 1968.
The raising of the U.S. flag over Mount Suribach by U.S. Marines on February 23, 1945 is photographed by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press. The iconic photograph went on to become one of the best-known photographic images of the Pacific war.
ENIAC, the first large-scale, programmable, electronic digital computer, designed for complex, special-purpose scientific and military calculations; was introduced to the press on February 14, 1946 and publicly unveiled on February 15, 1946, at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering.
Designed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly; it was called, "The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC)" It led the way to the UNIVAC the first commercial computer, designed by the same inventors for business use. UNIVAC was delivered in 1951. It received public fame for predicting the 1952 presidential election.
Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) gains independence from Great Britain on February 4, 1948, ending over a century of British colonial rule and becoming an independent dominion within the Commonwealth, The day is celebrated annually on February 4 as National Independence Day.
In 1972, the country became a Republic and changed its name from Ceylon to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.
The 1948 Czechoslovak Coup D'état completes its take over on February 25, 1948 as the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia assumes undisputed control over the government, beginning four decades of Communist rule. More
Elizabeth II becomes queen of the United Kingdom on February 6, 1952, immediately upon the death of her father, King George VI.
The coronation was held more than a year later on June 2, 1953. because of the tradition of allowing an appropriate length of time to pass after a monarch dies. It also gave the planning committees adequate time to make preparations for the ceremony. More
Cambridge University scientists, James Watson and Francis Crick determined the structure of the double helix, the twisted-ladder structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) on February 28, 1953.
Their work was aided by use of Rosalind Franklin's X-ray photographic work showing crystallographic evidence of the structure of DNA, which was shown to them, without her knowledge. Watson and Crick were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962. More
Fidel Castro becomes prime minister of Cuba on February 16, 1959, replacing José Miró Cardona, who was the head of the country's new provisional government. Castro had become commander in chief of Cuba’s armed forces, after leading the guerrilla campaign that forced right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista into exile on January 1, 1959. More