What Happened in February?

The Twin Peaks Tunnel in San Francisco begins service as the world's longest streetcar tunnel.

The National Assembly elected by Czech and Slovak leaders adopts a new  democratic constitution democratic, taking another step toward the consolidation of the two states into Czechoslovakia.

The first constitution of Czechoslovakia after World War I was adopted on February 29, 1920. It established a unified, centrist democratic government and a single "Czechoslovak nation" .  creating tensions as the larger Czech population was perceived as dominating the government.

Expand +

The Washington Naval Treaty is signed, limiting the naval armaments of major world powers.

After months of clearing the outer chambers, on February 16. 1923, British archaeologist Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon opened the sealed door to the burial chamber, the final and most important chamber of the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun (King Tut).  Expand +

The St. Valentine's Day Massacre occurs in Chicago, involving a gang-related shooting that left seven dead.

The dwarf planet Pluto is discovered by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Tombaugh, was 24-year-s old at the time and had no formal training in astronomy.

President-Elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt narrowly escapes an assassination attempt shortly after giving a speech at Bayfront Park in Miami. The would-be assassin, Guiseppe Zangara, an unemployed bricklayer, fired 5 shots towards Roosevelt who was standing on stage, fatally wounding the Mayor of Chicago Anton Cermak and injuring four others. Zangara, was arrested, found guilty of murder , received the death penalty and was electrocuted on March 20, 1933. More

The Reichstag fire in Berlin allows Adolf Hitler to seize emergency powers, ultimately leading to Nazi dictatorship in Germany.

The Flint sit-down strike ends with a General Motors agreement recognizing the United Auto Workers union.

A Nazi rally with more than 20,000 people was held at the Madison Square Garden. 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

10 weeks after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forced removal of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to "relocation centers" further inland – resulting 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

USS Langley the U.S. Navy's first aircraft carrier is attacked by Japanese aircraft while transporting U.S. Army P-40's to the Netherlands East Indies. The damaged carrier was scuttled by her escorting destroyers. More

The battle of Stalingrad ends 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 with a total death estimated to be between 1.7 to 2 million people. 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 Yalta Conference starts. 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 Yalta Conference took place in a Russian resort town in the Crimea from February 4–11, 1945, during World War Two. Important decisions were made regarding the future progress of the war and the postwar world. More

The U.S. Marines begin the invasion of Iwo Jima during the final phases of World War II. The Japanese put up fierce resistance. About 21,000 Japanese troops were 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 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.

The 1948 Czechoslovak Coup D'état takes place as the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia assumes undisputed control over the government and beginning four decades of Communist rule. More

Elizabeth II becomes queen of the United Kingdom following 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). 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