General events not linked to a day
Canned Food Month
National Chocolate Lovers Month
National Cherry Month
National Grapefruit Month
National Snack Food Month
National Potato Lovers Month
Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month
National Hot Breakfast Month
1st week of Feb- African Heritage & Health Week
3rd Weekend of February: National Margarita Weekend
“Superbowl Sunday” : National Pork Rind Day (aka National Pork Rind Appreciation Day)
1 February
Robinson Crusoe Day
National Baked Alaska Day
National Cake Pops Day
National Dark Chocolate Day
1920 Royal Canadian Mounted Police Established
- History of the RCMP The Royal Canadian Mounted Police will celebrate its 150th year in 2023!
1969 John DeLorean becomes general manager of Chevrolet
- Automotive News has this to say about John DeLorean
1978 Roman Polanski skips bail and flees to France
- Arrested 31 years later in Switzerland
- Reuters’ Factobox gives a rundown of this sex offenders life and work
1979 Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran after 14 years in exile
2004 Janet Jackson’s breast is briefly exposed by Justin Timberlake during the Super Bowl halftime show
2004 Hajj Pilgrimage Stampede
- EXPLAINER: Historic, symbolic significance behind ‘stoning the devil’ at Hajj
- CNN reports on this tragic event in 2004
2 February
National Tater Tot Day
Groundhog Day
1916 German zeppelins drop close to 400 bombs over the West Midlands
1925 Sears, Roebuck Opens It’s First Store
1949 First 45 RPM vinyl record released
1964 GI Joe Launched
3 February
National Carrot Cake Day
- History of Carrots! There’s a museum for carrots!!!
- Are carrots orange for political reasons? Washington Post article
1931 Major Earthquake Napier in New Zealand
1931 Banks Go Bust by the thousands following losses during the Wall Street Crash
- Bank Run History.com covers the collapse of the banks in the US from 1929 to 1933 in this article
- Bank Panics of 1930-31 Federal Reserve History focus on the period November 1930 to August 1931
1959 Rock ‘n’ Roll singers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson ( The Big Bopper ) died in a plane crash
- Rock’s first tragedy
- The Day the Music Died: Rock’s Great Tragedy Biography.com shares this pic and other links related to the stars that died and nearly died in this accident. What a loss to the music world…
4 February
National Homemade Soup Day
National Stuffed Mushroom Day
1902 Charles Lindbergh’s Birthday (1902 – 1974)
1913 Rosa Parks Birthday (1913 – 2005)
1938 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Released
1948 Ceylon now Sri Lanka gains independence from British rule
1959 Barbie Doll Invented By Ruth Handler
1974 Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst is kidnapped in Berkeley, California
1976 In Guatemala and Honduras a 7.5 magnitude earthquake centred about 160 km northeast of Guatemala City kills more than 22,000
2004 Facebook, a mainstream online social network is founded by Mark Zuckerberg
5 February
World Nutella Day
National Frozen Yogurt Day
Western Monarch Day (U.S.A.)
1917 Congress passes the Immigration Act which required a literacy test
1922 Readers Digest First Published
1953 Sweet rationing ends in Great Britain
1974 Patty Hearst is Kidnapped by The Symbionese Liberation Army
1983 Klaus Barbie indicted for “crimes against humanity.”
2002 John Walker Lindh Indicted
2008 C.I.A. admits to ‘waterboarding’ terror suspects
6 February
National Chopsticks Day
1895 Babe Ruth’s Birthday (1895 – 1948)
1911 Ronald Reagan (1911 – 2004)
1926 First Doughnut Making Machine
1935 Monopoly Board Game
1938 Bondi Beach Freak Waves “Black Sunday” in Australia
1943 Frank Sinatra makes his singing debut on the popular radio show “Your Hit Parade.”
1952 King George V1 Dies
1954 Mercedes introduced the 300SL coupe
1958 Manchester United Football Club Disaster
- Victims and survivors of the Munich Air Disaster
- Believe, a movie about Sir Matt Busby, the coach of the team members that died in this disaster, that helps a young gifted soccer player.
1971 Alan Shepard became the first man to hit a golf ball on the Moo
7 February
National Fettuccine Alfredo Day
1812 Charles Dickens Birthday (1812 – 1870)
1867 Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867 – 1957)
1962 A U.S. embargo ordered by President Kennedy will go into effect on all imports from Cuba including tobacco, seafood, fruits and vegetables
1964 The Beatles arrive on their first visit to the United States
1992 The Maastricht Treaty Signed
2008 Congress has approved the $168 billion economic stimulus program
2009 Black Saturday Bushfires Australia
2010 Super Bowl XLIV breaks viewing record
8 February
National Pizza Day
National Molasses Bar Day
National Potato Lover’s Day
1828 Jules Verne (1828 – 1905)
1910 The Boy Scouts of America, was incorporated
1922 President Warren G. Harding has a radio installed in the White House
1943 Japanese troops evacuate Guadalcanal
1952 Queen Elizabeth the Second Becomes Queen
1983 Shergar is stolen from a stud farm owned by the Aga Khan in County Kildare, Ireland
9 February
Clean out Your Computer Day
National Bagels and Lox Day
1894 Hershey Chocolate Founded
1961 President Kennedy asked Congress to approve a health insurance program ( The Medicare Program )
10 February
National Cream Cheese Brownie Day
National “Have a Brownie” Day
60AD the ship carrying Paul (and some 274 others) to Rome, shipwrecked off the coast of Malta. The Feast of St Paul’s Shipwreck is celebrated in Malta to celebrate this day
1722 Welsh Pirate, Black Bart (Bartholomew Roberts), 39, dies at sea off Cape Lopez, Gabon. Black Bart captured 400 vessels in three years from 1719 off the Americas and West Africa during the most successful of the Golden Age of Piracy
1840 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha, both 20, marry in the Chapel Royal of St James’ Palace in the United Kingdom. They had nine children and Prince Albert died 14 December 1861, age 42. Queen Victoria wore black for the rest of her life. She reigned for 63 years and seven months until her death on 22 January 1901, aged 81
1890 Boris Pasternak, Russian poet and novelist is born in Moscow. Doctor Zhivago is credited to him
1933 Ernie Schaaf, 24 year old US heavyweight boxer, collapses during a fight against Italian boxer, Primo Carnera in New York City. He died 14 February from ‘an inflammation of the brain caused by a bad case of influenza’ and ‘ recent signs of spinal meningitis’, according to an autopsy
1933 Postal Telegraph-Cable Company in New York City delivered the first singing telegraph. It was considered a good idea but 50 years ahead of its time! This good idea was not enough to save the business and it merges with Western Union
1939 Japan occupies the island of Hainan, off the coast of a French Indochina (Vietnam), as part of a campaign by the Empire of Japan during the Sino-Japanese War to isolate the Republic of China
1950 Mark Spitz, nine Olympic gold medals, US swimmer (2 in 1968, 7 in 1972), is born in Modesto, California
1964 Dylan Releases ” The Times They Are A Changing”
1984 Kenyan soldiers massacre an estimated 10 000 ethnic Somalis at the Wagalla airstrip, reportedly to help defuse clan-related conflict
1992 Mike Tyson, found guilty of raping Desiree Washington
1996 IRA Bomb Docklands In London
1999 4 people die on board a MI-8MTV helicopter which – positioned itself to deliver an air-conditioning unit on the roof of a Cape Town building – spins out of control, crashes and bursts into flames after its tail rotor had clipped an advertising board
11 February
National Peppermint Patty Day
1650 René Descartes died, father of modern philosophy who erected new epistemically foundations with the dictum “I think, therefore I am”
1847 birth of Thomas Edison, American inventor. Responsible for 1 093 patents and played a critical role in introducing the modern age of electricity (1847 – 1931)
1858 in Lourdes, 14 year old Bernadette Soubirous, a miller’s daughter, had her first visions of the Virgin Mary. The visions were authenticated by Pope Pius IX in 1862, initiating the cult of Our Lady of Lourdes. Bernadette becomes St. Bernadette
1916 Emma Goldman Jailed for Advocating Birth Control
1929 Vatican City gains independent sovereignty. Benito Mussolini of Italy and Pretor Gasparri of the Vatican signed the Lateran Treaty, recognizing papal sovereignty over Vatican City, an enclave in Rome
1929 the Dawes Plan of 1924 was revised by a committee that met in Paris. The ‘Young Plan’ renegotiated Germany’s reparations for WW1
1945 President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin sign the Yalta Agreement which closed the Yalta Conference between the Allied leaders of WW2
1964 Sarah Palin was born. Palin was the first woman to appear on a Republican presidential ticket. She was John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 US presidential election
1969 Jennifer Aniston was born. Best known for her role in the sitcom Friends (1994-2004)
1975 British politician Margaret Thatcher was elected leader of the Conservative Party. She replaced Edward Heath
1979 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took control of Iran
1989 Reverend Barbara Clementine Harris of the Protestant Episcopal Church became the first female bishop of an apostolic-succession church
1990 Nelson Mandela is released from prison after 27 years
2006 Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded Harry Whittington
2010 The United States has tested an airborne laser weapon
2011 Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak stepped down after 30 years in power. Mass demonstrations as part of the pro-democracy, called Arab Spring, finalised his decision
2012 Whitney Houston died. She became a pop superstar in the 1980’s
12 February
National Plum Pudding Day
(National PB&J Day)
National Biscotti Day
1554 Lady Jane Grey, titular queen of England, was executed at age 16 in London by order of Mary I
1804 Immanuel Kant, German philosopher, died today in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia)
1809 Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865)
1809: Charles Darwin, who developed the theory of evolution by natural selection, was born today (died 1882)
1818 Chile’s independence from Spain declared
1909 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded.
1912 Hsian-T’ung, the last emperor of China Forced To Abdicate at the end of the Chinese Revolution
1921 South Africa Independence
1924 Calvin Coolidge Gives First Presidential Radio Address
1934 Bill Russell, American basketball player and the first black coach of a major professional American sports team, the Boston Celtics, was born. He was one of the greatest defensive centres in NBA history!
1953 The Egyptian government signed an agreement with Britain granting self-government for the Sudan and self-determination within three years for the Sudanese
1958 The first Trans Atlantic passenger jetliner service
1994 The Scream by Edyard Munch was stolen from the National Gallery in Oslo. It is one of several version from this Norwegian artist. It was however later recovered
2002 Slobodan Milosevic, president of Yugoslavia in 1997–2000, went on trial for war crimes in The Hague, at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; he died four years later, before the trial had ended
2007 Trolley Square Mall Shooting
13 February
National Tortellini Day
National “Italian Food” Day
1935 Bruno Hauptmann convicted of the Lindbergh baby murder
1960 France becomes the worlds fourth atomic power
1975 British Coal Miners get 35% Pay Rise
14 February
World Book Giving Day
Valentines Day
Ferris Wheel Day
National Cream-Filled Chocolates Day
1912 Arizona becomes the 48th state of the union
1929 Sir Alexander Fleming discovers Penicillin
1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
1948 NASCAR holds its first race for modified stock cars on a 3.2 mile-course at Daytona Beach
1962 First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy gives a tour of the White House shown on Television
1974 Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn Charged with treason
2008 Shooting At Northern Illinois University
15 February
National Gumdrop Day
National Chewing Gum Day
1564 Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642)
1942 World War II Singapore Surrenders To Japanese
1965 Canada adopts Maple Leaf For Canadian Flag
1971 England D Day introduces Decimal Currency
1982 The world’s largest oil rig ( The Ocean Ranger ) Sinks In North Atlantic
16 February
Presidents Day
National Almond Day
1923 The burial chamber of King Tutankhamen Opened
1939 Wallace H. Carothers, a research chemist for Du Pont, received a patent for nylon
1959 Fidel Castro sworn in as prime minister of Cuba.
1965 Beeching Report on British Railways Closes 25%
1968 First 911 emergency telephone system in Haleyville, Ala
2005 The Kyoto accord Comes Into Force
17 February
National Cafe’ Au Lait Day
1911 The First Electric Self Start was installed in a Cadillac
1925 The New Yorker is published for the first time
1992 Jeffrey Dahmer, sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences
2008 Kosovo Declares independence
18 February
World Whale Day
National “Drink Wine” Day
1930 Pluto Discovered
1932 Sonja Henie won her 6th straight World Women’s figure skating title in Montreal
1937 Dust storms hit five states-in Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico
1992 Žižkov Television Tower, in Prague, was put into service
– The Official Tourism Website for Prague
– The babies that decorated the tower were to be removed 2017
2001 Dale Earnhardt died in a crash during the Daytona 500
2005 Fox hunting with dogs becomes illegal in England and Wales
19 February
National Chocolate Mint Day
1473 Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543)
1942 President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066
2004 Former Enron Corp. chief executive Jeffrey Skilling is charged
2008 Fidel Castro retires as President of Cuba
20 February
National Cherry Pie Day
National Muffin Day
1872 Toothpick patented
1933 Repeal of the 18th Amendment
1962 John Glen orbits the earth
1986 The Soviet Union launches the world’s biggest space station, Mir
21 February
National Pancake Day
National Sticky Bun Day
1947 Land Camera Demonstrated ( 1st Polaroid )
1965 Malcolm X Assassinated
1995 Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon
22 February
National Margarita Day
National Cook a Sweet Potato Day
1732 George Washington (1732 – 1799)
1879 1st Woolworth 5 Cents Store Opened
1967 The Tet offensive By North Vietnam Ends
1997 Scottish scientists announce Cloned Sheep ( Dolly )
23 February
National Chili Day
National Banana Bread Day
1945 US Marines Land On Iwo Jimaa and Take Control
1954 Polio Vaccines Start in United States
1991 Allied ground offensive against Iraqi forces begins
1997 Dolly the Sheep Cloned
2009 Shares are their lowest for twelve years Dow Jones closes at 7,114.8
24 February
National Tortilla Chip Day
1786 Wilhelm Grimm (1786 – 1859)
1942 Voice of America goes on the air for the first time
1972 President Nixon visits the Great Wall of China
25 February
National Chocolate-Covered Peanuts Day
National Clam Chowder Day
1841 Pierre Renoir (1841 – 1919)
1913 The Sixteenth Amendment, which paved the way for the United States adoption of income tax, was ratified
2010 2/3 of the worlds population using mobile phones
26 February
National Pistachio Day
1829 Levi Strauss (1829 – 1902)
1846 Buffalo Bill (1846 – 1917)
1919 Congress established Grand Canyon National Park
1972 Buffalo Creek Valley Flooding
1995 Barings PLC, Britain’s oldest investment banking firm, collapses
27 February
Polar Bear Day
National Strawberry Day
National Kahlua Day
1807 Henry Wadsworth-Longfellow (1807 – 1882)
1922 Nineteenth Amendment To The Constitution passed
1938 Los Angeles Flood Begins
1951 22nd amendment to the Constitution is ratified
28 February
National Chocolate Souffle Day
1953 DNA discovered
1954 DNA Double Helix Discovered
1975 Moorgate Underground Crash
1986 Olof Palme, the Swedish Prime Minister is shot dead
1991 Gulf War Ends
1993 Waco, Texas bloody gun battle
29 February
National Frog Legs Day
LeapYearDay.com!
SOURCES
- Enchanted Learning
- Scholastic
- Crayola
- Days of the Year
- The Crafty Crow
- Cute Calendar
- Foodimentary
- The People History
- Rob Marsh’s Africa Crime Mysteries
- SAHO South African History Online
- Kate from America Comes Alive
- Brittanica
- Se7en’s Almanac
- World Wide Weird Holidays
- A Year of Holidays
- CalendarLabs
- When Is…
- National Day Calendar
- Holiday Insights
- National Today
- Holidays Calendar
- BT On this Day
- Odd Loves Company
And growin…
