Portal:Military of the United States/Selected anniversaries/February

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Selected anniversaries in February

February 1

• 1861 - American Civil War: Texas secedes from the United States.
• 1862 - Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" is published for the first time in the Atlantic Monthly.
• 1968 - Vietnam War: Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem is executed by Nguyen Ngoc Loan a South Vietnamese National Police Chief. The execution was videotaped and photographed by Eddie Adams and helped sway public opinion against the war.

February 2

• 1848 - Mexican-American War: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed ending the war.
• 1945 - World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill leave to meet with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference.

February 3

• 1783 - American Revolutionary War: Spain recognizes United States independence.
• 1787 - Shays' Rebellion is crushed, ending an uprising that would prompt negotiations that would result in the drafting of the Constitution of the United States.
• 1917 - World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after Germany announces a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
• 1944 - World War II: United States troops capture the Marshall Islands.

February 4

• 1783 - American Revolutionary War: The United Kingdom formally declares that it will cease hostilities with the United States of America.
• 1861 - American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama, Delegates from six break-away U.S. states meet and form The Confederate States of America.
• 1899 - The Philippine-American War begins.
• 1941 - World War II: The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
• 1945 - World War II: The Yalta Conference begin .
• 1957 - USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, logs her 60,000th nautical mile, matching the endurance of the fictional Nautilus described in Jules Verne's novel "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".

February 5

• 1945 - World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.
• 1958 - A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.
• 1968 - Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh begins.
• 1974 - John Murtha becomes the first Vietnam War veteran elected to the Congress of the United States.
• 2003 - U.S. plan to invade Iraq: Colin Powell addresses the UN Security Council on Iraq.

February 6

• 1778 - American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic.
• 1862 - American Civil War: Ulysses S. Grant gives the United States its first victory of the war, by capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee, known as the Battle of Fort Henry.
• 1899 - Spanish-American War: The Treaty of Paris (1898), a peace treaty between the United States and Spain is ratified by the United States Senate.
• 1922 - The Washington Naval Treaty was signed in Washington, DC, limiting the naval armaments of United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.

February 7

• 1944 - World War II: In Anzio, Italy German forces launch a counteroffensive.
• 1944 - World War II: American Aircraft carrier strike on Truk.
• 1948 - Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower resigned as Army chief of staff and was succeeded by Gen. Omar Bradley.

February 8

• 1918 - The Stars and Stripes newspaper publishes for the first time.
• 1943 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal - United States forces defeat Japanese troops.

February 9

• 1775 - American Revolutionary War: British Parliament declares Massachusetts in rebellion.
• 1861 - American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America by the Confederate convention at Montgomery, Alabama.
• 1942 - World War II: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war.
• 1943 - World War II: Allied authorities declare Guadalcanal secure after Imperial Japan evacuates its remaining forces from the island, ending the Battle of Guadalcanal.
• 1965 - Vietnam War: The first United States combat troops are sent to South Vietnam.
• 2001 - The American submarine USS Greeneville accidentally strikes and sinks the Ehime-Maru, a Japanese training vessel operated by the Uwajima Fishery High School.

February 10

• 1962 - Captured American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
• 1997 - The United States Army suspends CSM Gene C. McKinney, its top-ranking enlisted soldier, after hearing allegations of sexual misconduct.

February 11

• 1861 - American Civil War: United States House of Representatives unanimously passes a resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state.
• 1939 - Lockheed P-38 flies from California to New York in 7 hours 2 minutes.
• 1943 - General Dwight Eisenhower selected to command the allied armies in Europe.
• 1971 - Eighty-seven countries, including the US, UK, and USSR, sign the Seabed Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons in international waters.
• 1973 - Vietnam War: First release of American prisoners of war from Vietnam takes place.

February 12

• 1825 - The Creek cede the last of their lands in Georgia to the United States government, and migrate west.
• 1892 - Former President Abraham Lincoln's birthday is declared a national holiday in the United States.
• 1973 - Vietnam War: The first United States prisoners of war are released by the Viet Cong.

February 13

• 1971 - Vietnam War: Backed by American air and artillery support, South Vietnamese troops invade Laos.
• 1991 - Gulf War: Two laser-guided "smart bombs" destroy a bunker in Baghdad. The bunker was being used as a military communications outpost and unknown to allied forces, as a shelter for Iraqi civilians.

February 14

• 1943 - World War II: Battle of the Kasserine Pass - German General Erwin Rommel and the Afrika Korps launch an offensive against Allied defenses in Tunisia.
• 1945 - On the second day of the Bombing of Dresden in World War II the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony.

February 15

• 1862 - American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant attacks Fort Donelson, Tennessee.
• 1898 - Spanish-American War: The USS Maine explodes and sinks in Havana harbor in Cuba, killing more than 260. This event leads the United States to declare war on Spain.
• 1944 - World War II: The assault on Monte Cassino, Italy begins.
• 1996 - Mortar attack on the US Embassy in Athens, Greece.

February 16

• 1804 - First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate USS Philadelphia.
• 1862 - American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant captures Fort Donelson, Tennessee.
• 1945 - World War II: American forces land on Corregidor island in the Philippines.
• 1945 - World War II: First American Aircraft carrier strikes on Tokyo.
• 1945 - American forces recapture the Bataan Peninsula.
• 1991 - Gulf War: U.S. and UK war planes bomb the suburbs of Baghdad, injuring at least 11 civilians and killing three others.
• 2006 - The last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army.

February 17

• 1864 - American Civil War: H. L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the USS Housatonic.
• 1865 - American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina burned as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces.
• 1944 - World War II: Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins. The battle ends in an American victory on February 22.
• 1944 - World War II: Operation Hailstone begins. U.S. naval air, surface, and submarine attack against Truk (Chuuk), Japan's main base in the central Pacific, in support of the Eniwetok invasion.
• 1974 - Robert K. Preston, a disgruntled U.S. Army private, buzzes the White House with a stolen helicopter.

February 18

• 1861 - In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.
• 1878 - The Lincoln County War begins in Lincoln County, New Mexico.

February 19

• 1942 - World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese-Americans to Japanese internment camps.
• 1943 - World War II: Battle of the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia begins.
• 1945 - World War II: Battle of Iwo Jima - about 30,000 United States Marines land on Iwo Jima.

February 20

• 1942 - Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace.
• 1944 - World War II: "Big Week" ended with American bomber raids on Nazi aircraft manufacturing centers.
• 1944 - World War II: The United States takes Eniwetok Island.

February 21

• 1945 - World War II: Japanese Kamikaze planes sink escort carrier Bismarck Sea and damage the Saratoga.

February 22

• 1847 - Mexican-American War: The Battle of Buena Vista - 5,000 American troops drive off 15,000 Mexican.
• 1942 - World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defense collapses.
• 1944 - American aircraft bombard the Dutch towns of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer by mistake, resulting in 800 dead in Nijmegen alone.
• 1973 - Cold War: Following United States President Richard Nixon's visit to the People's Republic of China, the two countries agree to establish liaison offices.

February 23

• 1778 - American Revolution: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army.
• 1847 - Mexican-American War: Battle of Buena Vista - In Mexico, American troops defeat Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
• 1870 - Military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.
• 1945 - World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo would later win a Pulitzer Prize.
• 1945 - World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by American forces.
• 1980 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament would decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
• 1991 - Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabia border and enter Iraq, thus starting the ground-phase of the war.

February 24

• 1917 - World War I: The U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom is given the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany pledges to ensure the return of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico if that country declares war on the United States.
• 1968 - Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted; South Vietnam recaptures Hué.
• 1983 - A special commission of the U.S. Congress releases a report that condemns the practice of Japanese internment during World War II.

February 25

• 1793 - George Washington holds the first Cabinet meeting as President of the United States.
• 1836 - Samuel Colt receives an American patent for the Colt revolver.
• 1933 - The USS Ranger is launched, becoming the first custom-built aircraft carrier.
• 1991 - Gulf War: An Iraqi Scud missile hits an American military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia killing 28 U.S. Marines.

February 26

• 1991 - Gulf War: On Baghdad Radio Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein announces the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait.

February 27

• 1864 - American Civil War: The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia.
• 1942 - World War II: the USS Langley, the first United States aircraft carrier, is sunk by Japanese warplanes.
• 1991 - Gulf War: U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces that "Kuwait is liberated."

February 28

• 1844 - A gun on USS Princeton explodes while the boat is on a Potomac River cruise, killing two United States Cabinet members and several others.
• 1942 - The heavy cruiser USS Houston (CA-30) is sunk in the Battle of Sunda Strait with 693 crew members killed.