What Happened on February 1st in History
30 historical events on this date
Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary-General.
Trygve Halvdan Lie was a Norwegian politician, labour leader, government official and author. He served as Norwegian foreign minister during the critical years of the Norwegian government in exile...
The Parliament of Hungary abolishes the monarchy after nine centuries, and proclaims the Hungarian Republic.
The National Assembly is the parliament of Hungary. The unicameral body consists of 199 members elected to four-year terms. Election of members is done using a semi-proportional representation: a...
The first prototype of the MiG-17 makes its maiden flight.
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 is a transonic fighter aircraft that was produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 and was operated by air forces internationally. The MiG-17 was license-built in China as...
Northeast Airlines Flight 823 crashes on Rikers Island in New York City, killing 20 people and injuring 78 others.
Northeast Airlines Flight 823 was a scheduled flight in the United States, from New York City's LaGuardia Airport to Miami International Airport, Florida, which crashed shortly after takeoff on...
Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
The Greensboro sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests in February to July 1960, primarily in the Woolworth storeânow the International Civil Rights Center and Museumâin Greensboro, North...
The Beatles have their first number one hit in the United States with "I Want to Hold Your Hand".
The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band in...
Vietnam War: The execution of Viet Cong officer Nguyá» n VÄn LĂ©m by South Vietnamese National Police Chief Nguyá» n Ngá»c Loan is recorded on motion picture film, as well as in an iconic still photograph taken by Eddie Adams.
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while...
Canada's three military services, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force, are unified into the Canadian Forces.
The Royal Canadian Navy is the naval force of Canada, and one of three environmental commands of the Canadian Armed Forces. The command's official strength includes 8,400 Regular Force sailors,...
The New York Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad are merged to form Penn Central Transportation.
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the...
Kuala Lumpur becomes a city by a royal charter granted by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a federal territory of Malaysia. It is the most populous city in the country, covering an area of 243Â km2...
A fire in the 25-story Joelma Building in SĂŁo Paulo, Brazil kills 189 and injures 293.
EdifĂcio Praça da Bandeira, formerly known as the Joelma Building, is a 25-story building in downtown SĂŁo Paulo, Brazil, completed in 1971, located at Avenida 9 de Julho, 225. On 1 February 1974, an...
Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran after nearly 15 years of exile.
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, historically known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea...
The Underarm bowling incident of 1981 occurred when Trevor Chappell bowls underarm on the final delivery of a game between Australia and New Zealand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
The underarm bowling incident of 1981 is a sporting controversy that took place on 1 February 1981, when Australia played New Zealand in a One Day International cricket match, the third in the...
The Intel 80286 is released, which introduced protected mode memory. The IBM PC/AT and its clones used this CPU.
The Intel 80286 is a 16-bit microprocessor that was introduced on February 1, 1982. It was the first 8086-based CPU with separate, non-multiplexed address and data buses and also the first with...
A runway collision between USAir Flight 1493 and SkyWest Flight 5569 at Los Angeles International Airport results in the deaths of 34 people, and injuries to 30 others.
On the evening of Friday, February 1, 1991, USAir Flight 1493, a Boeing 737-300, collided with SkyWest Airlines Flight 5569, a Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner turboprop aircraft, upon landing at Los...
A magnitude 6.8 earthquake strikes the Hindu Kush region, killing at least 848 people in Afghanistan, Pakistan and present-day Tajikistan.
The 1991 Hindu Kush earthquake severely affected Afghanistan, Pakistan and the USSR on 1 February. It was an intermediate-depth earthquake with a hypocenter 143.2Â km (89.0Â mi) beneath the Hindu Kush...
The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal court declares Warren Anderson, ex-CEO of Union Carbide, a fugitive under Indian law for failing to appear in the Bhopal disaster case.
Bhopal is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the City of Lakes, due to presence of...
The Communications Decency Act is passed by the U.S. Congress.
The Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA) was the United States Congress's first legislative attempt to regulate obscene and indecent material on the Internet. In the 1997 landmark case Reno v....
Rear Admiral Lillian E. Fishburne becomes the first female African American to be promoted to rear admiral.
Lillian Elaine Fishburne was the first African-American female to hold the rank of Rear Admiral (RDML) in the United States Navy. She was appointed to the rank of Rear Admiral by U.S. president Bill...
Daniel Pearl, American journalist and South Asia Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal, kidnapped on January 23, is beheaded and mutilated by his captors.
Daniel Pearl was an American journalist who worked for The Wall Street Journal. On January 23, 2002, he was kidnapped by jihadist militants while he was on his way to what he had expected would be...
Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during the reentry of mission STS-107 into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe, and the...
Hajj pilgrimage stampede: In a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, 251 people are trampled to death and 244 injured.
There have been numerous incidents during the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to the cities of Mecca and Medina, that have caused loss of life. Every follower of Islam is required to perform the Hajj in...
Double suicide attack in Erbil on the offices of Iraqi Kurdish political parties by members of Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad
The 2004 Erbil bombings was a double suicide attack on the offices of Iraqi Kurdish political parties in Erbil, Kurdistan Region on 1 February 2004. The attackers detonated explosives strapped to...
King Gyanendra of Nepal carries out a coup d'Ă©tat to capture the democracy, becoming Chairman of the Councils of ministers.
Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev is the former king of Nepal. He reigned from 1950 to 1951 and again from 2001 to 2008, when the Kingdom of Nepal was abolished and a republic declared. At a young age...
The National Weather Service in the United States switches from the Fujita scale to the new Enhanced Fujita scale to measure the intensity and strength of tornadoes.
The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related...
The first cabinet of JĂłhanna SigurĂ°ardĂłttir was formed in Iceland, making her the country's first female prime minister and the world's first openly gay head of government.
The First cabinet of JĂłhanna SigurĂ°ardĂłttir in Iceland, nicknamed âThe welfare governmentâ or âThe sixth left governmentâ, was formed 1 February 2009 after the Second cabinet of Geir Haarde resigned...
Seventy-four people are killed and over 500 injured as a result of clashes between fans of Egyptian football teams Al Masry and Al Ahly in the city of Port Said.
The Port Said Stadium riot was a riot which occurred at Port Said Stadium in Port Said, Egypt on 1 February 2012, following an Egyptian Premier League football match between Al Masry and Al Ahly....
The Shard, the sixth-tallest building in Europe, opens its viewing gallery to the public.
The Shard, also referred to as the Shard London Bridge and formerly London Bridge Tower, is a 95-storey mixed-use development supertall pyramid-shaped skyscraper, designed by the Italian architect...
A coup d'Ă©tat in Myanmar removes Aung San Suu Kyi from power and restores military rule.
A coup d'Ă©tat in Myanmar began on the morning of 1 February 2021, when democratically elected members of the country's ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), were deposed by the...
Five-year-old Moroccan boy Rayan Aourram falls into a 32-meter (105 feet) deep well in Ighran village in Tamorot commune, Chefchaouen Province, Morocco, but dies four days later, before rescue workers reached him.
On 1 February 2022, five-year-old Moroccan boy Rayan Aourram fell into a 32-metre (105Â ft) dry well in Ighran village in Tamorot commune, Chefchaouen Province, Morocco.