Historical Events in February 1963
- Feb 1 Nyasaland (now Malawi) becomes self-governing under Hastings Banda
- Feb 2 Helen Shapiro begins tour (Beatles are part of undercard)
- Feb 5 Maarten Schmidt discovers enormous red shifts in quasars
- Feb 5 Soviet lunar probe failure
- Feb 8 1st transmission of Clandestine Voice of Iraqi People (Communist)
- Feb 8 AFL's Dallas Texans become KC Chiefs
- Feb 8 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Feb 9 1st test flight of Boeing 727 jet
- Feb 9 7th largest snowfall in NYC history (42.4 cm, 16.7")
- Feb 10 US female Figure Skating championship won by Lorraine Hanlon
- Feb 10 US male Figure Skating championship won by Thomas Litz
- Feb 11 American chef Julia Child's show "The French Chef" premieres on WGBH in Boston - one of the first cooking shows in the US
- Feb 11 Beatles record 10 of the 14 tracks for their 1st UK album "Please Please Me"
- Feb 11 CIA Domestic Operations Division created
Event of Interest
Feb 12 Argentina requests the extradition of ex-president Juan Perón
8½
Feb 14 "8½" film directed by Federico Fellini, starring Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale, is released (Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film 1964)
- Feb 14 US launches communications satellite Syncom 1
- Feb 15 Ken Lynch records "Misery," 1st Lennon-McCartney song by someone else
- Feb 16 1st round-trip swim of Strait of Messina, Italy (Mary Revell of US)
- Feb 16 Beatles top British rock charts with "Please, Please Me"
- Feb 16 C & A Building in Amsterdam burns down
Feb 16 Philosopher Hannah Arendt's controversial account of the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann is first published in "The New Yorker"
- Feb 17 Japanese runner Toru Terasawa runs a world record marathon (2:15:15.8) at the Beppu Marathon on the island of Kyushu, Japan
The Feminine Mystique
Feb 19 "The Feminine Mystique" by Betty Friedan, widely credited as the start of second-wave feminism, is published
Event of Interest
Feb 19 USSR informs JFK it is withdrawing several thousand troops from Cuba
- Feb 20 Australian cricket greats Neil Harvey and Alan Davidson play final Test match in drawn 5th Test vs England at the Sydney Cricket Ground
Mays Signs Record Contract
Feb 20 Future Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder Willie Mays becomes the highest-paid player in MLB, signing a record $100,000 contract with the San Francisco Giants
- Feb 21 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Feb 22 Beatles begin their own music publishing company (Northern Songs)
- Feb 24 5th Daytona 500: Tiny Lund driving for Wood Bros Racing, wins on 4 pit stops as first 10 laps run under caution flag because of rain
- Feb 25 Beatles release their 1st US single - "Please Please Me"
Contract of Interest
Feb 27 Mickey Mantle of NY Yankees sign a baseball contract worth $100,000
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