February 1 - In Greensboro, North Carolina, four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter. Although they are refused service, they are allowed to stay at the counter. The event triggers many similar nonviolent protests throughout the Southern United States, and six months later the original four protesters are served lunch at the same counter.

February 3 - Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Harold Macmillan makes the Wind of Change speech to the South African Parliament in Cape Town (although he had first made the speech, to little publicity, in Accra, Gold Coast - now Ghana - on January 10).

February 5 - The first CERN particle accelerator becomes operational in Geneva, Switzerland.

February 9 - Joanne Woodward receives the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Southern California. - Adolph Coors III, the chairman of the board of the Coors Brewing Company, is kidnapped, and his captors demand a ransom of $500,000. Coors was later found murdered, and Joseph Corbett, Jr., is indicted for the crime.

February 10 - A conference about the proposed independence of the Belgian Congo begins in Brussels, Belgium.

February 11 - The N class blimp ZPG-3W of the U.S. Navy is destroyed during a storm over Massachusetts. - Twelve Indian soldiers die in clashes with Red Chinese troops along their small common border.

February 13 - France tests its first atomic bomb - in the Sahara Desert of Algeria.

February 18 - The 1960 Winter Olympic Games begin at the Squaw Valley Ski Resort, in Placer County, California.

February 23 - Demolition of Ebbets Field, former home of baseball's Dodgers, commences in Brooklyn, NY.

February 26 - A New York bound Alitalia airliner crashes into a cemetery at Shannon, Ireland, shortly after takeoff, killing 34 of the 52 persons on board.

February 29 - The 1960 Agadir earthquake completely destroys the town of Agadir, Morocco. (source: Wikipedia)