February 3: The Nazis forcibly restore Pierre Laval to office in occupied Vichy France.

February 4: The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.

February 5: Air Training Corps: The Air Training Corps was formed.

February 6: Fall of Benghazi to the Western Desert Force. Lieutenant-General Erwin Rommel is appointed commander of Afrika Korps.

February 8: The U.S. House of Representatives passes the Lend-Lease Act.

February 9: Winston Churchill, in a worldwide broadcast, tells the United States to show its support by sending arms to the British: "Give us the tools, and we will finish the job."

February 12: Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli. - Reserve Constable Albert Alexander, a patient at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, becomes the first person treated with penicillin intravenously, by Howard Florey's team. He reacts positively but there is insufficient supply of the drug to reverse his terminal infection. A successful treatment is achieved during May.

February 13: Aircraft from HMS Formidable attack Massawa in Eritrea.

February 14: Admiral Kichisaburo- Nomura begins his duties as Japanese Ambassador to the United States.

February 19-February 22: Three Nights' Blitz over Swansea, South Wales: Over these 3 nights of intensive bombing, which last a total of 13 hours and 48 minutes, Swansea's town centre is almost completely obliterated by the 896 high explosive bombs employed by the Luftwaffe. A total of 397 casualties and 230 deaths are reported.

February 22: HMS Shropshire bombards Barawa, on the coast between Kismayo and Mogadishu.

February 23: Glenn T. Seaborg isolates and discovers plutonium.

February 25: British submarine HMS Upright attacks an Italian convoy sinking the cruiser Armando Diaz.

February 27: The New Zealand Division cruiser HMS Leander (1931) sinks Italian armed merchant raider Ramb I off the Maldives. (source: Wikipedia)