February 2: A tropical storm forms just north of Cuba moving northeast. The storm makes landfall in southern Florida the next day. It is the earliest reported landfall from a tropical storm, and the earliest formation of a tropical storm on record in the Atlantic basin.

February 6: George VI (King of the United Kingdom and his dominions, of Canada, of South Africa, of Australia, of New Zealand and of Ceylon) dies aged 56 after a long illness. He is succeeded by his daughter The Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh (now Elizabeth II), who is on a visit to Kenya. She is simultaneously proclaimed Queen of Canada at Rideau Hall, Ottawa, Ontario. - In the United States, a mechanical heart is used for the first time in a human patient.

February 7: Elizabeth II is proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom (and her five other Commonwealth realms) at St. James's Palace, London, England.

February 14: February 25: The Winter Olympics held in Oslo, Norway.

February 15: The funeral of George VI takes place at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

February 18: Greece and Turkey join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

February 20: Emmett Ashford becomes the first African American umpire in organized baseball, by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League. - Winston Churchill scraps UK compulsory national Identity Cards.

February 21: In Dhaka, East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) police open fire on a procession of students, killing 4 people and starting a country-wide protest which leads to the recognition of Bengali as one of the national languages of Pakistan. The day is later declared "International Mother Language Day" by UNESCO.

February 25: Paricutin active volcano in Michoacan, west central Mexico ceases its discontinuous eruption after spewing forth a gigaton of lava and burying San Juan Parangaricutiro.

February 26: United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces that the United Kingdom has an atomic bomb. (source: Wikipedia)