Historical Events
- Feb 1 Canadian jockey Russell Baze rides his 10,000th career winner aboard Two Step Cat in 3rd race at Golden Gate Fields, Albany, CA; prevails in a 3-horse photo finish
- Feb 1 Minnesota starter Johan Santana signs a 6-year, $137.5 million deal with the New York Mets to become the highest-paid pitcher in MLB history; trade from Twins to Mets official the next day
Super Bowl XLII
Feb 3 Super Bowl XLII, University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, AZ: New York Giants beat New England Patriots, 17-14; MVP: Eli Manning, New York, QB
50th Grammy Awards
Feb 10 50th Grammy Awards: Amy Winehouse wins 5 awards including song "Rehab"; Herbie Hancock wins Album of the Year
BAFTA Awards
Feb 10 61st British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs): "Atonement" Best Film, Ethan and Joel Coen Best Director
- Feb 10 NFL Pro Bowl, Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI: NFC beats AFC, 42-30; MVP: Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings, RB
- Feb 10 The 2008 Namdaemun fire severely damages Namdaemun, the first National Treasure of South Korea.
- Feb 11 In East Timor, assassination attempts were made on Xanana Gusmao and Jose Ramos-Horta. Both failed.
- Feb 13 Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes an historic apology to Indigenous Australians, especially to the Stolen Generations who suffered forced child removal and assimilation [1]
- Feb 13 The LZR Racer Suit is unveiled in NYC; line of competition swimsuits made by Speedo using high-tech fabric of woven elastane-nylon & polyurethane; times went down dramatically; rules changed 2010
- Feb 14 39th NAACP Image Awards: "The Great Debaters" wins Outstanding Motion Picture
- Feb 14 Northern Illinois University shooting: a gunman opened fire in a lecture hall of the DeKalb County, Illinois university resulting in 24 casualties; 6 fatalities (including gunman) and 18 injured.
- Feb 17 50th Daytona 500: Ryan Newman wins shootout going into the final turn from Tony Stewart, and the Busch brothers, Kurt and Kyle
NBA All-Star Game
Feb 17 57th NBA All-Star Game, New Orleans Arena, New Orleans, LA: East beats West, 134-128; MVP: LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers, F
- Feb 17 Kosovo declares independence from Serbia
Laureus Awards
Feb 18 Laureus World Sports Awards, Marinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, Russia: Sportsman: Roger Federer; Sportswoman: Justine Henin; Team: South African Men's National Rugby Union team
- Feb 19 Serzh Sargsyan wins the Armenian Presidential Election
- Feb 19 Toshiba announces its formal recall of its HD DVD video format, ending the format war between it and Sony's Blu-Ray Disc
Sports History
Feb 22 Marco van Basten signs a four-year contract with Ajax, starting from 1 July
- Feb 23 28th Golden Raspberry Awards: "I Know Who Killed Me" wins
- Feb 23 B-2 Spirit of the USAF crashes at Guam. Crew survives but aircraft written off, the most expensive air crash in human history (aircraft alone cost $1.2Bn). B-2 had a perfect safety record before the crash; not one B-2 ever crashed.
Academy Awards
Feb 24 80th Academy Awards: "No Country for Old Men", Daniel Day-Lewis & Marion Cotillard win
Event of Interest
Feb 24 Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba due to ill health after nearly fifty years
Famous Weddings
Nicolas Sarkozy
Feb 2 23rd French Republic President Nicolas Sarkozy (53) weds supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni (39) at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France
- Feb 2 American singer-actress Katharine McPhee (23) weds producer Nick Cokas (42) at the Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church in Beverly Hills, California; divorce in 2016
- Feb 14 Oasis singer Liam Gallagher (35) weds All Saints singer Nicole Appleton (33) at Westminster Register Office in London
- Feb 19 "The Lord of The Rings" actor Sean Bean (49) weds actress Georgina Sutcliffe (29) at Marylebone Registry Office in central London
Famous Divorces
Pamela Anderson
Feb 22 "Baywatch" actress Pamela Anderson (40) divorces Rick Salomon (39) due to irreconcilable differences only 2 months after getting married
Famous Deaths
- Feb 1 Shell Kepler [Michelle Alaine Kepler], American actress (General Hospital), dies from renal failure at 49
- Feb 2 Earl Butz, 18th U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (1971-76), dies at 98
- Feb 2 Herbert "Barry" Morse, British-Canadian actor (The Fugitive, Space: 1999, Winds of War), dies at 89
- Feb 2 Katoucha, Guinean model and activist (b. 1960)
- Feb 3 Douglas Fraser, Scottish pilot (b. 1916)
- Feb 4 Chris Anderson, American jazz pianist (Charlie Parker; Dinah Washington; Charlie Haden), dies of a stroke at 81
- Feb 4 Stefan Meller, Polish diplomat and 9th Minister of Foreign Affairs (2005-06), dies at 65
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1918-2008)
Feb 5 Indian guru who developed Transcendental Meditation, dies at 90
- Feb 6 Dieter Noll, German writer (Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt), dies at 80
- Feb 6 John McWethy, American journalist (b. 1947)
- Feb 6 Tony Rolt, English auto racer (24 Hours of Le Mans 1953; British Empire Trophy 1939), dies at 89
- Feb 7 (Wilhelmus) "Benny" Neyman, Dutch pop singer ("I Don't Know How"; "Waarom fluister ik je naam nog"), dies of cancer at 56
- Feb 7 Leona Wood, American surrealist painter and ballet and folk dancer dies at 86
- Feb 7 Tamara Desni [Brodsky], German-born British actress (The Green Finger, Hell's Cargo), dies from natural causes at 97
- Feb 8 Chua Ek Kay, Singaporean painter (b. 1947)
- Feb 8 Eva Dahlbeck, Swedish actress (Brink of Life, Dreams, A Lesson in Love), dies of infection and Alzheimer's disease at 87
- Feb 9 Christopher Hyatt, American Occultist, Philosopher and Author, dies at 64
- Feb 9 Jazeh Tabatabai, Iranian avant-garde painter, poet and sculptor. (b. 1931)
- Feb 9 Scott Halpin, American drummer plucked out of the audience to fill in for incapacitated Keith Moon of The Who, dies of a brain tumor at 53
- Feb 9 Trichen Jurme Kunzang Wangyal, the eleventh Mindrolling Trichen, Tibetan Buddhist lama of the Nyingma school (b. 1930)
- Feb 10 Roy Scheider, American actor (Jaws, The French Connection, Marathon Man, Paper Lion), dies at 75
- Feb 10 Steve Gerber, American comics writer (b. 1947)
- Feb 11 Frank Piasecki, American aeronautical designer and helicopter aviation pioneer (PV Engineering Forum; Piasecki Helicopter Corp; Piasecki Aircraft Company), dies at 88
- Feb 11 Patsy O. Sherman, American chemist and co-inventor of Scotchgard, dies at 77 [1]
- Feb 11 Tom Lantos, American politician (Rep-D-California 1981-2008), dies at 80
- Feb 12 David Groh, American actor (Rhoda - "Joe"; Another Day - "Don"), dies of kidney cancer at 68
- Feb 12 Oscar Brodney, American screenwriter (The Glenn Miller Story), dies at 100
- Feb 13 Henri Salvador, French-Caribbean pop singer, guitarist, and cabaret, dies of an aneurysm at 90
- Feb 13 Kon Ichikawa, Japanese director (Matatabi, Money Talks), dies at 92
- Feb 13 Roger Voisin, American classical trumpet player (Boston Symphony, 1935-83), dies at 89
- Feb 14 Perry Lopez, American actor (Chinatown, Death Wish 4), dies at 78
- Feb 15 Amnon Netzer, Iranian-Israeli historian (b. 1934)
- Feb 15 Ashley Callie, South African actress (b. 1976)
- Feb 17 Brian Harris, English footballer and manager, dies at 72
- Feb 18 Alain Robbe-Grillet, French novelist (Voyeur) and film maker, dies of heart failure at 85
- Feb 18 Mihaela Mitrache, Romanian actress, dies at 52
- Feb 18 Sir Richard Knowles, British politician (b. 1917)
- Feb 19 (Attilio) "Teo" Macero, American jazz saxophonist, composer and record producer (Miles Davis - "Bitches Brew"; Dave Brubeck - "Time Out"), dies at 82
- Feb 19 Lydia Shum, Hong Kong comedian and actress (b. 1945)
- Feb 19 Natalia Bessmertnova, Soviet ballerina (Bolshoi, Lenin Prize 1970), dies at 66
- Feb 19 Richard D'Aeth, British educationist (Hughes Hall Cambridge), dies at 96
- Feb 19 Yegor Letov, Russian rock poet, songwriter, and singer (Grazhdanskaya Oborona), dies of heart failure at 43
- Feb 20 Emily Perry, English Actress (b. 1907)
- Feb 20 Larry Davis (criminal)
- Feb 21 Ben Chapman, American actor (b. 1928)
- Feb 21 Sunny Lowry, First British woman to swim the English Channel (b. 1911)
- Feb 22 Maurice Laing, English builder (John Laing & Son), dies at 90
- Feb 23 Denis Lazure, Canadian physician and politician, dies at 82
- Feb 23 Douglas Fraser, Scottish pilot, first to land at Newfoundland Airport on January 11, 1938 (b. 1916)
- Feb 23 Janez Drnovšek, Slovenian prime minister and president (b. 1950)
- Feb 23 Paul Frère, Belgian race car driver and motorsport journalist (b. 1917)
- Feb 23 Roger Foulon, Belgian writer (Un été dans la Fagne), dies at 84
- Feb 24 Larry Norman, American musician and pioneer of Christian rock music ("Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?"), dies at 60
- Feb 24 Philip Bodner, American jazz clarinetist and studio musician (also played flute, oboe, saxophone, piccolo, and English horn), dies at 90
- Feb 25 Hans Raj Khanna, Judge of the Supreme Court of India (b. 1912)
- Feb 25 Static Major, American singer (b. 1974)
- Feb 26 (George) "Buddy" Miles, American rock drummer (The Electric Flag; Band of Gypsies), dies of congestive heart disease at 60
- Feb 26 Dick Fletcher, American meteorologist, dies at 65
- Feb 26 Glory Mukwati, Zimbabwean politician
- Feb 26 John Yates, Anglican bishop (Bishop of Lambeth), dies at 82
- Feb 27 Anthony Blond, British publisher (The Publishing Game, Book Book), dies at 79
- Feb 27 Boyd Coddington, American auto designer (owner Boyd Coddington Hot Rod Shop) and television host (American Hot Rod on TLC), dies of sepsis at 63
- Feb 27 Myron Cope, American sports broadcaster (b. 1929)
- Feb 27 William F. Buckley Jr, American conservative author and commentator (National Review, Firing Line), dies of a heart attack at 82
- Feb 28 Mike Smith, British rock singer and keyboardist (Dave Clark Five - "Glad All Over"), dies of pneumonia at 64
- Feb 29 Jerry Groom, American College Football HOF center (Notre Dame; NFL Pro Bowl 1954; Chicago Cardinals), dies at 78
