Here are 29 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in February 2025 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)
Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more.
(Find out more at the end of this article.)
We’ve randomly selected an anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2025, which lists more than 3,600 anniversaries. The Date-A-Base Book 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029 are also available.
1 Feb 1925 – 100 years ago
Ahmet Zogu was inaugurated as the first President of Albania. (Albania’s monarchy was established in 1928 and he became King Zog I.)
2 Feb 1935 – 90 years ago
A lie detector (polygraph) machine was used in court for the first time. Its inventor, Leonarde Keeler, tested two suspects in a criminal case in Portage, Wisconsin, USA. The machine showed they were guilty, the court agreed to accept its results, and they were convicted.
3 to 5 Feb 1825 – 200 years ago
The February flood of 1825 (known as the Great Hallig Flood in Germany). The North Sea coasts of the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany flooded. Around 800 people were killed.
4 Feb 2000 – 25 years ago
The first version of the life-simulation video game The Sims was released. It became one of the best-selling video game series in history.
5 to 6 Feb 1975 – 50 years ago
Limazo riots, Lima, Peru. The local police force went on strike after being offered a pay rise that was well below what they had asked for. They barricaded themselves into police stations. Students marched through the streets in support of the police, looting, setting fires, vandalising property, and causing more than $27 million worth of damage. The Peruvian military was sent in to quell the unrest. 100 people were killed, 500 injured, and 1,300 arrested.
6 Feb 1945 – 80 years ago
Birth of Bob Marley, Jamaican reggae/ska/rock steady singer, songwriter, musician and cultural icon. (Died 1981.)
7 Feb 1995 – 30 years ago
IBM discontinued its formal dress code in favour of casual wear. Many other U.S. companies followed suit.
8 Feb 1725 – 300 years ago
Death of Peter I, (Peter the Great), Tsar (Emperor) of Russia (1682–1725). (Bladder infection, aged 52.) Succeeded by his wife, Catherine I.
9 Feb 1950 – 75 years ago
Red Scare – the beginning. U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy announced that he had a list of ‘known communists’ who worked in the U.S. State Department, fuelling Cold War tensions. He went on to make further sensational claims of communists, Soviet spies and sympathisers in the federal government, U.S. Army, and elsewhere – none of which he could substantiate. (His actions were condemned by the U.S. Senate in 1954 and his career was ruined. He died in 1957.)
10 Feb 2005 – 20 years ago
Charles, Prince of Wales (now King Charles III) and Camilla Parker Bowles announced their engagement. They were married on 9th April 2005.
11 Feb 1975 – 50 years ago
Margaret Thatcher became the first female leader of the Conservative Party in the UK. She became Britain’s first female Prime Minister in 1979.
12 Feb 2000 – 25 years ago
Death of Charles M. Schulz, American cartoonist. Creator of the Peanuts comic strip.
13 to 15 Feb 1945 – 80 years ago
World War II: the Bombing of Dresden, Germany. The Allies carried out four massive bombing raids, completely destroying the inner city and killing about 25,000 people.
14 Feb 1950 – 75 years ago
China and the Soviet Union signed the Sino–Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance. (When it expired in 1979, China launched an immediate attack on Vietnam – a Soviet ally.)
15 Feb 1775 – 250 years ago
Pius VI was elected Pope.
16 Feb 1985 – 40 years ago
The Islamic militant group and political party Hezbollah was founded in Lebanon.
17 Feb 1965 – 60 years ago
NASA launched the space probe Ranger 8 on a mission to take close-up photos of the surface of the Moon, ahead of a manned Apollo mission. After sending back more than 7,000 photographs it was deliberately crashed into the Moon on 20th February.
18 Feb 2005 – 20 years ago
Hunting wild mammals with dogs was banned in England and Wales. Hunting foxes with dogs had already been banned in Scotland.
19 Feb to 26 Mar 1945 – 80 years ago
World War II – the Battle of Iwo Jima, Japanese Volcano Islands. U.S. victory.
The iconic photo of U.S. Marines raising the American flag on top of Mount Surabachi was taken on 23rd February.
20 Feb 1985 – 40 years ago
The sale of contraceptives was legalised in Ireland following a highly controversial vote in the Irish parliament, and condemnation by the Catholic Church.
21 Feb 1875 – 150 years ago
Birth of Jeanne Calment, French supercentenarian with the longest verified human lifespan. She died in 1997, aged 122.
22 Feb 1925 – 100 years ago
Birth of Edward Gorey, American writer, illustrator and poet. Noted for his unsettling Victorian- and Edwardian-style pen-and-ink drawings. (Died 2000.)
23 Feb 1950 – 75 years ago
United Kingdom General Election. Prime Minister Clement Attlee (Labour Party) was re-elected, but his majority was reduced from 146 seats to just five. This was the first General Election where the results were covered by BBC TV.
(Another election was held in 1951. It was won by the Conservatives.)
24 Feb 1825 – 200 years ago
Death of Thomas Bowdler, British editor, censor and physician. Best known for producing expurgated (‘bowdlerised’) versions of Shakespeare’s plays to make them more suitable for a family audience.
25 Feb 1925 – 100 years ago
Glacier Bay National Monument (now Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve) was established in Alaska, USA.
26 Feb 1935 – 90 years ago
British radio engineer Robert Watson-Watt demonstrated a working radar system for the first time, in Daventry, UK.
27 Feb 1525 – 500 years ago
Death of Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec Emperor (1520–21). (Executed.)
28 Feb 1935 – 90 years ago
Nylon was first produced by a team led by Wallace Carothers at DuPont’s research station in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.
29 Feb 1960 – 65 years ago
The first Playboy Club opened, in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
More anniversaries:
You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2025.
The 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029 editions are also available if you work further ahead.
Each edition is available as a PDF ebook (with a free Excel spreadsheet) or as a printed paperback book.
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How to use the anniversaries:
How can you turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines, newspapers and websites? How do you get paid for writing them, and how can you make a great living from it?
Download our free guide Ditch Your Day Job. It tells you everything you need to know!