February is the second month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars.
The month has 28 days in common years – that is years with 365 days – and 29 days in leap years, such as last year, 2024, as is the case with any year that is evenly divisible by four, with the exception of centenary years not divisible by 400.
February is not only the shortest month of the year but it is is also the month of love. Valentine’s Day falls almost exactly in the middle of the month on February 14 each year.
In addition, the month is the only month in the calendar to have fewer than 30 days, and it is also the third and final month of meteorological winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and the third and final month of meteorological summer in the Southern Hemisphere.
The month’s name, February, is a divisive issue when it comes to pronunciation, although both FEB-roo-ary and FEB-yuh-ri are both accepted in North American and British English.
February takes its name from the Roman month Februarius, named after the Latin term februum, which means purification, this because the Februa purification ritual that was traditionally held on the 15th of the month in the old lunar Roman calendar.
Before the English language adopted the Latin name for the second month, Old English employed much more vibrant names for it. The most common of these was Solmonath, which literally means “mud month.” In Austrian German, February is Feber, while in Germany, it is February, which is also how it is called in Denmark.
Indeed, both January and February are the two newest months in the calendar. The original Roman calendar had ten months and it ignored the 61-day period in the dead of winter, as it was considered that winter was a monthless period. The two were added during the reign of King Numa Pompilius, the semi-mythical successor to Romulus, and the calendar was adjusted so that January and February were the first two months under Decemvirs, who reformed and codified Roman law.
Here’s what happened in Februarys past.
On February 2, 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war between Mexico and the United States. The United States acquired territories comprising present day Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Texas, and Wyoming in exchange for a $15 million ($465 million in 2019 dollars) payment to Mexico.
The Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, California opened on February 19, 1888. At the time it was the largest resort hotel in the world, and to this day it is the second largest wooden structure in the United States and has been designated a National Historic Landmark.
Charles Alfred Anderson, the first African American to earn a commercial pilot’s license, was born on February 8, 1907.
Grand Central Terminal, the world’s largest train station, based on the number of platforms, opened on February 2, 1913. Spread over 48 acres (19.5 hectares), it replaced Grand Central Station, although, one hundred years later, people still call the new structure by that name. It is one of the world’s most popular tourist attractions, drawing over 21 million visitors per year, and features numerous restaurants, food shops, and retail establishments.
The first wholly Douglas-designed, Douglas-built aircraft, the Cloudster, made its inaugural flight on February 24, 1921. It was the first airplane to lift a useful load greater than its own unladen weight.
On February 22, 1925, Geoffrey de Havilland took off from London in a DH.60 Moth constructed by his de Havilland Aircraft Company. The two-seat touring and training plane was of wood construction with fabric-covered surfaces, and marked the start of a new age in light aviation.
The Douglas DC-1 made a record breaking coast-to-coast flight on February 19, 1934, from Los Angeles, California, to Newark, New Jersey, in 13 hours and four minutes. Only one model of the aircraft was ever produced, although it was the basis for later models.
The Douglas DC-5 made its first flight on February 20, 1939. Only 12 of the 16- to 22- seat twin-engine propeller aircraft were built, including five as commercial DC-5 transports, and seven as R3D military transports.
