February 1967

The following events occurred in February 1967:

February 1, 1967 (Wednesday)

• The American Basketball Association is formed, a competitor to the National Basketball Association, with which it would later merge.

February 2, 1967 (Thursday)

• Bolivia's new constitution is approved by the Bolivian Constituent Assembly of 1966-67.^[1]

February 3, 1967 (Friday)

• Ronald Ryan becomes the last man hanged in Australia, for murdering a guard while escaping from prison in December 1965.
• British record producer Joe Meek murders his landlady and then commits suicide by shooting himself in the head at Holloway, North London.

February 4, 1967 (Saturday)

• The German Democratic Republic makes proposals for an informal agreement by Warsaw Pact representatives to support their position on West Berlin.^[2]
• The 1967 World Sportscar Championship season opens with the 24 Hours of Daytona.

February 5, 1967 (Sunday)

• NASA launches Lunar Orbiter 3.
• Italy's first guided missile cruiser, the Vittorio Veneto, is launched.
• General Anastasio Somoza Debayle becomes president of Nicaragua.

February 6, 1967 (Monday)

• Soviet leader Alexei Kosygin arrives in the UK for an 8-day visit.
• Michael Nesmith and Micky Dolenz of the Monkees fly into London.
• Died: Martine Carol, 46, French actress (heart attack)^[3]

February 7, 1967 (Tuesday)

• The Chinese government announces that it can no longer guarantee the safety of Soviet diplomats outside the Soviet Embassy building in Beijing.
• Serious bushfires in southern Tasmania claim 62 lives, and destroys 2,642.7 square kilometres (653,025.4 acres) of land.
• Mazenod College, Victoria, opens in Australia.
• Micky Dolenz meets Paul McCartney at his home in St John's Wood, London, and they pose together for the press. His impressions of the visit feature in the lyrics of "Randy Scouse Git", a title Dolenz borrows from the British TV sitcom Till Death Us Do Part, not realising it is an offensive term.

February 8, 1967 (Wednesday)

• Gough Whitlam defeats Dr Jim Cairns and Frank Crean to replace the retiring Arthur Calwell as leader of the federal Australian Labor Party.^[4]
• Died: Sir Victor Gollancz, 73, British publisher and humanitarian

February 9, 1967 (Thursday)

• Soviet leader Alexei Kosygin meets Queen Elizabeth II in London.

February 10, 1967 (Friday)

• The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution (presidential succession and disability) is ratified.^[5]

February 11, 1967 (Saturday)

• Burgess Ice Rise, lying off the west coast of Alexander Island, Antarctica is first mapped by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

February 12, 1967 (Sunday)

• British police raid 'Redlands', the Sussex home of Rolling Stone Keith Richards in the early hours of the morning following a tip-off about a party from the News of the World; although no arrests are made at the time, Richards, Mick Jagger and art dealer Robert Fraser are subsequently charged with possession of drugs.

February 13, 1967 (Monday)

• American researchers discover the Madrid Codices by Leonardo da Vinci in the National Library of Spain.^[6]

February 14, 1967 (Tuesday)

• Born: Mark Rutte, Dutch politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, in The Hague
• Died: Sig Ruman, 82, German actor

February 15, 1967 (Wednesday)

• A general election in the Netherlands results in the Catholic People's Party remaining the largest party, winning 42 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives.^[7]

February 16, 1967 (Thursday)

• Died: Smiley Burnette, 55, US actor and musician (leukemia)^[8]

February 17, 1967 (Friday)

• Born: Roberto Sighel, Italian speed skater, in Trento

February 18, 1967 (Saturday)

• New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison claims he will solve the John F. Kennedy assassination, and that a conspiracy was planned in New Orleans.
• Born: Marco Aurélio, Brazilian footballer, in Rio de Janeiro
• Died: J. Robert Oppenheimer, 62, US physicist (throat cancer)^[9]

February 19, 1967 (Sunday)

• Vietnam War: Operation Bribie begins (also known as the Battle of Ap My An).

February 20, 1967 (Monday)

• In Indonesia, President Sukarno relinquishes power, but not his title, to Suharto. ^[10]
• Born: Kurt Cobain, American musician and artist, head of Nirvana, in Aberdeen, Washington, United States.

February 21, 1967 (Tuesday)

• India's general election ends in victory for the Indian National Congress, led by Indira Gandhi, which wins a fourth consecutive term in power and over 54% of the seats; no other party wins more than 10% of the votes or seats.
• A general election is held in Jamaica, resulting in a victory for the Jamaica Labour Party, which wins 33 of the 53 seats.^[11]
• Born: Neil Oliver, Scottish historian and TV presenter, in Renfrewshire

February 22, 1967 (Wednesday)

• Donald Sangster becomes the new Prime Minister of Jamaica, succeeding Alexander Bustamante.

February 23, 1967 (Thursday)

• Trinidad and Tobago is the first Commonwealth nation to join the Organization of American States.

February 24, 1967 (Friday)

• The Bee Gees sign a management contract with Robert Stigwood.
• Born: Brian Schmidt, Australian physicist and Nobel laureate, in Missoula, Montana, United States.

February 25, 1967 (Saturday)

• Britain's second Polaris missile submarine, HMS Renown, is launched.

February 26, 1967 (Sunday)

• A Soviet nuclear test is conducted at the Semipalatinsk Test Site, Eastern Kazakhstan.
• Mario Andretti wins the Daytona 500 in the #11 Holman Moody Ford

February 27, 1967 (Monday)

• The Dutch government supports British EEC membership.
• Born: Jonathan Ive, British software designer for Apple Corporation, in Chingford

February 28, 1967 (Tuesday)

• The 1967 World Figure Skating Championships open at an open-air ice rink in Vienna, Austria.
• Stechford rail crash: At Stechford, Birmingham, a Manchester-Coventry four-carriage Class 304 electric unit collides with a Class 24 diesel locomotive at about 60 mph, killing the driver and eight passengers, and injuring a further 16 people.^[12]

References