Among many other events, February saw the French invasion of Fishguard in 1797 (pictured above).
| 1 Feb. | 1901 | The royal yacht Alberta brings the body of Queen Victoria into Portsmouth harbour en route to her funeral in London tomorrow. The Queen, aged 82, died on January 22, at Osborne on the Isle of Wight. | |
| 2 Feb. | 1665 | British forces capture New Amsterdam, the centre of the Dutch colony in North America. The trading settlement on the island of Manhattan is to be renamed New York in honour of the Duke of York, its new governor. | |
| 3 Feb. | 1730 | The London Daily Advertiser newspaper publishes the first stock exchange quotations. | |
| 4 Feb. | 1926 | Malcolm Campbell sets a new world land speed record of 174 mph (278 kmph) in Wales. | |
| 5 Feb. | 1958 | Parking meters first appear on the streets of London’s exclusive Mayfair district. The meters were first used in America in 1935. | |
| 6 Feb. | 1783 | Death of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown the greatest English landscape gardener. His work lives on today throughout the great estates of England. | |
| 7 Feb. | 1301 | The son of King Edward I of England becomes the first English Prince of Wales. | |
| 8 Feb. | 1587 | Mary Queen of Scots is beheaded on the orders of her cousin England’s Queen Elizabeth I. | |
| 9 Feb. | 1964 | 73 million Americans tune in to the Ed Sullivan Show to watch four lads from Liverpool appear for the first time – The Beatles. | |
| 10 Feb. | 1354 | Students at Oxford University fight a street battle with local townspeople resulting in several deaths and many people injured. | |
| 11 Feb. | 1975 | Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher, becomes the first woman leader of the British Conservative Party. | |
| 12 Feb. | 1554 | At the tender age of 16, the “nine days queen”, Lady Jane Grey is beheaded at the tower of London. | |
| 13 Feb. | 1688 | A “Glorious Revolution” brings the Protestant William of Orange and his wife Mary (daughter of James II) to the throne of England after the Catholic King James II flees to France. | |
| 14 Feb. | 1933 | Students at Oxford University, obviously bored fighting the local townspeople, declare that they would not fight for “King and Country”. | |
| 15 Feb. | 1971 | Pennies, bobs and half-crowns all disappear as Britain goes decimal. | |
| 16 Feb. | 1659 | A cheque is used for the first time in Britain as Mr Nicholas Vanacker settles a debt. | |
| 17 Feb. | 1461 | Lancastrian forces defeated the Yorkists at the Second Battle of St. Albans. | |
| 18 Feb. | 1478 | George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence died in the Tower of London said to have been drowned in a butt of his favourite malmsey wine. | |
| 19 Feb. | 1897 | The Women’s Institute is founded in Ontario, Canada, by Mrs Adelaide Hoodless. | |
| 20 Feb. | 1938 | Anthony Eden resigned as British foreign secretary after Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain decided to negotiate with Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini. | |
| 21 Feb. | 1804 | British engineer Richard Trevithick demonstrated the first steam engine to run on rails. | |
| 22 Feb. | 1797 | Over 1,000 French troops attempted to invade Britain, landing on the Welsh coast. The brave ladies of Fishguard saved the day! | |
| 23 Feb. | 1863 | Lake Victoria, in Africa, was declared to be the source of the River Nile by British explorers John Speke and J A Grant. | |
| 24 Feb. | 1917 | President Woodrow Wilson informs the US nation of the contents of an intercepted message from the German foreign minister offering Mexico an alliance against the US. | |
| 25 Feb. | 1570 | England’s Queen Elizabeth I is excommunicated by Pope Pius V. | |
| 26 Feb. | 1797 | The Bank of England issues the first ever one pound note, in part a result of the panic in London caused by the French invasion of Fishguard. | |
| 27 Feb. | 1782 | The British Parliament votes to abandon the American War of Independence. Perhaps they were more concerned about the potential threat to Fishguard! | |
| 28 Feb. | 1900 | The four-month siege of the British garrison at Ladysmith in Natal, South Africa, ended as a relief force broke through the Boers at Spion Kop. | |
