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On February 3, 1959, the plane carrying musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper crashed in Iowa shortly after takeoff, killing all three artists. The tragedy, which singer-songwriter Don McLean immortalised in the song "American Pie" with the phrase "the day the music died", was one of the most tragic events in rock and roll history.

On February 1, 1958, Syria and Egypt merged to create the United Arab Republic, with Gamal Abdel Nasser as president. The Arab unification experiment, driven by Nasserism and Pan-Arabism, failed: Syria broke away in 1961 following a coup. It was the most ambitious attempt to create a large unified Arab state in the twentieth century.

On February 3, 1966, the Soviet probe Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon and transmit photographs from its surface. The images proved that the lunar surface was solid and could support the weight of a spacecraft, dispelling fears that landers would sink into the dust. The finding was key for the Apollo programme.