| 20251 | February 22 | Event | 1853 – Washington University in St. Louis is founded as Eliot Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. |
| 20252 | February 22 | Event | 1855 – The Pennsylvania State University is founded in State College, Pennsylvania (as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania) |
| 20253 | February 22 | Event | 1856 – The United States Republican Party opens its first national meeting in Pittsburgh. |
| 20254 | February 22 | Event | 1862 – Jefferson Davis is officially inaugurated for a six-year term as the President of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia. He was previously inaugurated as a provisional president on February 18, 1861. |
| 20255 | February 22 | Event | 1872 – The Prohibition Party holds its first national convention in Columbus, Ohio, nominating James Black as its presidential nominee. |
| 20256 | February 22 | Event | 1879 – In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and dime Woolworth stores. |
| 20257 | February 22 | Event | 1889 – United States President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states. |
| 20258 | February 22 | Event | 1899 – Filipino forces led by General Antonio Luna launch counterattacks for the first time against the American forces during the Philippine–American War. The Filipinos fail to regain Manila from the Americans. |
| 20259 | February 22 | Event | 1904 – The United Kingdom sells a meteorological station on the South Orkney Islands to Argentina, the islands are subsequently claimed by the United Kingdom in 1908. |
| 20260 | February 22 | Event | 1909 – The sixteen battleships of the Great White Fleet, led by USS Connecticut, return to the United States after a voyage around the world. |
| 20261 | February 22 | Event | 1915 – World War I: Germany institutes unrestricted submarine warfare. |
| 20262 | February 22 | Event | 1921 – After Russian forces under Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg drive the Chinese out, the Bogd Khan is reinstalled as the emperor of Mongolia. |
| 20263 | February 22 | Event | 1924 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House. |
| 20264 | February 22 | Event | 1942 – World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as the Japanese victory becomes inevitable. |
| 20265 | February 22 | Event | 1943 – World War II: Members of the White Rose resistance, Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, and Christoph Probst are executed in Nazi Germany. |
| 20266 | February 22 | Event | 1944 – World War II: American aircraft mistakenly bomb the Dutch towns of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer, resulting in 800 dead in Nijmegen alone. |
| 20267 | February 22 | Event | 1944 – World War II: The Soviet Red Army recaptures Krivoi Rog. |
| 20268 | February 22 | Event | 1948 – Communist revolution in Czechoslovakia. |
| 20269 | February 22 | Event | 1957 – Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam survives a communist shooting assassination attempt in Buôn Ma Thuột. |
| 20270 | February 22 | Event | 1958 – Egypt and Syria join to form the United Arab Republic. |
| 20271 | February 22 | Event | 1959 – Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500. |
| 20272 | February 22 | Event | 1972 – The Official Irish Republican Army detonates a car bomb at Aldershot barracks, killing seven and injuring nineteen others. |
| 20273 | February 22 | Event | 1973 – Cold War: Following President Richard Nixon's visit to the People's Republic of China, the two countries agree to establish liaison offices. |
| 20274 | February 22 | Event | 1974 – The Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit begins in Lahore, Pakistan. Thirty-seven countries attend and twenty-two heads of state and government participate. It also recognizes Bangladesh. |
| 20275 | February 22 | Event | 1974 – Samuel Byck tries and fails to assassinate U.S. President Richard Nixon. |
| 20276 | February 22 | Event | 1979 – Independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom. |
| 20277 | February 22 | Event | 1980 – Miracle on Ice: In Lake Placid, New York, the United States hockey team defeats the Soviet Union hockey team 4–3. |
| 20278 | February 22 | Event | 1983 – The notorious Broadway flop Moose Murders opens and closes on the same night at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. |
| 20279 | February 22 | Event | 1986 – Start of the People Power Revolution in the Philippines. |
| 20280 | February 22 | Event | 1994 – Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged by the United States Department of Justice with spying for the Soviet Union. |