The 32nd day of the year

Born on 1 February

Every 1 February birthday from 1920 to 2026 was Aquarius, in every time zone.

Star sign
AquariusAir, fixed, ruled by Saturn.
Birthstone
AmethystThe same as on the 1912 list.
Birth flower
Violet, PrimroseUsually taken today to mean faithfulness and young love.
Most common weekdays
Sunday and Wednesday16 times each between 1920 and 2026.

February is not safe yet

The first of February has been the first day of the new year only twice since 1920, both times recently: 1 February 2003 began the year of the Water Goat, and 1 February 2022 the Water Tiger. They are nineteen years apart, like so many pairs in the window, because 235 lunar months come to within a couple of hours of nineteen years. The next is 2041.

A February birthday feels as if it should be clear of the new-year question, and from here to the 20th it is not. In 67 of the 107 years from 1920 to 2026 the new year came after 1 February, so a birthday on it belonged to the animal of the year before; only in the other 40 had the new year already begun. In 2024 it waited until 10 February, and 1 February 2024 belongs to the Water Rabbit of 2023.

The sign does not move with it: every 1 February from 1920 to 2026 was Aquarius, in every time zone.

Where the sun stands on 1 February. The marked arc is every position it has held on 1 February, midnight to midnight UTC, in any year since 1920.

Your year

Without JavaScript, the pages for each birth year give the generation and Chinese animal for a birth on 1 February in any year.

Which Chinese animal, by year

From 1920 to 2026 the lunar new year, reckoned in Beijing, came after 1 February in 67 of the 107 years, and in those years a birthday on it belonged to the animal of the year before; in the other 40 the new year had already begun. It was the first day of the new year itself in 2003 and 2022.

1920Goat
1921Monkey
1922Dog
1923Dog
1924Pig
1925Ox
1926Ox
1927Tiger
1928Dragon
1929Dragon
1930Horse
1931Horse
1932Goat
1933Rooster
1934Rooster
1935Dog
1936Rat
1937Rat
1938Tiger
1939Tiger
1940Rabbit
1941Snake
1942Snake
1943Horse
1944Monkey
1945Monkey
1946Rooster
1947Pig
1948Pig
1949Ox
1950Ox
1951Tiger
1952Dragon
1953Dragon
1954Snake
1955Goat
1956Goat
1957Rooster
1958Rooster
1959Dog
1960Rat
1961Rat
1962Ox
1963Rabbit
1964Rabbit
1965Dragon
1966Horse
1967Horse
1968Monkey
1969Monkey
1970Rooster
1971Pig
1972Pig
1973Rat
1974Tiger
1975Tiger
1976Dragon
1977Dragon
1978Snake
1979Goat
1980Goat
1981Monkey
1982Dog
1983Dog
1984Pig
1985Rat
1986Ox
1987Rabbit
1988Rabbit
1989Dragon
1990Horse
1991Horse
1992Goat
1993Rooster
1994Rooster
1995Pig
1996Pig
1997Rat
1998Tiger
1999Tiger
2000Rabbit
2001Snake
2002Snake
2003Goat
2004Monkey
2005Monkey
2006Dog
2007Dog
2008Pig
2009Ox
2010Ox
2011Tiger
2012Dragon
2013Dragon
2014Horse
2015Horse
2016Goat
2017Rooster
2018Rooster
2019Dog
2020Rat
2021Rat
2022Tiger
2023Rabbit
2024Rabbit
2025Snake
2026Snake

Shaded: 1 February came before that year's new year. Hatched: the new year began on 1 February. How the new year is found →

Which weekday 1 February falls on

Across the 107 years from 1920 to 2026, 1 February falls on every day of the week: Sunday 16, Wednesday 16, Tuesday 15, Thursday 15, Friday 15, Monday 15, Saturday 15.

1991Fri
1992Sat
1993Mon
1994Tue
1995Wed
1996Thu
1997Sat
1998Sun
1999Mon
2000Tue
2001Thu
2002Fri
2003Sat
2004Sun
2005Tue
2006Wed
2007Thu
2008Fri
2009Sun
2010Mon
2011Tue
2012Wed
2013Fri
2014Sat
2015Sun
2016Mon
2017Wed
2018Thu
2019Fri
2020Sat
2021Mon
2022Tue
2023Wed
2024Thu
2025Sat
2026Sun

Showing 1 February in the 36 most recent years. Every weekday →

How common a birthday 1 February is

In England and Wales, from 1995 to 2014, an average of 1,796 babies were born on 1 February in each year of the twenty, making it the joint 219th most common of the 366 dates, where 26 September came first with 1,974 and 26 December last with 1,359.

Office for National Statistics, How popular is your birthday? Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. What a ranking like this can and cannot say →

Born on 1 February

18 people born on 1 February, from English Wikipedia's list of births on this day, chosen and ordered by how many Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects have a page about them.
NameYearsKnown for
Boris Yeltsin1931–2007Soviet and Russian politician, 1st President of Russia
Clark Gable1901–1960American actor
Leymah Gbowee1972–Liberian peace activist
John Ford1894–1973American film director
Langston Hughes1901–1967American writer and social activist
Harry Styles1994–English singer, songwriter and actor
Emilio Segrè1905–1989Italian physicist and Nobel laureate
Hugo von Hofmannsthal1874–1929Austrian novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist
Yevgeny Zamyatin1884–1937Russian author
Gabriel Batistuta1969–Argentine association football player
Terry Jones1942–2020Welsh actor, comedian, director, historian and writer
Brandon Lee1965–1993American actor
Lisa Marie Presley1968–2023American singer-songwriter
Stanley Matthews1915–2000English association football player
Darren Fletcher1984–Scottish association football player
Ronda Rousey1987–American former mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter, professional wrestler, and judoka
Michael C. Hall1971–American actor
Muriel Spark1918–2006Scottish novelist and writer

Died on 1 February

12 people who died on 1 February, chosen and ordered the same way from Wikipedia's list of deaths on this day.
NameYearsKnown for
Werner Heisenberg1901–1976German theoretical physicist, Nobel laureate in Physics
Mary Shelley1797–1851English writer
Wisława Szymborska1923–2012Polish poet, Nobel Prize winner
Buster Keaton1895–1966American actor, comedian and filmmaker
Horst Köhler1943–2025President of Germany from 2004 to 2010
Piet Mondrian1872–1944Dutch painter
Clinton Davisson1881–1958American physicist
Pope Alexander VIII1610–1691pope of the Catholic Church from 1689 to 1691
Maximilian Schell1930–2014Swiss and Austrian film and stage actor
Alva Myrdal1902–1986Swedish sociologist and politician
Kalpana Chawla1962–2003American astronaut
Friedrich Paulus1890–1957German general

Names are the titles of the English Wikipedia articles; years and the short descriptions are from Wikidata, which publishes under CC0, checked and corrected by hand where they needed it, and nothing is said about anybody beyond that. Ask for a removal.

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Every date in February