Western Front
French troops practicing with rifle grenades:
http://imgur.com/QTN93T2* © IWM (Q 94768)
Verdun: German forces continue to hold gains on Hill 304, repulsing four French counterattacks.
Southern Front
News footage of a Royal Irish Regiment captain demonstrating a rifle grenade, possibly in Salonika:
http://film.iwmcollections.org.uk/record/index/45839
Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Mesopotamia: British progress continued near Kut.
Naval and Overseas Operations
North Sea: Royal Navy submarine
K13 sinks on acceptance trials in Clyde, 47 men survive after 57-hour ordeal. The ‘K’-class was designed as fleet submarines capable of 24 kts surfaced. No contemporary diesels were equal to the task so steam turbines were fitted together with a diesel to drive the generator. Over a third of the hull was devoted to machinery.
https://i0.wp.com/ww2-weapons.com/w.../01/K-class.jpg
Announcement of laying of New British minefield from Yorkshire to Jutland.
East Africa: 160 soldiers of KAR (King’s African Rifles) besiege Fort Utete on river Rufiji; c.200 Germans escape on rainy night (January 30.31) and maul pursuit (February 2).
Political, etc.
Russia: Allied delegation (Lord Milner, Generals Wilson and Castelnau) arrives at Petrograd (until February 21).
United Kingdom: Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer and first British Controller-General of Egypt, passed away:
http://imgur.com/dkgSSXB
United States: Rockefeller Foundation provides $772,700 to universities & other educational institutions, including $197,500 to African American schools.
President Wilson vetoes an immigration bill that would have required a literacy test for arriving immigrants.
Greece: Allies' flags formally saluted at Athens.
Switzerland: Prince Sixtus of Bourbon receives Emperor Charles’ peace letter from his mother (also Empress Zita‘s).