Historical Events
Mark Twain
Feb 3 Samuel Clemens first uses the pen name Mark Twain in a Virginia City newspaper, the "Territorial Enterprise"
- Feb 7 HMS Orpheus sinks off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand, killing 189
- Feb 10 1st US fire extinguisher patent granted to Alanson Crane of Virginia
- Feb 24 Arizona Territory created
- Feb 24 Forrest's raid on Brentwood, Tennessee
- Feb 25 Congress creates national banking system, comptroller of currency
National Currency Act
Feb 26 Abraham Lincoln signs National Currency Act, establishes single national US currency
- Feb 28 Confederate raider "Nashville" sinks near Fort McAllister, Georgia
Famous Birthdays
- Feb 5 Armand Parent, Belgian violinist and composer, born in Liège, Belgium (d. 1934)
- Feb 7 Mieczyslaw Soltys, Polish composer, born in Lemberg, Kingdom of Galicia. Austrian Empire (now Lviv, Ukraine) (d. 1929)
- Feb 9 Anthony Hope, British novelist and playwright (The Prisoner of Zenda), born in London (d. 1933)
- Feb 17 Fyodor Sologub, Russian symbolist novelist and poet (d. 1927)
- Feb 19 Emánuel Moór, Hungarian composer, pianist, and inventor of musical instruments, born in Kecskemét, Hungary (d. 1931)
- Feb 23 Franz Stuck, German painter (The Sin), born in Tettenweis, Bavaria (d. 1928)
Famous Weddings
- Feb 10 P. T. Barnum stages wedding of Tom Thumb & Mercy Lavinia Warren, both midgets, in NYC
