Historical Events
Event of Interest
Feb 9 US President Ulysses S Grant signs law resulting in US Army Signal Service’s establishment of its "Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce", later known as the National Weather Service
- Feb 10 City of Anaheim in California incorporates for the 1st time, but disincorporates after two years as the tax burden was too high
- Feb 10 The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) forms in NYC
- Feb 12 Official proclamation sets April 15 as last day of grace for US silver coins to circulate in Canada
- Feb 12 Utah becomes the second territory in the United States to pass a law allowing women the vote, after Wyoming in 1869
- Feb 14 Esther Morris appointed US' first female in Justice of the Peace in South Pass City, Wyoming, after previous justice, R.S. Barr, resigned to protest passage of Wyoming Territory's women's suffrage amendment in 1869
- Feb 14 Seraph Young becomes the first woman to legally vote in the modern United States, two days after the Utah legislature passed a law allowing women the vote
- Feb 15 Ground broken for Northern Pacific Railway near Duluth, Minnesota
- Feb 23 Mississippi is readmitted to US after the Civil War
1st African American Congressman
Feb 25 Hiram R. Revels is sworn in as 1st African American member of Congress as US Senator from Mississippi (R)
Famous Birthdays
- Feb 3 Ada Negri, Italian poet and author (Il Libro di Mara), born in Lodi, Italy (d. 1945)
- Feb 3 Franklin Dyall, British actor (Easy Virtue, Atlantic), born in Liverpool, England (d. 1950)
James Braid (1870-1950)
Feb 6 Scottish golfer, course designer (British Open 1901, 05-06, 08, 10), born in Earlsferry, Fife
Alfred Adler (1870-1937)
Feb 7 Austrian psychiatrist (Inferiority Complex), born in Penzing, Austria
- Feb 10 Fritz Klimsch, German sculptor and painter, born in Frankfurt, Germany (d. 1960)
- Feb 12 Joe Howard, American vaudeville, Broadway, and television singer (Gay Nineties Revue), and songwriter ("Hello Ma Baby"), born in New York City (d. 1961) [1]
- Feb 12 Marie Lloyd [Mathilda Wood], English music-hall performer ("Oh Mr Porter What Shall I Do"), born in Hoxton, London, England (d. 1922)
- Feb 13 Leopold Godowsky, Polish-American pianist, composer (Java Suite; Triakontameron; 53 Studies on Chopin's Études), and pedagogue, born in Žasliai, Russian Empire (now Lithuania), (d. 1938)
- Feb 14 Bob Quinn, American baseball executive (owner Boston Red Sox 1923–33; part owner Boston Braves 1936–45; President National Baseball Hall of Fame 1948–51), born in Columbus, Ohio (d. 1954)
- Feb 17 Louis de Raet, Belgian economist and founder of the Flemish People's Party, born in Brussels, Belgium (d. 1914)
- Feb 18 William Laurel Harris, American mural painter, writer (d. 1924)
- Feb 20 Pieter Cornelis Boutens, Dutch poet, classicist, and mystic (Voices, Carmina), born in Middelburg, Netherlands (d. 1943)
- Feb 27 Louis Coerne, American composer (Zenobia; Excaliber), and music educator (The Evolution of Modern Orchestration), born in Newark, New Jersey (d. 1922)
Famous Weddings
Mark Twain
Feb 2 American writer (Huckleberry Finn) Samuel Langhorne Clemens, pen name Mark Twain, (34) marries Olivia Langdon (24) in Elmira, NY
Famous Deaths
- Feb 11 Jacob de Kempenaer, Dutch lawyer and Minister of Internal Affairs (1848-49), dies at 76
- Feb 11 Leopold Eugen Mechura, Czech composer, dies at 66
- Feb 14 St. John Richardson Liddell, American Civil War Confederate General, dies at 54
- Feb 26 Wyatt Outlaw, African American Town Councillor and Constable, leader of Union League in NC, lynched by the Ku Klux Klan at about 50
