Historical Events
"Manon Lescaut"
Feb 1 Giacomo Puccini's opera "Manon Lescaut" premieres in Turin
World's First Movie Studio
Feb 1 Thomas Edison completes worlds 1st movie studio at West Orange, New Jersey
Falstaff
Feb 9 Giuseppe Verdi's comic opera "Falstaff" premieres at La Scala in Milan, Italy
Barnum Museum
Feb 18 The Barnum Museum opens in Bridgeport, Connecticut, dedicated to the life of P. T. Barnum
- Feb 22 1st Iron Bowl: Auburn beats Alabama 32-22 in Birmingham
- Feb 24 The American University is chartered by an act of the Congress of the United States of America
- Feb 26 2 Clydesdale horses set record by pulling 48 tons on a sledge, in Michigan
- Feb 26 Norwegian Einar Halvorsen skates world record 500m (48 sec)
- Feb 28 Edward Acheson of Pennsylvania, patents an abrasive he names "carborundum" (Silicon carbide)
Event of Interest
Feb 28 Stephen Crane's first novel "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets" is published under the pseudonym "Johnston Smith"
Famous Birthdays
- Feb 2 Cornelius Lanczos, Hungarian mathematician, born in Székesfehérvár, Hungary (d. 1974)
- Feb 2 Len Doyle, American actor (Harrington-Mr District Attorney), born in Toledo, Ohio (d. 1959)
- Feb 3 Gaston Julia, French mathematician (d. 1978)
- Feb 4 Abe Waddington, English cricket fast bowler (2 Tests, 1 wicket; Yorkshire CCC), born in Bradford, England (d. 1959)
- Feb 4 Bernard Rogers, American composer (The Warrior; Three Japanese Dances; To The Fallen), and pedagogue (Eastman School, 1929-67), born in New York City (d. 1968)
Raymond Dart (1893-1988)
Feb 4 Australian paleoanthropologist (Australopithecus africanus), born in Brisbane, Queensland [1]
Bill Tilden (1893-1953)
Feb 10 American tennis player (US Open 1920-25, 29; Wimbledon 1920-21, 30; French 1927, 30), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Jimmy Durante (1893-1980)
Feb 10 American vaudeville, radio, and screen actor, comedian (The Durante-Moore Show; Frosty The Snowman), piano player and singer ("Inka Dinka Doo"; "Make Someone Happy"), sometimes known as "the schnozzola", born in Manhattan, New York
- Feb 12 Marcel Minnaert, Dutch astronomer, born in Bruges, Belgium (d. 1970)
Omar Bradley (1893-1981)
Feb 12 American WWII General (Invasion of Normandy) and 1st Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1949-53), born in Clark, Missouri
- Feb 13 Ana Pauker, Romanian communist leader and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1947-52), the world's 1st female Foreign Minister, born in Codăești, Vaslui County, Kingdom of Romania (d. 1960)
- Feb 14 Kay Fisker, Danish architect (Hornbeck House, Copenhagen), born in Frederiksberg, Denmark (d. 1965)
- Feb 15 Harm Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch painter, etcher and ceramist, born in Zoeterwoude, Netherlands (d. 1985)
- Feb 15 Walter Donaldson, American pianist and popular song composer ("Makin' Whoopee"; "My Blue Heaven"; My Buddy"), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1947)
- Feb 17 Wally Pipp, American baseball first baseman (World Series 1923; AL HR leader 1916, 17; NY Yankees), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1965)
- Feb 19 Cedric Hardwicke, British stage actor (Rope; Suspicion; Peter Pan; Richard III), born in Lye, Worcestershire, England (d. 1964)
- Feb 19 Pietro Pancrazi, Italian critic (Scrittori d'Oggi) (d. 1952)
- Feb 20 Elizabeth Holloway Marston, American psychologist (d. 1993)
- Feb 20 Russel Crouse, American Broadway playwright and journalist (Life with Father), born in Findlay, Ohio (d. 1966)
- Feb 21 Andres Segovia, Spanish classical guitarist, born in Linares, Spain (d. 1987)
- Feb 21 Vsevolod Pudovkin, Soviet film director and theorist (Mother, Deserter), born in Penza, Russia (d. 1953)
- Feb 26 (Ivor Armstrong) I. A. Richards, British poet and influential critic (Meaning of Meaning), born in Sandbach, England (d. 1979)
- Feb 26 William Frawley, American vaudeville, silent and sound screen actor (I Love Lucy - "Fred"; My Three Sons - "Bub"; Miracle on 34th Street), born in Burlington, Iowa (d. 1966)
- Feb 27 Joseph Messner, Austrian organist and composer, born in Schwaz, Tyrol, Austria (d. 1969)
- Feb 27 Ralph Linton, American cultural anthropologist (Tree of Culture), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1953)
- Feb 28 Ben Hecht, American novelist, screenwriter and playwright (The Front Page), born in New York City (d. 1964)
Famous Deaths
- Feb 1 George Henry Sanderson, Mayor of San Francisco, dies at 70
- Feb 13 Ignacio Manuel Altamirano, Mexican author (El Zarco), dies at 58
- Feb 18 Serranus Clinton Hastings, American politician and lawyer (3rd Attorney General of California), dies at 78
- Feb 20 P. G. T. Beauregard, American Confederate general (Hero of Sumter), dies at 74
