Historical Events
- Feb 1 Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, 1st in US, incorporated
Treaty of Waitangi
Feb 6 The Treaty of Waitangi is signed between 40 Māori Chiefs (later signed by 500) and representatives of the British crown in Waitangi, New Zealand. The treaty was designed to share sovereignty between the two groups.
Historic Discovery
Feb 16 American Charles Wilkes discovers Shackleton Ice Shelf, Antarctica
Famous Birthdays
- Feb 2 Louis Bourgault-Ducoudray, composer
- Feb 3 Georges Jacobi, German violinist, composer (The Black Crook), and conductor (Alhambra Theatre, London, 1872-98), born in Berlin, Germany (d. 1906))
- Feb 5 Hiram Stevens Maxim, inventor (automatic single-barrel rifle)
- Feb 5 John Boyd Dunlop, Scotland, developer (pneumatic rubber tire)
- Feb 11 Sanuel Dana Greene, Lt Cmdr (Union Navy), (d. 1884)
- Feb 22 F August Bebel, German social-democrat
- Feb 23 Carl Menger, Austrian economist
- Feb 25 Alexis Hollander, German composer, born in Ratibor, Silesia (d. 1924)
- Feb 25 Otto Liebmann, German philosopher (Climax of Theories)
- Feb 28 Henri Duveyrier, French explorer of the Sahara, born in Paris, France (d. 1892)
John Philip Holland
Feb 29 John Philip Holland, Irish engineer and father of the modern submarine, born in Liscannor, Ireland (d. 1914)
- Feb 29 William Harvey Carney, American Civil War soldier (first African-American to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor), born in Norfolk, Virginia (d. 1908)
Famous Weddings
Alexandre Dumas
Feb 1 Novelist Alexandre Dumas (37) weds actress Ida Ferrier
Queen Victoria
Feb 10 British Queen Victoria (20) marries her cousin Albert (20) of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, later the Prince Consort at St James' Palace
Famous Deaths
- Feb 18 Jeffry Wyatville, English architect and garden designer (alterations and extensions to Chatsworth House and Windsor Castle), dies at 73
