Historical Events
Historic Event
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
Historic Event
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, composer
- Feb 7 Mieczyslaw Soltys, composer
- Feb 9 Anthony Hope [Hopkins], novelist, born in London, England
- 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 von Stuck, German painter (Der Krieg)
Famous Weddings
- Feb 10 P. T. Barnum stages wedding of Tom Thumb & Mercy Lavinia Warren, both midgets, in NYC
