Historical Events
- Feb 5 Joseph Swan demonstrates light bulb using carbon glow
- Feb 8 Sandford Fleming first proposes adoption of Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute.
- Feb 10 1st electric arc light used (California Theater)
Event of Interest
Feb 10 Henry Morton Stanley departs for the Congo
Henry Morton Stanley
- Feb 12 1st artificial ice rink in North America (Madison Square Garden, NYC)
- Feb 12 News about slaughtering of Isandlwana reaches London
- Feb 14 Chilean troops occupy Antofagasta
- Feb 15 US Congress authorizes women lawyers to practise before Supreme Court
- Feb 18 Arabs capture Egyptian premier Nabar Pasha
Statue of Liberty
Feb 18 Sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi is awarded a patent for his design for the Statue of Liberty
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- Feb 22 1st 5 cent & 10 cent store opened by Frank W. Woolworth in Utica, New York (failed almost immediately)
- Feb 25 US Congress passed 1st Timberland Protection Act
- Feb 27 Russian Chemist Constantin Fahlberg discovers saccharin (artificial sweetener)
- Feb 28 "Exodus of 1879" southern blacks flee political and economic exploitation
Famous Birthdays
- Feb 1 Sydney Baynes, composer
- Feb 3 Charles Follis, 1st African American NFLer (Shelby, Ohio)
- Feb 5 Edward Rigby, British actor (Star Look Down, Young & Innocent), born in Ashford, Kent, England (d. 1951)
- Feb 6 Carl Ramsauer, German physicist (Ramsauer-Townsend effect), born in Oldenburg, Germany (d. 1879)
- Feb 9 [Carl] Natanael Berg, Swedish composer, born in Stockholm (d. 1957)
- Feb 9 Jacques Bainville, French historian/essayist/journalist
- Feb 10 Franz Carl Bornschein, composer
- Feb 11 Jean Gilbert [Max Winterfeld], German composer, born in Hamburg, Germany (d. 1942)
- Feb 13 Sarojini Naidu, Indian freedom fighter and poet, born in Hyperbad, India (d. 1949)
- Feb 17 Dorothy Canfield Fisher, American novelist (Book-of-Month-Club)
- Feb 23 Agnes Arber, English biologist/philosopher (Mind & the Eye)
- Feb 23 Norman Lindsay, Creswick Victoria, artist/novelist
- Feb 24 Herman Teirlinck, Belgian writer (Sun)
- Feb 25 Otakar Ostrcil, composer
- Feb 26 Frank Bridge, English violinist/composer/conductor/tutor of B Britten
- Feb 27 Jose Sancho Marraco, composer
