- Feb 1 George Cruikshank, English caricaturist and illustrator (Grimm), dies at 85
- Feb 2 Josip Runjanin, Croatian Serb composer (Croatian National Anthem) and soldier, dies at 56
- Feb 7 Pius IX, "Pio Nono", [Giovanni Ferretti], Pope (1846-78), dies at 85
- Feb 8 Elias M. Fries, Swedish botanist (System mycologicum), dies at 83
- Feb 10 Claude Bernard, French physiologist involved in the founding of modern physiology (blind experiments), dies at 64
- Feb 11 Gideon Welles, 24th U.S. secretary of the navy under presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, dies at 75
- Feb 17 José Amador de los Ríos, Spanish historian and poet, dies at 59
- Feb 18 Peter D Regout, industrialist (Sphinx, Maastricht), dies at 76
- Feb 19 Charles F Daubigny, French restaurateur/painter, dies at 61
- Feb 22 Franz Hunten, composer, dies at 84
- Feb 25 Townsend Harris, American diplomat (1st Western consul to reside in Japan), dies at 73