Event of Interest
Feb 3 Samuel Clemens first uses the pen name Mark Twain in a Virginia City newspaper, the "Territorial Enterprise"
Mark Twain
- 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, Virginia
- Feb 24 Arizona Territory created
- Feb 24 Forrest's raid on Brentwood, Tennessee
- Feb 25 Congress creates national banking system, comptroller of currency
Event of Interest
Feb 26 Abraham Lincoln signs National Currency Act, establishes single national US currency
Abraham Lincoln
- Feb 28 Confederate raider "Nashville" sinks near Fort McAllister, Georgia