- 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)
Historic Event
Feb 10 Henry Morton Stanley departs for the Congo
- Feb 12 1st artificial ice rink in North America (Madison Square Garden, NYC)
- Feb 12 News about British loss at Battle of Isandlwana to Zulu attack (Anglo-Zulu War) 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
- 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) [1]
- Feb 28 "Exodus of 1879" southern blacks flee political and economic exploitation