On This Day

February 1834 in History

Events in History

  • Feb 3 Wake Forest University is established in North Carolina
  • Feb 18 1st US labor newspaper, "The Man", published, NYC
  • Feb 26 1st US interstate crime compact (NY-NJ) ratified

Birthdays in History

  • Feb 6 William Dorsey Pender, Major General (Confederate Army), born in Edgecombe County, North Carolina (d. 1863)
  • Feb 6 Edwin Klebs, German physician & bacteriologist (bacterial theory of infection, diphtheria bacillus), born in Königsberg, Kingdom of Prussia (d. 1913)

Person of interestDmitri Mendeleev

Feb 8 Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist and inventor who devised the periodic table of the elements, born in Tobolsk, Russia (d. 1907)

Chemist and Inventor Dmitri Mendeleev
Chemist and Inventor
Dmitri Mendeleev
  • Feb 9 Felix Dahn, German Historian, jurist and poet, born in Hamburg (d. 1912)
  • Feb 15 William Henry Preece, Welsh electrical engineer/wireless pioneer, born in Caernarfon, Wales (d. 1913)
  • Feb 16 Ernst Haeckel, German biologist (Causes of Evolution) and philosopher (Social Darwinism), born in Potsdam, Prussia (d. 1919)
  • Feb 23 Gustav Hermann Nachtigal, German physician/colonizer/consul in Tunis

Deaths in History

  • Feb 6 Richard Lemon Lander, British explorer, dies from his injuries sustained by a musket ball at 29
  • Feb 12 Friedrich Schleiermacher, German theologist and philosopher, dies at 65
  • Feb 16 Lionel Lukin, British life boat pioneer, dies at 91