Events in History
Historic Communication
Feb 17 Charles Lyell makes his presidential address to the Geographical Society, London and announces that Richard Owen has concluded from Darwin's fossils that extinct species were related to current species in the same locality
- Feb 25 1st US electric printing press patented by Thomas Davenport
Birthdays in History
- Feb 5 Dwight Lyman Moody, American evangelist (Student Volunteer Movement)
- Feb 7 James Murray, Scottish lexicographer and philologist (Oxford English Dictionary), born in Denholm, Scotland (d. 1915)
- Feb 9 Jose Burgos, Filipino Catholic priest, born in Vigan, Philippines
- Feb 17 Francis Jay Herron, American Major General (Union Army), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 1902)
- Feb 17 Sam[uel] van Houten, Dutch (lib) minister (child labor laws)
- Feb 24 Rosalía de Castro, Santiago de Compostela Galician writer and poet ('Séculos Escuros') (d. 1885)
- Feb 26 Charles Woeste, Belgian count, Minister of Justice, born in Brussels, Belgium (d. 1922)
Deaths in History
- Feb 7 Gustav IV Adolf, King of Sweden (1792-1809), dies at 58
- Feb 10 Alexander Pushkin, Russian poet and writer (Eugene Onegin), killed in a duel at 37
- Feb 12 Ludwig Borne [Loeb Baruch], German-Jewish writer, dies at 50
- Feb 13 Mariano José de Larra, Spanish journalist and writer (b. 1809
- Feb 19 Georg Büchner, German playwright (b. 1813)