On This Day

February 1863 in History

Events in History


Event of interestEvent of Interest

Feb 3 Samuel Clemens first uses the pen name Mark Twain in a Virginia City newspaper, the "Territorial Enterprise"

Author Mark Twain
Author
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 of 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 interestEvent of Interest

Feb 26 Abraham Lincoln signs National Currency Act, establishes single national US currency

16th US President Abraham Lincoln
16th US President
Abraham Lincoln
  • Feb 28 Confederate raider "Nashville" sinks near Fort McAllister, Georgia

Birthdays in History

  • Feb 9 Anthony Hope [Hopkins], novelist, born in London, England
  • Feb 17 Fyodor Sologub, Russian symbolist novelist and poet (d. 1927)
  • Feb 23 Franz von Stuck, German painter (Der Krieg)

Weddings in History

  • Feb 10 P. T. Barnum stages wedding of Tom Thumb & Mercy Lavinia Warren, both midgets, in NYC