Historical Events
- Feb 14 Jean Victor Marie Moreau, French general who plotted to overthrow Napoleon in the Pichegru Conspiracy, arrested, and exiled to the United States
- Feb 14 Karadjordje leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire
- Feb 15 New Jersey becomes last northern state to abolish slavery
- Feb 16 US Navy Lt Stephen Decatur raids Tripoli Harbor & burns Navy frigate "Philadelphia" after it is seized by pirates
- Feb 18 1st US land-grant college, Ohio University, Athens Ohio, chartered
- Feb 18 Ohio legislature approves establishment of Ohio University at Athens as the 1st university in Ohio; first classes are held in 1809
- Feb 21 The world’s first steam locomotive, built by Richard Trevithick, runs for the first time along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales
- Feb 24 London's Drury Lane Theatre burns to the ground, leaving owner Richard Brinsley Sheridan destitute
Presidential Convention
Feb 25 Thomas Jefferson nominated for US President at Democratic-Republican caucus
Siege of Fort Amsterdam
Feb 26 Vice-admiral William Bligh (of Bounty fame) ends siege of Fort Amsterdam, Willemstad
- Feb 28 Charles Pichegru, French army general and royalist who plotted to overthrow Napoleon in the Pichegru Conspiracy, arrested
Famous Birthdays
- Feb 2 Leopold Eugen Mechura, Czech composer, born in Prague, Kingdom of Bohemia (now Czech Republic) (d. 1870)
- Feb 5 Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Finnish poet (Finland's national anthem "Maamme"), born in Jakobstad, Finland (d. 1877)
- Feb 6 Regnerus Livius van Andringa de Kempenaer, Dutch politician, born in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands (d. 1813)
John Deere (1804-1886)
Feb 7 American blacksmith and manufacturer (founded Deere & Company), born in Rutland, Vermont
- Feb 8 Richard Lemon Lander, British explorer, born in Truro, Cornwall (d. 1834)
- Feb 12 Heinrich Lenz, German physicist (d. 1865)
- Feb 14 Otis Tufts, American machinist and inventor who built printing machines, steam engines, firefighting equipment and invented the steam pile driver, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts (d. 1869)
- Feb 16 Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, German physiologist (d. 1885)
- Feb 17 Samuel Read Anderson, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1883)
- Feb 19 Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky, German physician (d. 1878)
- Feb 19 David Wark, Irish-born Canadian senator (1867-1905) who served almost 38 years in office, born in Derry, Ireland (d. 1905)
Famous Deaths
Joseph Priestley (1733-1804)
Feb 6 English chemist, theologian and author who discovered oxygen and carbonated water, dies at 70
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Feb 12 German philosopher (Zum ewigen Frieden), dies at 79
