Historical Events
I Had Rather be Right than President
Feb 7 Henry Clay declares in Senate "I had rather be right than president"
- Feb 12 Aroostoock (or "Pork & Beans) War: Boundary dispute between Maine & New Brunswick
- Feb 18 Detroit Boat Club forms (& still exists)
- Feb 20 Congress prohibits dueling in District of Columbia
- Feb 24 Steam shovel patented by William Otis, Philadelphia
- Feb 25 Seminoles & black allies shipped from Tampa Bay Florida, to the West
- Feb 26 1st Grand National steeplechase, Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool: Jem Mason wins aboard 5/1 favourite Lottery
Famous Birthdays
- Feb 1 James A. Herne, American playwright (Hearts of Oak; Margaret Fleming), born in Troy, New York (d. 1901)
- Feb 7 Nicolaas Pierson, Dutch economist and politician (Prime Minister of the Netherlands 1897-1901), born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1909)
- Feb 9 Silas Adams, American lawyer and politician (d. 1896)
- Feb 11 Josiah Willard Gibbs, American theoretical physicist and chemist (created statistical mechanics, 1st US doctorate in engineering), born in New Haven, Connecticut (d. 1903)
- Feb 20 Benjamin Waugh, English clergyman and social reformer who founded the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, born in Settle, North Yorkshire, England (d. 1908)
- Feb 22 Francis Pharcellus Church, American editor and publisher (The New York Sun - "Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus"), born in Rochester, New York (d. 1906)
- Feb 22 Octavius Catto, American educator (Institute for Colored Youth, 1859-71), civil rights activist, and baseball player (Philadelphia Pythians, 1865-71), born in Charleston, South Carolina (d. 1871)
