Historical Events
- Feb 1 Theophile Gautier publishes "Hashish Club" about his initiation
- Feb 4 Mormons leave Nauvoo, Illinois, for settlement in the west
- Feb 5 "Oregon Spectator" is 1st newspaper to be published on the West Coast
- Feb 10 Beginning of Mormon march to western US
- Feb 10 British defeat Sikhs in battle of Sobraon, India
- Feb 16 Battle of Sobraon ends 1st Sikh War in India
- Feb 19 Texas state government formally installed in Austin
- Feb 20 British occupy Sikh citadel of Lahore
- Feb 21 1st US woman telegrapher is Sarah G. Bagley of Lowell, Massachusetts
- Feb 23 Polish revolutionaries march on Kraków, but are defeated
Famous Birthdays
- Feb 4 Nikolay Umov, Russian physicist and mathematician known for discovering the Umov-Poynting vector and Umov effect, born in Simbirsk, Russian Empire (d. 1915)
- Feb 9 Whitaker Wright, English mining tycoon (d. 1904)
- Feb 9 Wilhelm Maybach, German industrialist and engine designer (the 1st Mercedes), born in Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg (d. 1929)
- Feb 10 Charles Beresford, British admiral and politician (d. 1919)
- Feb 10 Ira Remsen, American chemist (d. 1927)
- Feb 10 Mildred Childe Lee, American favourite daughter of confederate General Robert E. Lee, born at Arlington Plantation, Virginia (d. 1905)
- Feb 14 Julian Scott, American artist and Civil War Medal of Honor recipient, born in Johnson, Vermont (d. 1901)
- Feb 18 Wilson Barrett, British manager, actor, and playwright (The Sign of the Cross), born in Essex, England (d. 1904)
- Feb 24 Luigi Denza, Italian composer (Funiculì, Funiculà), born in Castellammare di Stabia (d. 1922)
- Feb 26 William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, Wild West hunter and showman (Buffalo Bill's Wild West), born in Davenport Iowa (d. 1917)
- Feb 27 Joaquin Valverde Durán Spanish composer, born in Badajoz, Spain (d. 1910)
Famous Deaths
- Feb 3 Joseph Weigl, German-Austrian composer (La Principessa d’Amalfi; Emmeline), and conductor, dies at 79
- Feb 9 Henry Gally Knight, English writer of novels and on architecture, dies at 59
- Feb 14 Cornelis Felix van Maanen, Dutch Minister of Justice (1807-42), dies at 76
- Feb 18 Giovanni Liverati, Italian composer, dies at 73
- Feb 21 Emperor Ninko, 120th Emperor of Japan (1817-46), dies at 45
- Feb 22 Carolus Antonius Fodor [Carel Anton Fodor], Dutch pianist, conductor and prominent composer, dies at 77
