February 1

1893 - Inventor, Thomas Edison completes the world's first movie studio (West Orange, New Jersey)

1884 - The first Oxford English Dictionary was published.

1861 - Texas voted to secede from the Union.

1893 - Puccini's opera "La Boheme" premiered in Turin.

February 2

1848 - Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends Mexican War; U.S. acquires Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona for $15 million.

1867 - Sir Charles Edward Saunders was boen in London, Ontario. He selected, tested and introduced Marquis wheat to the Prairies, the foundation for the large commercial production of bread wheat in Canada. One of his innovations was to bake small loaves of breat to test the wheat's volume.

1536 - The Argentine city of Buenos Aires was founded by Pedro de Mendoza of Spain.

1653 - New Amsterdam -- now New York city -- was incorporated.

1876 - The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs was founded in New York.

1882 - Irish poet and novelist James Joyce was born near Dublin.

1897 - Fire destroyed the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg. (A new statehouse was dedicated on the same site 9 years later.)

February 3

1690 - First paper money in america was issued by the colony of Massachusetts. (The currency was used to pay soldiers fighting a war against Quebec.)

1783 - Spain recognized U.S. independence.

1809 - The territory of Illinois was created.

February 4

1880 - A party of armed men brutally murdered James Donnelly, his wife Johannah, his sons thomas and John, and his niece Bridget in their farmhouse near the Southwestern Ontario villiage of Lucan. Two witnesses, one of them another Donnelly son, identified six of the murderers, who were brought to trial and found not guilty. Various accounts of the massacre and its cause have been published, with the most credible being the theory that the killings were a result of a factional feud originating in County Tipperary, Ireland.

1801 - John Marshall was sworn in as chief justice of the U.S.

1783 - Britain declared a formal cessation of hostilities with its former colonies, the United States of America.

1789 - Electors unanimously chose George Washington to be the first U.S. President.

1861 - Delegates from six Southern states met in Montgomery, Ala., to form the Confederate States of America.

February 5

1870 - First motion picture shown to a theater audience (Philadelphia)

1631 - The founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams, and his wife arrived in Boston from England.

1783 - Sweden recognized the independence of the U.S.

1881 - Pheonix, Ariz. was incorporated.

1887 - Verdi's opera "Otello" premiered in La Scala.

February 6

1778 - France recognizes U.S., signs treaty of aid in Paris; the first U.S. treaty.

1756 - America's third vice president, Aaron Burr was born in Newark, NJ.

1788 - Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1895 - Baseball legend Babe Ruth was born in Baltimore.

1899 - A peace treaty between the U.S. and Spain was ratified by the U.S. Senate.

February 7

1812 - Author Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England.

February 8

1587 - Mary, Queen of Scots, beheaded.

February 9

1773 - The Ninth President of the U.S., William Henry Harrison, was born in Charles City County, VA.

1825 - The House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.

1861 - The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America elected Jefferson Davis president and Alexander H. Stephens, vice president.

1870 - the U.S. Weather Bureau was established.

1893 - Giuseppe Verdi's last opera, "Falstaff," was first performed in Milan, Italy.

February 10

1763 - France ceded Canada to England under the Treaty of Paris, which eneded the French and Indian War.

1840 - Britain's Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

1846 - Members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Mormons, began an exodus to the west from Illinois.

February 11

1847 - Thomas Alva Edison born OH, held 1200 patents.

1812 - Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signed a re-districting law favoring his party and giving rise to the term "gerrymandering".

1858 - A French girl Bernadette Soubirous, claimed for the first time to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary near Lourdes.

1861 - President-elect Lincoln departed Springfield, Ill. for Washington.

February 12

1809 - Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the U.S., was born in present-day Larue County, KY.

1733 - English colonists led by James Oglethorpe founded Savannah, GA.

1870 - Women in the Utah Territory gained the right to vote.

1892 - President Lincoln's birthday was declared a national holiday.

February 13

1866 - Jesse James holds up his first bank, Liberty, MO.

1868 - The first session of the New Brunswick legislature was opened.

1838 - William Lyon Mackenzie fled to the U.S. after he led an abortive uprising against the establishment families that virtually ruled Toronto.

1542 - The fifth wife of England's King Henry VIII, Catherine Howard, was executed for adultery.

February 14

1895 - Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest opens in London.

1477 - Margery Brews sent a letter to John Paston of Norfolk, England, addressed "To my right welbelovyd Voluntyne," thought to be the world's first Valentine.

1778 - The American ship "Ranger" carried the recently adopted Stars and Stripes to a foreign port for the first time as it arrived in France.

1859 - Oregon was admitted to the Union as the 33rd state.

1899 - Congress approved and President McKinley sign legislation authorizing states to use voting machines for federal elections.

February 15

1804 - New Jerseay becomes the last northern state to abolish slavery.

1898 - The U.S. battleship "Maine" mysteriously blew up in Havana Harbour, killing more than 260 crew members and bringing the U.S. closer to war with Spain.

1564 - Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa.

1764 - The city of St. Louis was established.

1820 - American suffragist Susan B. anthony was born in Adams, Mass.

1879 - President Hayes signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court.

February 16

1881 - The Canadian Pacific Railway was incorporated. The railway promised as a condition of British Clumbia's entry into Confederation, ran from Montreal to Port Moody, B.C., when it was completed five years later.

1804 - Lt. Stephen Decateur led a successful raid into Tripoli Harbour to burn the u.S. Navy frigate Philadelphia, which had fallen into the hands of pirates.

1868 - The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was organized in New York City.

February 17

1673 - Moliere, French playwright dies in Paris at 51.

1801 - The House of Representatives broke an electorial tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, electing Jefferson, president and Burr, vice president.

1817 - A street in Baltimore became the first to be lighted with gas from America's first gas company.

1865 - Columbia, S.C. burned as the Confederates evacuated and Union forces moved in.

1897 - the forerunner of the National PTA, the National Congress of Mothers, was founded in Washington.

February 18

1859 - Sholem Aleichem, author of Fiddler on the Roof is born as Solomon Rabinovitz.

1861 - Jefferson Davis was sworn in as president of the Confederate States of America in Mongomery, Ala.

1516 - Mary Tudor, the Queen of England popularly known as "Bloody Mary" was born in Greenwich Palace.

1546 - Martin Luther - leader of Reformation in Germany, died.

1564 - The artist, Michelangelo, died in Rome.

1885 - Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was published in the U.S. for the first time.

February 19

1878 - Thomas Alva Edison patents the gramophone (phonograph).

1473 - The astronomer Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland.

1803 - Congress voted to accept Ohio's borders and constitution. (However, Congress did not get around to formerly ratifying Ohio statehood until 1953.)

1807 - Former Vice President Aaron Burr was arrested in Alabama. He was subsequently tried for treason and acquitted.

1846 - The Texas state governmetn was formally installed in Austin.

1881 - Kansas became th first state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.

February 20

1792 - U.S. Postal Service is created.

1790 - Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph II died.

1809 - The Supreme Court ruled the power of the federal government is greater than that of any individual state.

1839 - Congress prohibited dueling in the District of Columbia.

1895 - Abolitionist Frederick Douglass died in Washington, DC.

February 21

1866 - Lucy B. Hobbs became the first woman to graduate from a dental school, th Ohio College of Dental Surgery in Cincinatti.

1878 - the first telephone directory was issued, by the District Telephone Company of New Haven, Conn.

1885 - The Washinton Monument was dedicated.

February 22

1630 - Indians introduce Pilgrims to popcorn.

1732 - George Washington, the first president of the U.S. was born on his parent's plantation in Virginia Colony.

1784 - A U.S. merchant ship, the "Empress of China," left New York City for the Far East.

1819 - Spain ceded Florida to the United States.

1865 - Tennessee adopted a new constitution abolishing slavery.

1889 - President Cleveland signed a bill to admit the Dakotas, Montana, and Washington State to the Union.

1892 - "Lady Windermere's Fan," by Oscar Wilde, was first performed, at London's St. James' Theatre.

February 23

1822 - Boston was granted a charter to incorporate as a city.

1836 - the siege of the Alamo began in San Antonia, Texas.

1847 - U.S. troops under Gen. Zachary Taylor defeated Mexican Gen. Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista in Mexico.

1861 - President-elect Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington to take office after an assassination plot was foiled in Baltimore.

1848 - The sixth president of the U.S., John Quincy Adams died of a stroke at age 80.

1870 - Mississippi was re-admitted to the Union.

February 24

1821 - Mexico gains independence from Spain.

1887 - Vancouver lost its city charter following protests over the hiring of Chinese laborers.

1868 - The House of Representatives impeached President andrew Johnson following his attemp to dismiss Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, the Senate later acquitted Johnson.

1803 - The Supreme Court ruled itself the final interpreter of constitutional issues.

1863 - Arizona was organized as a territory.

February 25

1601 - Earl of Essex executed for treason in revolt against Queen Elizabeth.

1884 - The company that became the International Nickel Co. of Canada Ltd. (Inco) began mining operations in Sudbury, Ontario.

1793 - the department heads of the U.S. government met with President Washington at his home for the first Cabinet meeting on record.

1570 - Pope Pius V excommunicated England's Queen Elizabeth the First.

1836 - inventor Samuel Colt patented his revolver.

1901 - United States Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan.

February 26

1870 - First NYC subway line opens (pneumatic powered)

1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte escaped form the Island of Elba to begin his conquest of France.

1846 - "Wild West" frontiersman-turned-showman William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody was born in Scott County, Iowa.

1848 - The Second French Republic was proclaimed.

February 27

1827 - First Mardi Gras celebration held in New Orleans.

1801 - The District of Columbia was placed under the jurisdiction of Congress.

1807 - Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine.

1861 - In Warsaw, Russian troops fired on a crowd protesting rule over Poland. Five marchers were killed.

February 28

1854 - Republican Party formally organized at Ripon, Wisconsin.

1827 - The first U.S. railroad chartered to carry passengers and freight, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was incorporated.

1844 - A 12-inch gun aboard the USS Princeton exploded, killing Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Navy Secretary Thomas W. Gelmer and several others.

1849 - The ship California arrived at San Francisco, carrying the first of the gold-seekers.

1861 - The Territory of Colorado was organized.

February 29

1704 - Hertel and a force of French and Abinaki attacked Deerfield (Salmon Falls), Mass. killing 50 and abducting 100.

468 - St. Hilary ends his reign as Catholic Pope.

1504 - Columbus uses a lunar eclipse to frighten hostile Jamaican Indians.

1692 - Sarah Good and Ttuba, an Indian servant, accused of witchcraft, Salem.

1784 - Marquis de Sade transferred from Vincennes fortress to the Bastille.

1796 - Jay's Treaty proclaimed, settles some differences with England.

1848 - Neufchatle declares independance from Switzerland.

1856 - Hostitlities in Russo-Turkish War ceases.

1880 - Gotthard railway tunnel between Switzerland and Italy opens.

1880 - J. Palisa discovers asteroid #214 Aschera.

1892 - Britain and U.S. sign treaty on seal hunting in the Bering Sea.