The following events occurred inFebruary 1910:

• Wollert Konow became the newPrime Minister of Norway, taking over fromGunnar Knudsen.^[1]
• Elections for theHouse of Commons of the United Kingdom were completed, with the Liberal Party having 274 seats, and the Unionists having 272.Prime Minister Asquith retained power, with the Liberals forming a coalition with the Irish nationalists.^[1]
• Thirty-four coal miners were killed in an explosion of the Browder Coal Company inDrakesboro, Kentucky. The blast was believed to have been caused by a repairman entering a section with an uncovered lamp.^[1]
• August Euler became the first person to obtain a pilot's license from Germany.^[2]

• Billy Gohl, the "Ghoul of Gray's Harbour", was arrested inAberdeen, Washington, for the murder of his former henchman Charley Hatberg, bringing his string of killings to an end. Gohl, a local leader in the Sailors' Union of the Pacific, was suspected in the murders of as many as 124 people whose bodies were found, and of others who had disappeared. Since Washington had recently abolished its death penalty, Gohl spent the rest of his life in prison, dying in 1927.^[3]
• In the third mine disaster in as many days, sixty-eight miners were killed at the Palau coal mine at Las Esperanzas, in the State ofCoahuila in Mexico.^[1] Initial reports blamed the explosion on someone lighting a cigarette inside the mine.^[4]

• Greytown,Nicaragua's Caribbean port, was bombarded for twenty minutes by the gunboatOmetepe, commandeered by rebel forces at war with the government ofJosé Madriz. One hundred people died in the day's fighting, and nine buildings in Greytown were destroyed, but theOmetepe was driven off by the town's batteries.^[5]
• The firstpyloromyotomy, a surgery to correct the congenital narrowing (in infants) of the path between the stomach and the intestines (pyloric stenosis) was performed in Edinburgh by SirHarold Stiles. However, the procedure is named for Dr. Wilhelm Ramstedt, who did the surgery seven months later on July 28, 1911.^[6]
• The village ofStrome, Alberta was incorporated.
• Born:Robert Earl Jones, African-American actor; inSenatobia, Mississippi (d. 2006)

• The steamshipKentucky began sinking off the coast ofCape Hatteras at 6:00 in the morning. Wireless operator W.D Maginnis, continuously transmitted an S.O.S. and the coordinates: "We are sinking our latitude is 32°10' longitude 76°30' Kentucky". At11:30 a.m., E.D. Seaman, the operator on the steamshipAlamo, picked up the signal 65 miles away. After more than four hours travel at full speed, theAlamo sighted theKentucky, whose hold was, by then, more than half full of water. All forty-seven men on board were saved by lifeboats, which the sailors of theAlamo sent out in stormy waters.^[7]
• Died:William C. Lovering, 75, Massachusetts U.S. Congressman since 1897, died of pneumonia.^[8]

• Eleven men, all but one of them Hungarian, were killed at the Jefferson Clearfield Coal Company mine atErnest, Pennsylvania, but another 110 were able to escape.^[9]
• Dillon County, South Carolina was created.^[10]
• Born:Francisco Varallo, Argentina national football team member and last living footballer from the first World Cup; inLa Plata (d. 2010)

• The U.S. Navy tugboatUSS Nina departedNorfolk, Virginia, bound forBoston, and disappeared along with her crew of 31. She was last sighted off the Capes of theChesapeake in the midst of a gale and would be declared lost on March 15.^[11][12]
• The residents ofArgentina saw airplanes for the first time. Several aviators from France appeared at a show held as part of the South American nation's centennial year celebrations.^[13]
• Born:Carlos Marcello, American Mafia boss; inTunis, French North Africa (d. 1993)
• Died:Alfonso Maria Fusco, 70, Italian priest and founder of the Baptistine Sisters ministry to the poor

• France became the latest nation to join the naval arms race, as its cabinet approved the bill for the largest expansion of the French Navy. The $28,000,000 plan called for construction of 28 battleships, 52 torpedo boats, 94 submarines, and 22 other boats over a ten-year period.^[14]
• Edmond Rostand's allegorical playChantecler was presented for the first time, withLucien Guitry in the title role as a rooster, and other actors portraying farm animals. The play opened at theThéâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris, and a translated version appeared on Broadway in 1911, withMaude Adams in the title role.
• Born:Jack Lovelock, New Zealand athlete, gold medalist in1,500 m at 1936 Olympics; inCrushington (killed by train, 1949)

• TheBoy Scouts of America was founded, after Chicago publisherWilliam D. Boyce observed the Boy Scouts during a visit to Great Britain. Boyce incorporated the BSA in the District of Columbia. Boyce, and with the help of attorney James West, then set about merging other scout groups into the organization, which received a charter by act of Congress in 1916.^[15]
• The town ofDyer, Indiana, was incorporated.

• The French linerGeneral Chanzy sank in the Mediterranean, after striking rocks near the Spanish island ofMenorca. There was only one survivor of the 157 men, women and children on board.^[16][17]
• Born:
  • Jacques Monod, French biochemist who won theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1965; inParis (d. 1976)
  • Anna Sokolow, American choreographer; in New York City (d. 2000)

• In what became known as the "Dreadnought hoax", Prince Makalin of Abyssinia and five other members of royalty were welcomed aboard the British battleshipHMS Dreadnought following the receipt of a telegram from the office of the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Charles Hardinge. The prince turned out to be pranksterHorace de Vere Cole, and the group includedVirginia Woolf and her brother, all wearing costumes and painted faces.^[18]
• Dr. Bennett Clark Hyde was arrested after being charged with murder in the death of ColonelThomas H. Swope, the wealthiest man inKansas City, Missouri. Colonel Swope had died suddenly on October 3, 1909, and his exhumed body had traces ofstrychnine. Dr. Hyde was witnessed giving a pill to the 82-year-old Swope, who died 20 minutes later. Hyde's conviction was reversed on appeal, and two subsequent trials in 1911 ended without a verdict. The case was dismissed in 1917.^[19][20]
• Born:Dominique Pire (born Georges Pire), Belgian friar and humanitarian, 1958Nobel Peace Prize laureate; inDinant (d. 1969)^[21]

• After French explorerJean-Baptiste Charcot, and the crew of his shipPourquoi Pas, returned from their Antarctic expedition more than a year after their departure, arriving atPunta Arenas,Chile. Charcot cabled the word that they had failed to reach theSouth Pole, but was congratulated for having gone further south than any men had gone before.^[22]
• Howard Little, who had murdered a family of three adults and three children inHurley, Virginia, on the previous September 22, was put to death in the electric chair in Richmond.^[23]
• The town ofHingham, Montana, was incorporated.

• A force of 2,000 Chinese troops, under the command of General Chao Er-Feng and led by General Chung Ying, marched intoLhasa, the capital ofTibet. The13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, was forced to flee to India in a scene that would be repeated in1959. A brave squadron of Tibetan soldiers, commanded by 24-year-old Chensal Namgang and equipped with only 34 rifles, was able to hold off a pursuing force of 200 Chinese troops at theTsang-po River, giving the Lama enough time to reach British officials.^[24][25]
• TheNational Negro Committee changed its name to its present name, theNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).^[26]
• Died:Lewis Wolfley, 70, former Territorial Governor of Arizona, was killed in a streetcar accident.

• Thousands of workers marched in Berlin in protest over thePrussian three-class franchise, a law in which the wealthiest one-fifth of the voters had two-thirds of the seats in Germany's parliament, and were attacked with bayonets by the city police and the Prussian army. Surprisingly, nobody was killed, but 40 were wounded, and led to further uprisings. The Prussian system was finally abolished with the fall of theGerman Empire in 1918.^[27]
• With the completion of excavations at San Pedro Bay, and the annexation of San Pedro and Wilmington into the city of Los Angeles, the name of the Port of San Pedro was changed toLos Angeles Harbor.^[28]
• Born:William Shockley, American inventor who won the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for his role in inventing the transistor, later a controversial proponent of eugenics; inLondon, England (d. 1989). Shockley was one of three Nobel laureates born over a five-day period.

• In the only shakeup of the fourGreat Offices of State following theJanuary 1910 United Kingdom general election, 35-year-oldWinston Churchill became theHome Secretary inPrime Minister Asquith's cabinet, replacing Herbert Gladstone. Churchill would becomeChancellor of the Exchequer in 1924, andPrime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1940.^[29]
• The town ofNorman, Arkansas, was incorporated.

• The ILGWU strike against New York's shirtwaist (blouse) factories ended after almost three months. The walkout of 20,000 women began onNovember 23, and ended after 339 manufacturers agreed to a reduced workweek (52 hours a week rather than 56), increased wages, and union recognition.^[30]
• Born:Irena Sendler, Polish social worker who helped more than 2,500 Jewish children, in theWarsaw Ghetto, escape extermination by the Nazis; as Irena Krzyzanowska inWarsaw (d. 2008)

• Ban Johnson, co-founder and first president of baseball'sAmerican League, had his contract renewed by the owners for twenty years at the rate of $25,000 per year.^[31] Johnson's power diminished after the creation of the post ofCommissioner of Baseball in 1920, and his term as AL president ended in 1927.
• Born: Morgan Smith and Marvin Smith, Harlem's most prominent African-American photographers; inNicholasville, Kentucky

• A patent for the firstgun safety mechanism was filed by theBrowning Arms Company for a small component that would "insure absolutely against the dangerous accidental firing sometimes liable to occur if the trigger is pulled after the magazine has been withdrawn in the belief that all cartridges have been removed". U.S. Patent No. 984,519 was granted on February 14, 1911.^[32]
• Georges Vézina, the legendaryNational Hockey League goaltender, helped hisChicoutimi, Quebec semi-pro hockey team upset theMontreal Canadiens in an exhibition, 11–5. The Canadiens were so impressed by the 23-year-old that they quickly offered him a contract. Vezina played for Montreal for 16 seasons.^[33]
• Born:
  • Ai Qing (pen name for Jiang Zhenghan), Communist Chinese poet; in Fantianjiang village,Jinhua county,Zhejiang province, (d.1996)
  • Marc Lawrence (stage name for Max Goldsmith), American character actor who portrayed gangsters on film and television; inNew York City (d. 2005)

• Louis Paulhan made the first airplane flight in Texas, at prairie land south ofHouston. TheHouston Post paid Paulhan $20,000 to demonstrate his Farman biplane.^[34]
• France delivered a 48-hour ultimatum toMorocco, to ratify an agreement to pay back $12,000,000 owed as indemnities, or face the seizure of all tariffs owed Morocco. The Sultan agreed the next day to the terms.^[35]

• Old Trafford, the stadium forManchester United, was opened. A crowd estimated at 80,000 watched as the Red Devils lost to visiting Liverpool F.C., 4–3. Over 100 years, a roof, lighting and seats have been added and the site now seats 76,212.^[36]
• Trolley strike in Philadelphia degenerated into violence^[37]
• Don Quichotte, an opera byJules Massenet, based onMiguel de Cervantes'Don Quixote, was presented for the first time.
• Mary Mallon, the disease carrier infamously known as "Typhoid Mary", was released from her confinement at the North Brother Island Hospital, when the New York City health department announced that disease carriers would no longer be held in isolation. Over the protests of health inspector George Soper, who had traced the spread of typhoid to places where Mallon worked as a cook, she was released. Mallon was returned to isolation on North Brother Island on March 27, 1915, where she remained until her death in 1938.^[38]
• Born:Dorothy Janis, leading lady in silent films; inDallas, Texas (died March 10, 2010)

• Boutros Pasha Ghali, thePrime Minister of Egypt, was assassinated as he left the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building. Ibrahim Wardani, a Muslim member of the Nationalist Party, fired five gunshots into Ghali, who died the following day.^[35][39] Ghali, a Coptic Christian governing Egypt when it was a British protectorate, was the grandfather of future United Nations Secretary-GeneralBoutros Boutros-Ghali, who would be born in 1922.

• The Cruz Roja de Mexicana, now Mexico's branch of theInternational Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, was established by presidential decree. In addition to disaster assistance, the Mexican Red Cross functions as the ambulance service for the nation. Under Mexican law, Cruz Roja emergency workers are the only persons authorized to render first aid for victims of auto accidents or crimes.^[40]
• King Edward VII opened the new session of the British Parliament.^[35]
• Born:
  • Douglas Bader, British Royal Air Force ace with 22 victories in World War II; inSt. John's Wood,London (d. 1982)
  • Carmine Galante, American crime boss; inNew York City (killed 1979)
• Died:Boutros Ghali, 63, Egyptian Prime Minister, died the day after being shot by assassins.

• Ad Wolgast won the world lightweight boxing championship in a "distance fight" against defending champBattling Nelson, when the bout inRichmond, California, was stopped in the 40th round.^[41]
• On the same evening,Frankie Conley won the world bantamweight boxing championship when he knocked outMonte Attell in the 42nd round of a fight atVernon, California.^[42]
• After seven weeks, 58 ballots, and the withdrawal of all but two candidates, the Mississippi legislature elected a new U.S. Senator, with Leroy Percy winning 87–82 over George Vardaman.^[43]
• Born:George Tsutakawa, American sculptor; inSeattle (d. 1997)

• George Bernard Shaw's latest play,Misalliance: A Debate in One Sitting, premiered at theDuke of York's Theatre at London's West End, and baffled critics and audiences.^[44][45]
• A group of 55 passengers boarded the five cars ofGreat Northern Railroad's Train Number 25 inSpokane, Washington, traveling westward towardSeattle and unaware that they would encounter the deadliest avalanche in U.S. history. After a trip of several hours, Train 25 and Fast Mail Train 27 behind it were stopped by railroad officials on the town ofLeavenworth because of a snowstorm that blocked the east side of the Cascade Tunnel. Rather than return to Spokane, Train 25 resumed its trip the next day and proceeded through the tunnel and then became stranded outside the town ofWellington. After five days of being unable to move forward or back, Great Northern Train 25 and the Mail Train 27 were struck by an avalanche on March 1 at 1:42 in the morning. A total of 96 people, passengers and railroad employees, were killed and only 22 people survived.
• TheKingdom of Serbia formed itsfirst Olympic team in order to compete in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm.
• Died:
  • Vera Komissarzhevskaya, 45, Russian actress and theatrical producer, died ofsmallpox.^[46]
  • Amos Dolbear, 72, American inventor who attempted to prove that he had invented the firsttelephone (which he called the "talking telegraph") in 1865, but failed to patent it.^[47] He fought the claim to the U.S. Supreme Court in the case ofDolbear, et al. v. American Bell Telephone Company but was denied in 1881. Dolbear is also known forDolbear's law, a formula calculating the relationship between the ambient temperature and the rate at which crickets chirp.

• Malmö FF, which has won moreAllsvenskan (All-Swedish) soccer football league titles (20) than any other team, was founded in the port city ofMalmö. The club did not join the Allsvenskan until 1931.^[48]
• The "American cinephone" was unveiled at a New York press conference, showing technology that might make it possible to have sound on films. A trained cinephone operator would be able to synchronize a film's speed to a phonographic record "so that the gestures of a singer and actor appear at practically the same instant as the sound of the voice".^[49]

• A grand jury inNewark, New Jersey indicted theNational Packing Company and its subsidiaries, Armour, Swift, Morris, and G.H. Hammond, along with 21 executives, on charges of conspiracy to monopolize the nation's meatpacking industry.^[50]
• Thomas Edison's "trolleyless street car", powered by storage batteries rather than by overhead electric wires, was publicly demonstrated on New York's29th Street horse car tracks, with rail executives, transportation engineers and members of the press as passengers. According to Ralph Beach, the "canned current" electric streetcar would "make 150 miles on a single charge", and would be recharged overnight at a power station.^[51]

• AtPhiladelphia, theColumbia University basketball team defeated theUniversity of Pennsylvania, 19-13, to close out its season with a 19–1 record. The Helms Foundation later named Columbia as the best team of the 1909–10 season.^[52]
• Austria-Hungary grantedmost favored nation status to the United States.^[35][53]
• Urging the U.S. Senate Committee on Conservation of Natural Resources to pass a ten-year ban on the hunting of Alaskan seals, Dr. W.T. Hornaday testified that the seal population in the Alaskan territory had been "reduced from 4,000,000 to 50,000 within a comparatively brief period".^[54]
• The city ofScottsdale, Arizona, named for GeneralWinfield Scott, was incorporated.
• Western Union created a forerunner of long distance telephone calling, with the inauguration of its new "telegraph-telephone" service, set up on a network of telephone connections between New York's Western Union Building, and local telephone company switchboards. If a phone user wanted to send a telegram from home, the switchboard would, "in less than a minute" connect the caller directly to Western Union, which would then relay the message to the nearest telegraph office, which in turn would deliver the telegram or telephone the recipient, at no extra charge.^[55]
• Born:Sergei Gorshkov, "Father of the Soviet Navy"; inKamenets-Podolski, Ukraine (d.1988)

• An avalanche sent tons of snow through the mining town of Mace,Idaho, killing at least 11 people, followed a few hours later by a snowslide through the town of Burke, killing five more. By the next day, four more avalanches had raised the death toll to 31 inShoshone County, Idaho. One hundred years later, Mace and Burke are considered to be "ghost towns".^[56]
• Born:Joan Bennett, American film actress known forFather of the Bride; inPalisades Park, New Jersey (d. 1990)

• The last legalbare-knuckle boxing bout in the United States took place inPassaic, New Jersey, as Leo Baker and Dave Smith fought 32 rounds without gloves, with the match ending in a draw.^[57]
• The town ofElk Horn, Iowa, was incorporated.

• February 1910
• February by year
• Months in the 1910s

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