1 February 1911
Royal Canadian Naval Service recruitment posters go up in post offices across Canada.
2 February 2003
HMCS Regina joins the Canadian Naval Task Group, part of the international anti-terrorism campaign in the Persian Gulf.
3 February 1942
The Canadian Women’s Auxiliary Air Force is renamed the RCAF Women’s Division.
5 February 1980
Second World War spymaster Sir William Stephenson, who was born in Winnipeg, is invested in the Order of Canada.
6 February 1952
King George VI dies. His daughter Elizabeth ascends to the British throne.
7 February 1945
British, American and Russian leaders meet at an undisclosed location near the Black Sea to decide on the final phase of the war against Germany.
8 February 1948
The RCAF Flyers win Olympic gold and are declared world amateur ice hockey champions at St. Moritz, Switzerland.
9-11 February 1915
First Canadian Division crosses to France from England.
10 February 1946
Four hundred war brides arrive in Halifax on the ocean liner RMS Mauritania. By 1948, more than 44,000 women and nearly 21,000 children came to Canada, mostly from Britain.
11 February 1869
Patrick James Whelan (left) is hanged for the assassination of Thomas D’Arcy McGee, one of the Fathers of Confederation.
13 February 1969
The Front de libération du Québec bombs the Montreal Stock Exchange, injuring 27.
16 February 1944
In Burma, a wounded Major Charles Hoey leads his company under heavy machine-gun fire to capture a vital position; he is posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
17 February 1932
The Mad Trapper of Rat River, Albert Johnson, is killed in a shootout with RCMP following a 240-kilometre, 48-day manhunt in the Yukon.
18 February 1942
Newfoundlanders rescue 185 from U.S. warships driven onto the rocksin a storm; 203 perish.
20 February 2004
Canada pledges $5 million in aid and joins a multinational mission to stabilize growing violence in Haiti.
22 February 1943
Canadian corvette HMCS Weyburn hits a mine and sinks near Gibraltar.
23 February 2012
Sergeant Joseph Poulin is awarded a Medal of Military Valour for bravery by placing his tank in dangerous positions to protect civilians, coalition comrades and Afghan security forces during road construction in Afghanistan.
25 February 1942
RMS Queen Elizabeth is refitted as a troopship capable of carrying 15,000.
28 February 1991
Following Iraqi defeat and retreat from Kuwait, U.S. President George H.W. Bush announces a ceasefire and Operation Desert Storm, the combat phase of the Persian Gulf War, ends.
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