02/4/1915
Lieutenant W.F. Sharpe is killed at Shoreham, England, during his first solo flight, becoming the first Canadian military aviator killed in the First World War.

02/4/1917
On the Western Front, German forces begin a calculated and large-scale withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line.

02/5/1944
The Canadian escort aircraft carrier His Majesty’s Ship Puncher is commissioned into the Royal Navy with a Canadian ship’s company.

02/5/1994
Nearly 70 people are killed and approximately 200 others are wounded when a mortar bomb explodes in a busy market square in Sarajevo.

02/6/1943
His Majesty’s Canadian Ship Louisburg is one of eight Canadian corvettes accompanying a convoy en route to North Africa when she is struck by an aerial torpedo. The corvette sinks and 40 men lose their lives. Forty-eight are rescued.

02/6/1952
While visiting Kenya, Princess Elizabeth receives the news of her father’s death and her own accession to the throne.

02/7/1915
The 1st, 2nd and 3rd brigades of 1st Canadian Division depart England for France. A winter storm makes for a very long and nasty crossing.

02/7/1945
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.

02/08/1943
His Majesty’s Canadian Ship Regina is one of 17 Royal Canadian Navy corvettes assigned to protect supply convoys in support of Operation Torch and subsequent operations in North Africa. Escorting convoy KMS-8 to Gibraltar, Regina manages to avenge the sinking of HMCS Louisburg when she depth-charges the Italian submarine Avorio off Algeria. Avorio’s crew abandons ship, many to be rescued by Regina.

02/08/1945
Second Canadian Corps participates in the opening phase of Operation Veritable, which in conjunction with an American operation is designed to destroy German forces on the west bank of the Rhine.

02/8/1948
The Royal Canadian Air Force Flyers win Olympic gold and are declared world amateur ice hockey champions at St. Moritz, Switzerland.

02/9/1945
After serious fighting involving Canadian forces comes to an end in Italy, Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King tells Churchill he is “very glad to learn from you that operational considerations will now make it possible for the Canadian Army to be united again.”

02/9/1950
United States Senator Joseph McCarthy begins his anti-Communist campaign by pointing his accusations at a number of State Department workers.

2/10/1841
Upper and Lower Canada are united in an Act of Union, establishing the Province of Canada.

02/10/1841
The Act of Union creates Canada West from Upper Canada and Canada East from Lower Canada.

02/10/1942
The Canadian corvette HMCS Spikenard is torpedoed and sunk south of Iceland by U-136. Only eight survive.