1 February 1796

The town of York becomes Upper Canada’s second capital; it would be renamed Toronto in 1834. 

4 February 1915 

Lieutenant William Sharpe is killed during his only solo flight, the first Canadian military aviator casualty of the First World War.

5 February 1944

A German mortar kills 19 members of the Perth Regiment near Ortona,
Italy, as they line up for dinner. 

6 February 1951

The newly formed 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, becomes the first Canadian unit to take part in the Korean War. 

8 February 1944 

Disguised as a farmer, Devil’s Brigade soldier Tommy Prince fixes a broken communication wire in full view of German soldiers.

9 February 1945

HMS Venturer stalks and sinks U-864 off the coast of Norway, the only recorded example of submerged submarine-to-submarine combat.

10 February 1763

The Treaty of Paris is signed, formally ending the Seven Years’ War. France cedes its North American territories to the British as a result.

11 February 1869

Patrick James Whelan is hanged for the assassination of Thomas D’Arcy McGee, one of the Fathers of Confederation.

12 February 1747 

The British capitulate after
an attack by a French, Mi’kmaq and Acadian force at Grand-Pré, N.S., the previous day. 

13 February 1969 

The Front de libération du Québec bombs the Montreal Stock Exchange, injuring 27.

14 February 1876

Alexander Graham Bell is credited with a patent for the first telephone.

16 February 1881

The Canadian Pacific Railway is incorporated. 

18 February 1943

White Rose members Hans and Sophia Scholl are arrested after dispersing anti-Nazi literature at the University of Munich; they are executed four days later. 

19 February 1942 

Winnipeg stages “If Day,” a full-scale mock Nazi invasion, in order to frighten people into buying war bonds. 

20 February 1989

A Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling removes barriers to women in military occupations, except in submarines.

23 February 1942

Japanese submarines shell the town of Ellwood, Calif., triggering a wave of panic across the United States. 

25 February 1941 

British forces capture Mogadishu in North Africa.

26 February 1815

Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from his exile on the island of Elba and sets sail for Paris.