1 FEBRUARY 1945
PoW Sgt. Jean Louis Warren escapes from a boxcar headed for Germany and evades capture to war’s end.

2 FEBRUARY 1944
Christmas parcels finally reach 1^st Canadian Corps troops fighting near Ortona, Italy.

3 FEBRUARY 1942
The Canadian Women’s Auxiliary Air Force is renamed the RCAF (Women’s Division).

4 FEBRUARY 1917
The Germans withdraw to the Hindenburg Line.

5 FEBRUARY 1944
A German mortar kills 19 members of the Perth Regiment near Ortona, Italy, as they line up for supper.

6 FEBRUARY 1919
The last Canadian troops withdraw from the Army of Occupation in Belgium.

7 FEBRUARY 1813
U.S. riflemen attack Brockville, free prisoners, seize stores and take 52 hostages.

8 FEBRUARY 1944
Near Littoria, Italy, Tommy Prince, disguised as a farmer, fixes a broken communication wire right under enemy noses.

9-11 FEBRUARY 1915
1^st Canadian Division crosses to France from England.

10-11 FEBRUARY 1942
A U-boat torpedoes and sinks HMCS Spikenard on convoy duty in the North Atlantic.

12 FEBRUARY 1918
The London Gazette announces Lieutenant Hugh McKenzie is posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery at Passchendaele.

13 FEBRUARY 2005
Defence Minister Bill Graham announces a doubling of the 600 Canadian Forces personnel in Afghanistan.

14 FEBRUARY 1940
No. 110 Army Cooperation Squadron sails from Halifax for Britain.

 

15 FEBRUARY 1965
The navy lowers the white and blue ensigns for the last time on ships and shore, replacing it with the new Canadian Maple Leaf.

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 1919
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, former prime minister, dies.

18 FEBRUARY 2010
John Babcock, last known Canadian First World War veteran, dies.

19 FEBRUARY 1915
The Allies begin a naval attack on the Dardanelles.

20 FEBRUARY 1919
The Amir of Afghanistan is assassinated for supporting neutrality during the First World War.

21 FEBRUARY 1916
The Battle of Verdun begins.

22 FEBRUARY 1943
HMCS Weyburn hits a mine and sinks near Gibraltar.

23 FEBRUARY 1909
Canada’s first controlled heavier-than-air machine flight takes off in Baddeck Bay, N.S.

24 FEBRUARY 1944
HMCS Waskesiu sinks U-257 in the North Atlantic.

25 FEBRUARY 1916
The 224^th Canadian Forestry Battalion is authorized by the Department of Militia.

26-28 FEBRUARY 1838
Robert Nelson gathers 600 volunteers in Vermont aiming to free Lower Canada to join the U.S.; invades; and is repelled.