Feb. 1, 1944: First Canadian Corps Headquarters takes over the front in Italy north of Ortona under command of Lieutenant-General H.D.G. Crerar. For the first time since the First World War, a Canadian Corps was operating in the front line.

Feb. 2, 1943: Following a long and bloody siege, the Germans surrender at Stalingrad.

Feb. 3, 1916: A spectacular fire destroys much of the Parliament Buildings. Only the library is left standing.

Feb. 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.

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

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

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

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

Feb. 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.”

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

Feb. 11, 1940: Governor General Lord Tweedsmuir dies.

Feb. 12, 1990: A huge fire erupts in a pile of 14 million tires in Hagersville, Ont. The town is evacuated, and the fires burns for 17 days.

Feb. 13, 1988: Official opening of the Calgary Winter Olympics.

Feb. 14, 1945: The Canadian 29^th Motor Torpedo Boat Flotilla, stationed at Ostend Harbour, Belgium, is decimated by an explosion, the result of a high-octane fuel leak. The flotilla loses 26 sailors and five of its vessels are destroyed. An estimated 35 British sailors die and seven Royal Navy vessels are lost.

Feb. 15, 1965: Canada’s new national flag is raised over the Parliament Building’s Peace Tower for the first time.

Feb. 16, 1945: The Canadian frigate HMCS Saint John sinks U-309 northeast of Scotland.

Feb. 17, 1919: Former Canadian prime minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier dies in Ottawa.

Feb. 18, 1991: While patrolling the Persian Gulf as part of the Coalition offensive against Iraq, Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship Athabaskan (3^rd) is called to assist the United States Navy, whose cruiser, USS Princeton, has been crippled by a mine off Kuwait. The Canadian ship assists by escorting a tug through waters strewn with mines.

Feb. 19, 1947: Although not yet mass produced, the mobile phone is introduced.

Feb. 20, 1959: Prime Minister John Diefenbaker rises in the House of Commons to announce cancellation of the CF-105 Avro Arrow fighter jet project. The decision ends the development of Canada’s most sophisticated fighter-interceptor. Approximately 13,800 people are out of work.

Feb. 21, 1941: Sir Frederick Banting, who co-discovered insulin, dies in a plane crash.

Feb. 22, 1943: The Canadian corvette HMCS Weyburn hits a mine and sinks near Gibraltar.

Feb. 23, 1909: The Silver Dart is the first powered heavier-than-air machine to fly in Canada or the British Empire. It is flown over the ice on Baddeck Bay, N.S., by Douglas McCurdy.

Feb. 24, 1944: While escorting a convoy, the Canadian frigate Waskesiu sinks U-257 in the North Atlantic.

Feb. 25, 1942: The Royal Mail Ship Queen Elizabeth is refitted in Esquimalt, B.C., to carry thousands of troops.

Feb. 26, 1942: Japanese Canadians are to be evacuated from the West Coast.

Feb. 27, 1945: The bloody struggle for the Hochwald gap begins as Canada’s 4^th Armoured Division drives into the fray during the Battle of the Rhineland.

Feb. 28, 1952: Vincent Massey becomes Canada’s first native-born governor general.

For ‘ON THIS DATE’ March Events, come back to legionmagazine.com on March 1st, 2011