The Naval Service of Canada

ILLUSTRATION: CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM—19940001-980

FEBRUARY 1, 1911
Royal Canadian Naval Service recruitment posters go up in post offices across Canada.

FEBRUARY 2, 1943
The German 6th Army surrenders at Stalingrad.

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

FEBRUARY 4-11, 1945
U.S. President F.D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin meet in Yalta to discuss the progress of war and the postwar world.

Sir William Stephenson

PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA141575

FEBRUARY 5, 1980
Second World War spymaster Sir William Stephenson, code name Intrepid, is invested in the Order of Canada.

Sir John A. Macdonald

PHOTO: LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES

FEBRUARY 6, 1865
Sir John A. Macdonald argues for a British constitutional model in the Confederation debates.

FEBRUARY 7, 1951
2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry finishes training exercise and is ready to go to Korea.

FEBRUARY 8-12, 1980
Personnel and equipment are delivered by the RCAF’s 436 Transport Squadron to support the Commonwealth Election Commission’s Operation Oxide to oversee Rhodesia/Zimbabwe elections.

FEBRUARY 9, 1941
The 5th Canadian Motorcycle Regiment is converted to an armoured unit and designated the British Columbia Dragoons.

FEBRUARY 10, 1983
An agreement signed with the U.S. opens the door for testing of unarmed, air-launched cruise missiles over Canada.

Patrick James Whelan

PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—C017572

FEBRUARY 11, 1869
Patrick James Whelan is hanged for the assassination of Thomas D’Arcy McGee, one of the Fathers of Confederation.

FEBRUARY 12, 1747
The British capitulate after the Feb. 11 attack by a French and Indian force at Grand Pré, N.S.

FEBRUARY 13, 1981
Canadian Air Force Captains Nora Bottomley, Dee Brasseur and Leah Mosher are Canada’s first female military pilots to graduate.

FEBRUARY 14, 1940
The first RCAF squadron embarks from Halifax for war duty.

King George V

PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—e010861831

FEBRUARY 15, 1923
The Canadian Air Force is designated Royal by King George V.

A Hundred Years Peace.

ILLUSTRATION: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—C115678

FEBRUARY 16, 1815
U.S. Senate approves Treaty of Ghent. The War of 1812 comes to an end.

CF-105 Jet Fighter Aircraft "Avro Arrow" in flight.

PHOTO: NATIONAL DEFENCE

FEBRUARY 17, 1959
Cabinet officially cancels the Avro Arrow; the announcement is made three days later.

FEBRUARY 18, 1920
The Privy Council authorizes the second Canadian Air Force—for refresher training of wartime Royal Air Force flyers.

FEBRUARY 19, 1868
More than 20,000 Montrealers turn out to cheer the first of 388 Canadian volunteers chosen to serve in the Pontifical Zouave Regiment to protect the Pope during the battles for unification of Italy.

FEBRUARY 20, 1964
L’Armee de Liberation du Québec robs the Shawinigan armory of automatic rifles, pistols and portable wireless sets.

FEBRUARY 21, 1992
The UN Security Council approves sending peacekeepers to Yugoslavia.

Lieutenant-Colonel George MacDonnell

ILLUSTRATION: SHARIF TARABAY

FEBRUARY 22, 1813
Ogdensburg, N.Y., falls to Lieutenant-Colonel George MacDonnell and troops from the Glengarry Light Infantry, the 8th Regiment and Militia.

Flight of the Silver Dart aircraft.

PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA061741

FEBRUARY 23, 1909
J.A.D. McCurdy flies the Silver Dart over Baddeck Bay , N.S., in the first airplane flight in Canada.

Canadian troops in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

PHOTO: SGT. GERRY PILOTE, DGPA/J5PA COMBAT CAMERA

FEBRUARY 24, 2006
The Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry takes over duties at the front in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

FEBRUARY 25, 1955
It is announced women will become a permanent force in the Royal Canadian Navy.

FEBRUARY 26-27, 1900
Men from the Royal Canadian Regiment dig in just metres from Boer forces; the Boers surrender, ending the Battle of Paardeberg, in South Africa.

FEBRUARY 28, 1991
U.S. President George H.W. Bush declares a ceasefire in the First Gulf War;  some 4,500 Canadian Forces personnel served in the war.

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