1 February 1968
The Unification Act comes into effect, unifying the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and Royal Canadian Air Force into a single organization called the Canadian Armed Forces.

2 February 1915
A German spy bombs the Saint Croix-Vanceboro Railway Bridge at the New Brunswick−Maine border. The bomb damages but fails to destroy the bridge.

3 February 1943
HMCS Athabaskan (G07) is commissioned at Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

4 February 1945
I Canadian Corps departs Italy to support the Allied advance in Northwest Europe.

5 February 1963
Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s minority government is defeated in the House of Commons over its nuclear weapons policy. Diefenbaker resigns as a result.

6 February 1943
HMCS Louisburg (K143) is sunk by Italian aircraft east of Oran, Algeria.

7 February 1915
The 1st, 2nd and 3rd brigades of 1st Canadian Division begin leaving England for France.

8 February 1945
Bitter fighting occurs with the launch of Operation Veritable, the Canadian Army’s assault on the Rhineland.

9 February 2004
Lieutenant-General Rick Hillier begins a six-month command of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, Afghanistan.

10 February 1763
The Treaty of Paris is signed by Britain, France and Spain, formally ending the Seven Years War. France cedes its North American territories to the British as a result.

11 February 1900
The 1,039-strong Canadian contingent joins the British army at Graspan, South Africa, the first time Canadian troops move to the front line.

12 February 1946
The last U-boat is scuttled in Operation Deadlight, the British navy’s action to eliminate the captured German submarine fleet.

13 February 1917
5th Canadian Division assembles in England as a home-defence force under the command of Major-General Garnet Hughes.

13-15 February 1945
British and American bombers drop thousands of explosives on Dresden, Germany, destroying the city.

15 February 1923
King George V approves the prefix ‘Royal’ for the Canadian Air Force.

16 February 1813
The 104th (New Brunswick) Regiment of Foot begins its 1,125-kilometre march from Fredericton to Kingston, Upper Canada.

17 February 1951
The Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry arrives at Changhowŏn-ni, en route to capture Hill 404 in South Korea.

18 February 1915
Germany begins a U-boat blockade of Britain.

19 February 1945
The United States Marine Corps battles the Imperial Japanese Army at Iwo Jima, Japan, emerging victorious five weeks later.

20 February 1955
The Sai Wan Bay Memorial is unveiled in Hong Kong, commemorating Commonwealth servicemen killed in the Battle of Hong Kong who have no known grave.

21 February 1941
Sir Frederick Banting dies of wounds and exposure following an airplane crash in Newfoundland. Banting was on his way to Britain on a wartime medical mission.

22 February 1945
HMCS Trentonian is torpedoed and sunk by U-1004 near Falmouth, Britain, with a loss of six lives.

23 February 2013
Sapphire, Canada’s first military satellite, is launched to monitor space debris and satellites orbiting 6,000 to 40,000 kilometres above Earth.

24 February 1944
U-257 is sunk by HMCS Waskesiu and HMS Nene in the North Atlantic.

25-26 February 1945
With his platoon reduced to just five men and one tank, Sgt. Aubrey Cosens successfully clears three buildings to secure positions in the village of Mooshof, Holland, before he is killed by a sniper. For his actions, he is awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.

27 February 1900
The Battle of Paardeberg ends, following a successful surprise attack on the Boer trenches by the Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry, marking the first significant British victory of the South African War.

28 February 1991
Operation Desert Storm, the combat phase of the Persian Gulf War, ends.