February 16

1597:

Paris France - Troilus de Mesgouez, Marquis de La Roche c1540-1606 gets grant from Henry IV for expedition to New France

1917:

On the Western Front, every officer in a company of the Royal Fusiliers fell casualty during an attack near Courcelette. Nevertheless, Lance-Sergeant Palmer ignored heavy fire at point-blank range to painstakingly cut a path through entanglements o

1940:

Halifax Nova Scotia - RCAF's No. 110 Army Cooperation Squadron sails for Britain; first of 48 squadrons to go overseas.

1942:

Lieutenant Roberts and Petty Officer Gould, of the submarine HMS Thrasher, won the Victoria Cross for a remarkable act of bomb disposal

1942:

Petty Officer Thomas Gould was serving as Second Coxswain aboard the submarine HMS Thrasher during a patrol off Crete, 16 February 1942. Thrasher succeeded in sinking a merchantman in a convoy, but then came under very heavy attack from escorts and

1944:

Major Hoey led a company of the Lincolnshire Regiment in an attack on Japanese positions in the Arakan region of Burma. The company became pinned down by fire from a Japanese strong point, whereupon Hoey went forward alone, despite having already b

1944:

VC win by Maj Charles Ferguson Hoey, 1st Battalion, The Lincolnshire Regiment (British Army), Maungdaw, Burma (posthumous)

1945:

Again in Burma, Jemadar Prakash Singh commanded a platoon of 4/13th Frontier Rifles, defending against massive Japanese attacks. Prakash Singh was wounded in both legs, and his second-in-command took over the leadership of the unit. However, he wa

1945:

HMCS SAINT JOHN sinks U-309 off Scotland's Northern Coast

1971:

1971 FUDDLE DUDDLE DAY Ottawa Ontario - Pierre Trudeau, under opposition attack in the Commons, utters an apparently unparliamentary expression that he later describes as 'fuddle-duddle.

1973:

Havana Cuba - Canada signs anti-hijacking agreement with Cuba; each country to prosecute hijackers in the other's country, or return them to the country where the hijacking took place.