TODAY IN HISTORY: The day the music died

February 2

In 1942, Ottawa proclaimed western British Columbia a “protected area” and soon began moving Japanese people inland. The measure was intended to quell fears of Japanese people assisting an invasion during the Second World War.

In 1943, the remainder of Nazi forces from the “Battle of Stalingrad” surrendered in a major victory for the Soviet Union in the Second World War.

In 1953, vitamin-enriched white bread went on sale in Canada.

In 1984, Duran Duran began its first-ever world tour in Seattle in support of its album “Seven and the Ragged Tiger.” Highlights of the tour were included on the live album “Arena” and a video “Sing Blue Silver.”

In 2014, Academy Award-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman, considered one of the greatest actors of his generation, was found dead in his apartment of a drug overdose. The “Capote” star was 46. February 3 In 1916, fire destroyed the centre block of Canada's Parliament Buildings. Seven people were killed in the blaze. The Parliamentary Library and its priceless collection of books was saved because someone had closed the metal doors which separated it from the rest of the Centre Block. Many people initially believed that the fire was a deliberate act of sabotage by the Germans, with whom Canada was at war. Reconstruction of the building, which contains the Commons and Senate chambers, was completed in 1920.

In 1959, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson died when their small plane crashed in a cornfield near Mason City, Iowa. Following a Feb. 2 show in Clear Lake, Iowa, the trio decided to fly to Fargo, N.D., for a concert the following night instead of travelling by bus with the other musicians on their tour. The plane crashed shortly after taking off from Mason City, killing the three musicians and the pilot. The tragedy was the subject of Don McLean’s “American Pie.”

In 1967, Prime Minister Lester Pearson announced the formation of a Royal Commission on the Status of Women. Chaired by journalist Florence Bird, it was the first such panel headed by a woman. Its 1970 report made 167 recommendations aimed at ending sexual inequality in Canada, including paid maternity leave.

In 1969, The Beatles, over the objections of Paul McCartney, hired manager Allen Klein to try to straighten out the tangled financial affairs of the group's Apple Corps Ltd. The mismanagement that plagued the company was one of the main reasons for “The Beatles” breakup a year later.