February 4th, 1945 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Wales: Rudolph Hess, under guard in an Abergavenny mental hospital, tries to commit suicide with a bread knife.
Minesweepers HMCS Vegreville and Wasaga arrived Devonport from refits in Sydney, Nova Scotia and Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island respectively.
BALTIC SEA: U-745 reported missing in the Gulf of Finland. No survivors.
U.S.S.R.: The Conference at Yalta, in the Crimea begins. The main participants are Josef Stalin representing the USSR; Winston Churchill representing the United Kingdom; and Franklin D. Roosevelt, representing the United States.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Advance units of the US 1st Cavalry Division reach the Manila.
The US submarine Barbel (SS-316), commanded by Conde L. Raguet, is sunk by Japanese aircraft off Palawan Island. All hands are lost. (Joe Sauder)
CANADA:
U.S.A.: Submarine USS Chopper launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-1014 Kl. IXC/41 is sunk in the Minch Channel (Hebrides), in position 55.17N, 06.44W, by depth charges from the British destroyers HMS Loch Scavaig, Nyasaland, Papua and Loch Shin. 48 dead (all hands lost). (Alex Gordon)