Admiral Émile Muselier seizes the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, which become the first part of France to be liberated by the Free French Forces.

Émile Henry Muselier was a French admiral who led the Free French Naval Forces during World War II. He was responsible for the idea of distinguishing his fleet from that of Vichy France by adopting the Cross of Lorraine, which later became the emblem of all of the Free French. After entering the French Naval Academy in 1899, he embarked on a brilliant and eventful military career. He ran unsuccessfully in the legislative elections of 1946 as vice-president of the Rally of Republican Lefts and then entered private life as a consulting engineer before his retirement in 1960. He is buried in the cemetery of St. Pierre, at Marseille.

Saint Pierre and Miquelon, officially the Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, located near the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. An archipelago of eight islands, covering 242 km² (93 sq mi) of land, St. Pierre and Miquelon is a vestige of the once-vast territory of New France. It has a population of 5,819 as of the January 2022 census and its residents are French citizens; they elect its own deputy to the National Assembly and participates in senatorial and presidential elections.