AUGUST 1, 1944: The Warsaw Uprising, the battle to liberate Warsaw, Poland, begins.
AUGUST 2, 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait. Canada responds immediately by sending a naval task group.
AUGUST 3, 1978: The Queen opens the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton.
AUGUST 4-5, 1914: Britain declares war on Germany, and so Canada is automatically at war.
AUGUST 6, 1944: Sailing with the 10th Destroyer Flotilla out of Plymouth, HMCS Haida and HMCS Iroquois are part of an impressive action. A cable ship and two minesweepers are among the seven enemy ships destroyed. An explosion on Haida kills two gunners and injures eight others.
AUGUST 7-13, 1944: Anglo-Canadian forces continue to drive south toward Falaise in Normandy, France, in an attempt to help encircle German forces which have launched an erratic westerly counterattack against American troops at Mortain.
AUGUST 14-16, 1944: The Canadian drive on Falaise is resumed under the guise of Operation Tractable, consisting of two armoured columns. The numerous vehicles become disorganized in the heavy dust, and are held up at the Laison River. However, individual Canadian battalions, such as the Lake Superior Regiment, perform exceptionally well. Falaise is reached on Aug. 16.
AUGUST 17, 1943: In Quebec City, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King hosts a conference between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
AUGUST 18, 1893: Royal Marines arrive in Esquimalt, B.C., to take over the garrison from C Battery, Regiment of Canadian Artillery, which was thenceforth stationed at Quebec. The development, made at Canada’s expense, is part of sweeping reforms being carried out by General I.J.C. Herbert to improve efficiency in the Canadian military.
AUGUST 19, 1942: Within a few hours of fighting on three beaches at or near Dieppe, France, Canadian forces suffer close to 3,300 casualties, approximately 800 of whom are killed in action.
AUGUST 20, 1944: Allied forces begin their pursuit of German forces fleeing the Falaise pocket.
AUGUST 21, 1968: Military forces from the Warsaw Pact invade Czechoslovaki. Dozens are killed.
AUGUST 22, 2011: New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton dies of cancer.
AUGUST 23, 1944: His Majesty’s Canadian Ship Iroquois is part of a group of ships that takes part in the destruction of eight enemy ships in Audierne Bay south of Brest, France.
AUGUST 24, 1870: The first Red River expedition under British Colonel J. Wolseley arrives at Fort Garry (Winnipeg) only to discover that Métis leader Louis Riel has disappeared westward.
AUGUST 25, 1944: Paris is liberated.
AUGUST 26, 1975: Attempts to bring about a ceasefire in Rhodesia breakdown between the government and the African National Council.
AUGUST 27-29, 1944: In Italy, 1st Canadian Infantry Division smashes through German positions along the Arzilla River.
AUGUST 30, 1916: The Canadian Corps begins relieving the 1st Australian New Zealand Army Corps on the Somme front near Pozières, France.
AUGUST 31, 1997: Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car crash in Paris.
