1 August 1834
The Slavery Abolition Act takes effect, outlawing servitude across the British Empire.
Credit: Boston Public Library/Wikimedia
2 August 1951
HMCS Athabaskan sails for its second tour of duty in Korean waters.
3 August 1961
Tommy Douglas is elected leader of the New Democratic Party at its founding convention.
6 August 1945
An American nuclear bomb devastates the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
8 August 1918
In conjunction with other Allied forces, the Canadian Corps launches a major attack to the east of Amiens, France, beginning a period of operations known as The Last Hundred Days.
9 August 1945
Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray of Nelson, B.C., an RCNVR pilot, sinks a Japanese destroyer escort in Onagawa Bay. He is posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
10 August 1840
Louis Anselm Lauriat completes Canada’s first manned flight—in a hot-air balloon—in Saint John, N.B.
Credit: Backyardhistory.ca
11 August 1755
British Brigadier-General Charles Lawrence orders the expulsion of the Acadians.
13 August 2008
Two Canadian aid workers, Jacqueline Kirk and Shirley Case, are killed in a roadside ambush in Afghanistan.
15-18 August 1917
Canadians capture Hill 70 at a cost of 9,000 casualties.
Credit: CWM/19920085-663
16 August 1812
The Americans surrender Fort Detroit to forces led by Major-General Isaac Brock.
18-20 August 1944
After days of fighting, Major David Currie accepts the surrender of German troops at Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives, France. He earned the Victoria Cross for his actions.
22 August 2006
A suicide bomber crashes into a Canadian military patrol in southern Afghanistan, wounding three and killing Corporal David Braun and a local girl.
25 August 1875
The North-West Mounted Police establish Fort Brisebois at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow rivers in Alberta. It’s renamed Fort Calgary the following year.
28 August 1928
Punch Dickins begins a 12-day, 6,400-kilometre pioneering flight in a float-equipped Fokker airplane over northern Canada.
29 August 1917
A mob of 5,000 begins a two-day riot in Montreal in protest of conscription.
30 August 2021
The last U.S. troops leave Afghanistan, ending the nearly 20-year war.
Credit: Kylee Gardner/DVIDS/Wikimedia
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