1 AUGUST 1957

Canada and the United States form the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) to integrate air defences.

  2 AUGUST 1909

The Silver Dart makes its first passenger flight at an army evaluation at Ontario’s Camp Petawawa.

3 AUGUST 1961 

Tommy Douglas is elected the first leader of the New Democratic Party at its founding convention.

6 AUGUST 1945

An American nuclear bomb destroys the Japanese city
of Hiroshima. 

7 AUGUST 1950

The government approves the Canadian Army Special Force to raise troops for the Korean War.

8 AUGUST 1918

The Hundred Days Offensive of the First World War begins with the launch of a major attack east of Amiens, France.

9 AUGUST 1902 

The coronation of King Edward VII takes place at Westminster Abbey.

10 AUGUST 1840 

Louis Anselm Lauriat completes Canada’s first manned flight—in a hot-air balloon—in Saint John, N.B.

16 AUGUST 1812

The Americans surrender Detroit and Michigan to forces led by Maj.-Gen. Isaac Brock.

20 AUGUST 1940

Winston Churchill delivers a speech praising Royal Air Force and Allied aircrews during the Battle of Britain, stating “never was so much owed
by so many to so few.”

 28 AUGUST 1963

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington.

30 AUGUST 2021

The last U.S. troops leave Afghanistan, ending the nearly 20-year war.

31 AUGUST 1997

Princess Diana is killed in a car crash in Paris.