1 AUGUST 1957
As the Cold War continues, Canada and the U.S. agree to pool operational control of  air defences. This leads to the creation of the North American Air Defence Command (Norad), later renamed North American Aerospace Defence Command.

Iraq invades Kuwait.

PHOTO: UNITED STATES ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS

2 AUGUST 1990
Iraq invades Kuwait. Canada responds quickly by sending a naval task group.

3 AUGUST 1978
The Queen opens the 11^th Commonwealth Games in Edmonton.

4 AUGUST 1910
The former Royal Navy cruiser Rainbow is commissioned at Portsmouth, England, becoming the first ship of the Canadian navy.

4-5 AUGUST 1914
Britain sends ultimatum to Germany, demanding it withdraw its forces from neutral Belgium. The ultimatum, which expires at midnight Aug. 4, goes unanswered and Britain declares war on Germany.

German U-Boat U-210 seen from HMCS Assiniboine.

PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA

6 AUGUST 1942
His Majesty’s Canadian Ship Assiniboine is part of an escort group accompanying an eastbound convoy when she rams and sinks U-210 following a long chase. The U-boat sinks, but 38 Germans are rescued.

7-13 AUGUST 1944
In conjunction with the American breakout in late July, Anglo-Canadian forces drive south toward Falaise, France, in an attempt to encircle German forces which have launched an erratic counterattack against U.S. forces at Mortain.

8 AUGUST 1945
Russia declares war on Japan.

Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray.

PHOTO: LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES

9 AUGUST 1945
Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray of Nelson, B.C., a Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve pilot flying from the Royal Navy aircraft carrier Formidable, sinks a Japanese destroyer in Onagawa Bay, Honshu. He is posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

10 AUGUST 1930
The Royal Canadian Air Force welcomes the Bellanca aircraft into service.

11 AUGUST 1917
A Victoria Cross is awarded to Captain W.A. Bishop following a June attack on a German aerodrome.

12 AUGUST 1944
Royal Canadian Navy destroyers Qu’Appelle, Assiniboine, Skeena and Restigouche and the Royal Navy destroyer Albrighton sink three enemy ships in the Bay of Biscay.

13 AUGUST 1973
Canadian Forces announces acquisition of eight CH-47C Chinook helicopters.

VJ-Day celebrations in Ottawa.

PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA

14 AUGUST 1945
VJ-Day. Victory over Japan Day.

15 AUGUST 1950
Royal Canadian Navy destroyer Cayuga opens fire on port installations at Yosu.

16 AUGUST 1939
Canadian-built Lysander aircraft completes first flight at Malton, Ont.

Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Earl of Athlone.

PHOTO: LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES

17 AUGUST 1943
Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King hosts a conference between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in Quebec City.

18 AUGUST 1950
His Majesty’s Canadian Ship Athabaskan (2^nd) undertakes intense bombardment against an enemy garrison on the island of Tokchok-to.

Troops boarding a destroyer after Dieppe raid.

PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA

19 AUGUST 1942
Canadian forces are decimated during a raid at Dieppe, France. There are more than 3,360 casualties, including 907 killed. Nearly 2,000 are captured. The Royal Canadian Air Force loses 13 aircraft and 10 pilots.

20 AUGUST 1942
Royal Canadian Navy armed merchant cruisers Prince Robert, Prince Henry, Prince David and corvettes Dawson and Vancouver sail from Esquimalt, B.C., for Bering Sea patrol with American forces.

21 AUGUST 1944
In Normandy, the Falaise Gap is closed and the German 7^th Army is crushed. For the first time in weeks, the words “nothing to report” appear in a situation report prepared at First Canadian Army Headquarters.

Operation Forage in Macedonia.

PHOTO: CANADIAN FORCES

22 AUGUST 2001
Canada’s involvement in Operation Forage in Macedonia begins. Two hundred CF members work with 3,500 other NATO personnel to collect and destroy weapons used by militias during the war in the former Yugoslavia.

Hercules aircraft.

PHOTO: LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES

23 AUGUST 1954
First flight of the Hercules transport aircraft. The Royal Canadian Air Force would take delivery of its first Herc at Trenton, Ont., on Oct. 12, 1960.

24 AUGUST 1870
The Red River Expedition under British Colonel Garnet Wolseley arrives at Fort Garry (Winnipeg) only to discover that Métis leader Louis Riel has already left.

25 AUGUST 1944
Paris is liberated.

26 AUGUST 1939
Royal Canadian Air Force squadrons begin moving to war stations.

27 AUGUST 1953
Sabre jets from 414, 422 and 444 squadrons of the RCAF begin departing Canada for Baden-Soellingen, West Germany. The deployment fulfills part of Canada’s responsibility to her North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies in Europe.

28 AUGUST 1963
Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his I Have a Dream speech in Washington, D.C.

29 AUGUST 1911
King George V grants permission for the prefix “Royal” to be added to the title Canadian Navy.

30 AUGUST 1916
The Canadian Corps begins relieving the Australian/New Zealand Army Corps on the Somme near Pozières, France.

31 AUGUST 1939
The strength of the Royal Canadian Air Force sits at 4,061 officers and men, and 270 aircraft.

For ‘ON THIS DATE’ September Events, come back to legionmagazine.com on September 1st, 2010