2 June 1917 

Billy Bishop launches a solo attack on a German aerodrome and is later awarded the Victoria Cross.

4 June 1989

The Tiananmen Square protests end with the massacre of civilians by the Chinese military. 

6 June 1813

The British defeat American forces at the Battle of Stoney Creek. 

7 June 1944

Members of the Waffen-SS execute 18 Canadian prisoners of war in the Abbaye d’Ardenne massacre. 

9 June 1534

Jacques Cartier sails into the St. Lawrence River for the first time. 

10 June 1957

John Diefenbaker leads his party to victory in the federal election, ending 22 straight years of Liberal rule in one of the greatest political upsets in Canadian history.

11 June 2008

Prime Minister Stephen Harper issues an official apology to Indigenous Peoples for cruelties inflicted in the residential school system. 

12 June 1942

Anne Frank receives a diary as a present on her 13th birthday.

13 June 1898

The Yukon Territory enters Confederation. 

14 June 1940

German forces take and occupy Paris. 

15 June 1944

Tommy Douglas leads the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation to victory in the 1944 Saskatchewan general election, the first socialist government in North America.  

17 June 1919 

Ten prominent labour leaders are arrested during the Winnipeg General Strike (also see page 88).

18 June 1812

U.S. President James Madison signs a resolution declaring war on Britain, igniting the War of 1812.

19 June 1816

The Battle of Seven Oaks breaks out between members of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company; the latter is victorious. 

20 June 1963

Following nuclear tensions amid the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet and American governments agree to develop the “red telephone” hotline to facilitate faster communication.

25 June 1950

The Korean War begins as Kim Il-Sung’s forces invade South Korea.

28 June 1914 

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria is assassinated in Sarajevo, igniting the First World War.