Japanese representatives on board USS Missouri (BB-63) during the surrender ceremonies, 2 September 1945. Standing in front are: Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu (wearing top hat) and General Yoshijiro Umezu, Chief of the Army General Staff. Behind them are three representatives each of the Foreign Ministry, the Army and the Navy. They include, in middle row, left to right: Major General Yatsuji Nagai, Army; Katsuo Okazaki, Foreign Ministry; Rear Admiral Tadatoshi Tomioka, Navy; Toshikazu Kase, Foreign Ministry, and Lieutenant General Suichi Miyakazi, Army. In the the back row, left to right (not all are visible): Rear Admiral Ichiro Yokoyama, Navy; Saburo Ota, Foreign Ministry; Captain Katsuo Shiba, Navy, and Colonel Kaziyi Sugita, Army. (Identities those in second and third rows are from an annotated photograph in Naval History and Heritage Command files.) Photograph from the Army Signal Corps Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

2 September 1945 

Japan signs an unconditional surrender, ending six years of war.

3 September 1916 

The Canadian Corps take a front along Pozières Ridge near the Somme in northern France.

5 September 1697 

In what historian Peter C. Newman called “the greatest Arctic sea battle in North American history,” the British surrendered York Factory to the French in the Battle of Hudson Bay.

Canadian Museum of History

6 September 1952 

Canada’s first permanent television station, CBFT Montreal, begins broadcasting.

8 September 2007 

Lieut. Joseph Tremblay leads Afghan soldiers in combat under enemy fire. He is awarded the Medal of Military Valour.

9 September 1944 

HMC ships Dunver and Hespeler sink U-484 south of the Hebrides. 

Benjamin West/Wikimedia

13 September 1759 

The British are victorious at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.

14 September 1990 

Canada offers a CF-18 squadron with several hundred military personnel for use in the Persian Gulf during the Gulf War.

Canadian Space Agency

16 September 1974 

The RCMP swears in its first 32 female officers.

17 September 1949

Future prime minister Lester B. Pearson represents Canada at the first session of the North Atlantic Council, which governs NATO. 

18 September 1987

The United States and the Soviet Union agree to reduce the number of nuclear warheads in their arsenals. 

23 September 1965

HMCS Ojibwa is commissioned at Chatham, U.K. It is the first submarine to be built to order for the Royal Canadian Navy. 

25 September 2007 

While under enemy fire in Afghanistan, Capt. Joseph Bordeleau saves a critically injured soldier while directing a quick reaction force. He is awarded the Military Medal of Valour.

26 September 1990

In Quebec, the Oka Crisis ends with the surrender of the Mohawks of Kanesatake. 

28 September 1813 

HMS Wolfe narrowly escapes destruction during a duel with USS General Pike. 

29 September 1962 

Alouette I, Canada’s first orbiting satellite, is launched.

LAC

30 September 2021 

Canada observes its first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, to honour the lost children and survivors of residential schools, their families, and communities.