AUGUST 1, 1957
Canada and the United States announce formation of the North American Aerospace Defence Command, integrating air defence of the two nations.

AUGUST 2, 1990
Several hundred foreign nationals are used as human shields after 100,000 Iraqi troops invade Kuwait and seize the oilfields.

AUGUST 3, 1981
Egypt and Israel sign a peace treaty, the Sinai is returned to Egypt and a multinational force begins peacekeeping.

First volunteers, Saskatoon, First World War, 1914.

PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA038513

AUGUST 4, 1914
Germany ignores an ultimatum to withdraw from neutral Belgium. Britain declares war and when Britain is at war, Canada is at war.

Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment (2 RCR) during a final parade held at Camp Julien.

PHOTO: CANADIAN FORCES IMAGERY GALLERY

AUGUST 5, 2005
Before moving to a new and more dangerous mission near Kandahar, Afghanistan, Canadian troops begin shutting down Camp Julien near Kabul.

AUGUST 6, 1914
Canada’s first submarines are commissioned. Training begins off the west coast.

Twenty-five-pounder gun of 2nd Battalion, RCHA.

PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA128802

AUGUST 7, 1950
The government approves the Canadian Army Special Force to raise troops for the Korean War.

Sherman tank of the Sherbrooke Fusiliers Regiment, Caen, 1944.

PHOTO: LIBARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA162583

AUGUST 8, 1944
Canadian, British and Polish forces advance south of Caen, Normandy, intent on breaking the German line at Falaise.

AUGUST 9, 2008
National Peacekeepers’ Day is established.

Hamilton Schooner at Sackets Harbour.

ILLUSTRATION: PETER RINDLISBACHER

AUGUST 7-10, 1813
In a battle for naval supremacy on Lake Ontario, the United States loses four ships to the British.

AUGUST 11, 1914
The Automobile Machine Gun Brigade No. 1 is formed, believed to be the first motorized armoured unit of the First World War.

AUGUST 12, 1814
British boats capture American ships USS Somers and USS Ohio at the entrance to the Niagara River.

AUGUST 13, 1909
Baddeck I crashes at Camp Petawawa. It marks the first crash of a flying machine in Canada with a military connection.

AUGUST 14, 1945
Japan surrenders; the Second World War ends.

Soldiers going ashore on Kiska.

PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA147097

AUGUST 15, 1943
Twenty Americans and four Canadians die after they occupy the Aleutian island of Kiska, which had been booby-trapped by the Japanese before they fled.

AUGUST 16, 1900
In South Africa, Boer troops withdraw at news of approaching British reinforcements, bringing an end to the the Battle of Elands River.

AUGUST 17-18, 1943
The Royal Canadian Air Force contributes 74 of 597 Bomber Command aircraft for attacks on a rocket research centre on the Baltic coast; Germany’s V-2 rocket program is delayed by months.

AUGUST 18, 1940
Prime Minister Mackenzie King and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt announce the Permanent Joint Board on Defence.

Troops of the Cameron Highlanders of Canada in landing craft prior to raid on Dieppe, 1942.

PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA113245

AUGUST 19, 1942
A disastrous raid on Dieppe, France, causes 3,367 Canadian casualties, including 907 killed.

AUGUST 20, 1942
Canada commits five ships to join American forces for operations in the Bering Sea.

AUGUST 21, 1944
The Dumbarton Oaks Conference begins in Washington, D.C.; China, the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union lay down proposals for an organization that will form the basis for the United Nations.

HMS Nabob

PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA140992

AUGUST 22, 1944
HMS Nabob, a British aircraft carrier with a Royal Canadian Navy crew, is severely damaged in a U-boat attack; 30 die and 40 are injured.

AUGUST 23, 1711
An attempt to capture New France from the sea during the Second French and Indian War fails when a British invasion fleet wrecks on the rocks on an island in the St. Lawrence River. Eight ships and nearly a thousand men are lost.

AUGUST 24, 1926
The Nursing Sisters’ Memorial is unveiled in the Hall of Honour in the Parliament Buildings.

AUGUST 25, 1941
Canadian and Allied forces destroy nearly half a million tons of coal and a quarter million gallons of fuel oil, gasoline and grease on Spitsbergen Island off the northern coast of Norway.

AUGUST 26, 1939
To aid the war effort, the Royal Canadian Navy assumes control of all Canadian civilian merchant ships.

AUGUST 27, 1942
The Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service is established.

AUGUST 28, 1833
Slavery is outlawed in the British Empire. John Baker, believed to be the last surviving Upper Canadian slave, died in 1871.

AUGUST 29, 1917
Conscription becomes law with passing of the Military Service Act; 124,588 men were drafted, but only 24,132 made it to France by war’s end.

AUGUST 30, 1945
Hong Kong, which was overrun by Japanese forces in December 1941, is liberated.

AUGUST 31, 1944
Canadians break through the formidably defended German Gothic Line on Italy’s Adriatic coast.

For ‘ON THIS DATE’ September events, come back to legionmagazine.com on September 1st, 2014.