DECEMBER 1, 2011
The Canadian flag is lowered during a ceremony at Kandahar Airfield, marking the end of Canada’s military presence in southern Afghanistan under Operation Athena.

DECEMBER 2, 1942
The atomic age is ushered in with the first—and ultra-secret—controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago.

DECEMBER 3, 1944
Canadian pilot Flying Officer J.W. Garland downs an enemy fighter, the first of four (he also shared in the downing of a 5th) in an eventful war career that included being shot down, taken prisoner and escaping.

DECEMBER 4, 1866
Constitutional talks begin in London, England—a step towards the British North America Act and Canada’s Confederation.

DECEMBER 5-6, 1950
In Korea, HMCS Cayuga, Athabaskan and Sioux assist in evacuating Chinnampo, then bombard and demolish fuel and artillery dumps and harbour installations.

DECEMBER 6, 1917
More than 1,600 are killed and 9,000 wounded in the explosion of a munitions ship in Halifax Harbour.

DECEMBER 7, 1941
HMCS Windflower sinks after colliding with a freighter in dense fog.

DECEMBER 8, 1952
Over Korea, Squadron Leader A.R. “Andy” Mackenzie is shot down by friendly fire and begins two years as a prisoner of war.

DECEMBER 9, 1941
Galvanized by the attack on Pearl Harbor, commercial radio stations on Canada’s West Coast are shut down from dusk to dawn and a blackout is ordered.

DECEMBER 10, 1813
Retreating American forces evacuate Fort George and burn farms and homesteads in Niagara, Upper Canada.

DECEMBER 11, 1962
Convicted police killers Ronald Turpin and Arthur Lucas are hanged in Toronto in Canada’s last executions.

DECEMBER 12, 1916
Approval is given to establish 20 Royal Flying Corps training squadrons in Canada.

DECEMBER 13, 2008
Responding to reports of suspicious activity, three soldiers of the Royal Canadian Regiment are killed by an improvised explosive device in southern Afghanistan.

DECEMBER 14, 1915
A.S. Ince is the first Canadian credited with downing an enemy aircraft, shooting down a German seaplane off Ostend, Belgium.

DECEMBER 15, 1916
Canadian Aeroplanes Ltd. is incorporated to provide training aircraft for the Royal Flying Corps.

DECEMBER 16, 1944
The Battle of the Bulge begins—Hitler’s last major offensive of the war.

DECEMBER 17, 1944
HMCS Montreal rescues survivors of a U-boat wrecked south of Land’s End on the English coast.

DECEMBER 18, 1916
The First World War Battle of Verdun ends after 10 bloody months of fighting—and more than 700,000 French and German casualties.

DECEMBER 19, 1915
Captain M. Bell-Irving of Vancouver is wounded while downing an enemy aircraft and chasing off two others.

DECEMBER 20, 1915
The Allies complete the evacuation of 105,000 troops from Gallipoli, Turkey, where the Newfoundland Regiment first saw action.

DECEMBER 21, 1942
Butter rationing begins in Canada.

DECEMBER 22, 1865
An aboriginal village near Fort Rupert, B.C., is destroyed by a Royal Navy ship seeking the surrender of three Amerindians involved in a killing.

DECEMBER 23, 1970
Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau announces that troops—dispatched in response to the FLQ crisis—will be withdrawn from Quebec on Jan. 4.

DECEMBER 24, 1914
An unofficial Christmas truce begins on the Western Front.

DECEMBER 25, 1941
Hong Kong surrenders to Japanese forces.

DECEMBER 26, 1943
Bound for the port of Murmansk in northwest Russia, Canadian destroyers help protect a convoy stalked by the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst.

DECEMBER 27, 2001
Deployment is announced of two long-range surveillance and maritime patrol aircraft and roughly 200 air force personnel to the Persian Gulf.

DECEMBER 28, 1965
Four Royal Canadian Air force Hercules make the first delivery of oil to Zambia, which was under blockade by Rhodesia.

DECEMBER 29, 1837
Armed men from Canada seize and destroy the SS Caroline, a steamer used to ferry goods from the U.S. to an island occupied by rebels led by William Lyon Mackenzie.

DECEMBER 30, 1922
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is created.

DECEMBER 31, 2002
The United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, begun in 1995, is terminated.