4 December 1944 

Canadians capture Ravenna, Italy.

5 December 2001 

In return for amnesty, Mullah Mohammad Omar surrenders Kandahar to Hamid Karzai, leader of the Pashtun forces against the Taliban.

  8 December 1915 

Punch magazine publishes “In Flanders Fields.”

  11 December 1936 

King Edward VIII abdicates the British throne to marry American socialite Wallis Simpson.

14 December 1943 

Major Paul Triquet earns the Victoria Cross during the fighting at Casa Berardi near Ortona, Italy.

15 December 1964 

Parliament approves the maple leaf design for Canada’s new flag.

16 December 1944 

The Battle of the Bulge begins—Hitler’s last major offensive on the Western Front.

  20 December 1915 

Continually pressed by Turkish forces, the Newfoundland Regiment is evacuated from Suvla Bay, Gallipoli.

21 December 1883

The Royal Canadian Dragoons and The Royal Canadian Regiment are formed.

22 December 1919 

The Privy Council considers organization of a Canadian air force.

25 December 1991

Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union and hands administrative duties to Boris Yeltsin. The U.S.S.R. officially dissolves the next day. 

  28 December 1943 

Ortona, Italy, is captured after Canadians fight house-to-house, smashing their way through walls. Tanks and artillery were of limited use in the steep and rubble-filled streets.

31 December 1857 

Queen Victoria selects Ottawa as the permanent capital of the Province of Canada.