1 January 1885
Standard time goes into effect, the brainchild of CPR chief engineer Sir Sandford Fleming.

2 January 1940
The first Canadians decorated in the Second World War, Pilot Officer S.R. Henderson and Wing Commander J.F. Griffiths are awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

3-4 January 1951
UN forces evacuate Seoul, Korea, as it is captured for the second time by North Korean forces.

5 January 1948
The National Defence College in Kingston, Ont., holds its first class.

6 January 1915
The Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry arrives at the trenches in France.

7 January 1941
Canada and Great Britain sign a supplementary agreement to the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, stating that 25 RCAF squadrons will be formed.

9 January 1990
Space Shuttle Columbia mission STS-32 launches to retrieve material left in orbit for six years, including space durability experiments for the University of Toronto’s Institute for Aerospace Studies.

11 January 1957
HMCS Magnificent delivers troops and materiel for the UN Emergency Force controlling the Israel-Egypt border.

12 January 1944
Allied troops in Italy launch the first attack on the German-held Gustav Line and positions on Monte Cassino.

14 January 1944
Canadian secret agent Guy Bieler is captured by the Gestapo in France.

15 January 2006
In Afghanistan, a car bomb kills diplomat Glyn Berry, claims the legs of Master Corporal Paul Franklin, and severely wounds Private William Salikin and Corporal Jeff Bailey.

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s draft of the League of Nations was first presented in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, where the victorious allies were trying to rebuild the devastated post-World War I world. [Public Domain]

16 January 1920
In Paris, the League of Nations Council meets for the first time.

19 January 1943
Princess Margriet of the Netherlands is born in Ottawa, where her mother Juliana, who became queen in 1948, was sheltered during the war.

21 January 1900
A second contingent of 1,281 Canadian troops sails from Halifax for the Boer War.

22 January 1944
Allies establish the Anzio beachhead south of Rome. Canadian forces, meanwhile, face bitter opposition along the Adriatic coast.

25 January 1900
Nursing sisters receive the rank and pay of lieutenants.

27 January 1945
The concentration/extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau is liberated. This date is now International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

29 January 1942
Eight RCAF members are among those killed in the first bombing raid on the German battleship Tirpitz.

31 January 1923
The Royal Canadian Naval Reserve and RCN Volunteer Reserve are established.