2 June 2008
Under machine-gun fire in Afghanistan, MCpl. Brent Gallant uses his body to shield a wounded comrade. He is awarded the Medal of Military Valour.
4 June 1939
The MS St. Louis, carrying 963 German Jewish refugees, is denied permission to dock in Florida, after already being denied by Cuba. Forced to return to Europe, more than 200 of its passengers later die in Nazi concentration camps.
6 June 1944
Canadian, British and American forces land on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.
Credit: LAC/4233778
8 June 1944
Putot-en-Bessin, France, west of Caen in Normandy, is temporarily lost after an attack on the 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade, then retaken by The Canadian Scottish Regiment.
9 June 1954
The RCAF’s Korean War airlift ends, after 599 trans-Pacific flights carrying 3,500 tonnes of freight and 13,000 personnel.
Credit: RCAF
10 June 1957
John Diefenbaker leads the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to an upset victory in the federal election, ending 22 years of Liberal government.
Credit: Legion Magazine Archive
11 June 1940
The Siege of Malta begins with a series of Italian air raids.
13 June 2002
The United States withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
14 June 1919
John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown depart from St. John’s, Nfld., on the first nonstop transatlantic flight.
Credit: Wikimedia
16 June 1745
A New England colonial force aided by a British fleet captures Louisbourg.
17 June 1940
RMS Lancastria is attacked and sunk by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France. At least 3,000 die in Britain’s worst single-ship maritime disaster.
18 June 1990
Nelson Mandela, vice-president of the African National Congress, addresses Parliament.
20 June 1877
Alexander Graham Bell installs the world’s first commercial telephone service in Hamilton.
21 June 1734
In Montreal, New France, a slave known by the French name of Marie-Joseph Angélique is put to death, after she was convicted of setting the fire that destroyed much of the city.
23 June 1961
The Antarctic Treaty comes into force. The continent is declared a scientific reserve and military activity is banned.
27 June 1918
Fourteen nursing sisters are among the 234 who die when the Canadian hospital ship Llandovery Castle is torpedoed by a U-boat (see “Criminal intent,” page 50).
Credit: Maurice Randall/IWM/4233778;
28 June 1944
RCAF Spitfires down 26 enemy aircraft over Normandy.
Advertisement
