MAY 1, 1888
The Earl of Derby, Sir Frederick Arthur Stanley, is appointed Governor General of Canada. The cup he originally donated to the top-ranking amateur hockey club becomes a treasured national icon.

MAY 2, 1915
Lieutenant Alexis Helmer is killed by shellfire near Ypres, Belgium. His death inspires Major John McCrae to write In Flanders Fields.

Robert Grierson Combe, VC

ILLUSTRATION: LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES

MAY 3, 1917
Under an enemy artillery barrage, Robert Grierson Combe arrives at his objective at Acheville, France, with only five men. He orchestrates a grenade attack to capture the objective and takes 80 prisoners before he is killed by a sniper. The action earns him a Victoria Cross.

MAY 4, 1910
The Naval Service bill passes, creating the Naval Service of Canada, re-named the Royal Canadian Navy in 1911.

MAY 5, 2007
Canadian Memorial Park is dedicated along the banks of the Una River in Bihac, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Since 1992, more than 40,000 Canadian Forces members served in the Balkan region; 23 died there.

Captain Maryse Carmichael

PHOTO: DND

MAY 6, 2010
Captain Maryse Carmichael becomes the first female commanding officer of 431 Air Demonstration Squadron, otherwise known as the Snowbirds.

MAY 7, 1944
HMCS Valleyfield sinks after being torpedoed by U-548 off Cape Race, Nfld. One hundred and twenty five lives are lost. Of the 70 frigates built for the Royal Canadian Navy or acquired from the Royal Navy, she is the only one sunk.

VE-Day celebrations, Toronto.

PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA114626

MAY 8, 1945
Millions celebrate Victory in Europe Day, following the unconditional surrender of all German forces.

MAY 9, 1992
At the Westray coal mine in Plymouth, N.S., 26 miners are killed in a methane gas explosion.

MAY 10, 1997
The minesweeper HMCS Nanaimo (2nd), stationed at Esquimalt, B.C., is commissioned into the Canadian Navy.

MAY 11, 2012
The last of the Royal Canadian Air Force’s 17 new CC-130J Hercules aircraft arrives at 8 Wing, CFB Trenton.

MAY 12, 1942
A German U-boat stalks and sinks two cargo ships off the Gaspé coast, bringing the Second World War to Canadian waters.

MAY 13, 1915
The six-day Battle of Frezenberg ends. The heavily-bombarded Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Originals held firm for nine hours on the first day, suffering 400 casualties. When relieved, there were only four officers and 150 men.

MAY 14, 1965
The United Nations Security Council calls for a ceasefire in a civil war in the Dominican Republic and sends in a special representative, accompanied by a senior military adviser from Canada.

MAY 15, 1919
The Winnipeg General Strike begins; eventually 30,000 workers walk off the job.

MAY 16, 1922
A parliamentary decision closes the Royal Naval College of Canada at Esquimalt, B.C. Prior to relocating to B.C. the college operated at Halifax and Kingston, Ont.

MAY 17, 1900
During the Boer War, the seven-month siege of Mafeking ends, thanks to C Battery of the Royal Canadian Field Artillery, whose four 12-pounders open the road for relief of the British garrison.

MAY 18, 1937
Members of the 40&8 Society of the American Legion begin annual pilgrimages to Victoria Park Cenotaph in Niagara Falls, Ont., to pay respect to Canadian war dead. They’ve come on the third Saturday in May for 75 years.

MAY 19, 1845
Sir John Franklin begins the doomed voyage in search of a Northwest Passage. Both ships are lost when they become trapped in ice, nearly 130 crew members perished of disease and cold.

MAY 20-21, 1952
A Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry patrol in the Nabu-ri valley in Korea suffers one death and four wounded in a night raid on an enemy position.

MAY 21, 1939
King George VI unveils the National War Memorial in Ottawa before a crowd of 100,000.

Captain William A. (Billy) Bishop, VC

PHOTO: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA001651

MAY 22, 1918
Billy Bishop resumes his active flying career intent on adding to his victories. In 1917 he is awarded the Victoria Cross.

MAY 23, 1947
The Pacific Coast Militia Rangers are re-named the Canadian Rangers, with an expanded role of coastline surveillance in remote and isolated parts of the country.

MAY 24, 1819
Queen Victoria is born at Kensington Palace.

MAY 25, 1915
The Second Battle of Ypres, which saw the first use of poison gas, ends.

MAY 26, 1896
In Victoria, a streetcar crashes through the Point Ellice Bridge; 55 people, including many children, die.

A view of Fort George, Upper Canada.

ILLUSTRATION: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—e010952210

MAY 27, 1813
American troops capture Fort George, planning to use it as a base for an invasion of Upper Canada.

National War Memorial, Ottawa.

PHOTO: LEGION MAGAZINE ARCHIVES

MAY 28, 2000
The Unknown Soldier is laid to rest in a tomb at the foot of the National War Memorial in Ottawa.

MAY 29, 1914
More than 1,000 die following a collision between a Norwegian coal freighter and the luxury liner Empress of Ireland, carrying 1,477 passengers, at 2 a.m. in the St. Lawrence River near Rimouski, Que.

MAY 30, 2007
Combat cameraman Master Corporal Darrell Jason Priede of Burlington, Ont., is among seven NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) soldiers killed when their Chinook helicopter crashed, reportedly after Taliban fighters fired at it.

MAY 31, 1912
Major General Henry Smith is appointed Canada’s first Judge Advocate general, in charge of delivering legal services to the Canadian military.

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