1 MAY 1961
No. 415 Maritime Patrol Squadron, RCAF is formed, based in Prince Edward Island.
2 MAY 1885
In the Battle of Cut Knife, Chief Poundmaker’s Cree warriors deal Canadian troops their last defeat of the Northwest Rebellion.
3 MAY 1917
Nearly 500 Germans are captured as Canadians attack at Fresnoy, east of Vimy Ridge.
4 MAY 1910
The Royal Canadian Navy is established.
5 MAY 1945
Canadian Gen. Charles Foulkes accepts the German surrender in the Netherlands.
6 MAY 2010Lt.-Col. Maryse Carmichael becomes the first female commander of the Canadian Forces Snowbirds.
7 MAY 1944
A U-boat sinks HMCS Valleyfield in the Atlantic Ocean; 125 perish.
8 MAY 1915
The Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry helps prevent a German breakthrough in the Ypres Salient.
9 MAY 1813
Maj.-Gen Henry Procter and Tecumseh are forced to end a 10-day siege at Fort Meigs in Ohio.
10 MAY 1990
The Canadian Space Agency is created.
11 MAY 1944Canadian tanks support the attack on German lines in Italy’s Liri Valley.
12 MAY 1942
The Battle of the St. Lawrence begins with a U-boat sinking two steamers off the Gaspé coast.
13 MAY 1861
Queen Victoria asks her subjects to remain neutral in the U.S. Civil War.
14 MAY 1943
Trainee navigator Kenneth Spooner takes over for an unconscious pilot, saving three lives, but crashes. He is posthumously awarded the George Cross.
15 MAY 1923
Canadian air force pilot training, in hiatus since 1918, resumes at Camp Borden, near Barrie, Ont.
16 MAY 1961
U.S. President John F. Kennedy visits Ottawa.
17 MAY 1963
Work begins on the first Canadian military hydrofoil, HMCS Bras d’Or.
18 MAY 1915
Canadians launch initial attacks at Festubert, France.
19 MAY 1845
John Franklin departs England in search of the Northwest Passage.
20 MAY 1980
Quebec votes against negotiating sovereignty-association with Canada.
21-22 MAY 1990
Lucien Bouchard resigns from cabinet over Meech Lake Accord constitutional amendments, subsequently forms the Bloc Québécois.
23 MAY 1914
SS Komagata Maru arrives in Vancouver, but 352 Sikh, Muslim and Hindu refugees from India are turned away.
24 MAY 1968
FLQ separatists bomb the U.S. consulate in Quebec City.
25 MAY 1941
The first seven corvettes for the Newfoundland Escort Force arrive in St. John’s.
26 MAY-4 JUNE 1940
Civilian barges, yachts, motorboats, fishing boats and ferries make possible the rescue of 340,000 mainly British troops being shelled on the beaches of Dunkirk, France.
27 MAY 1812
The British retreat to Burlington Heights, Ont., abandoning Fort Erie.
28 MAY 1934
The Dionne quintuplets are born in Callander, Ont.
29-30 MAY 1951
In Korea, six Canadian troops are killed and 54 wounded in an attack on Kakhul-bong (Hill 467).
30 MAY 1942
More than 500 Canadians take part in the first 1,000-plane bomber raid over Germany.
31 MAY 1902
The Boer War ends. Canada’s contribution: $3 million and 7,368 troops.
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