1 NOVEMBER 1918

Sgt. Hugh Cairns earns the Victoria Cross for capturing machine-gun crews near Valenciennes, France. He is mortally wounded.

2 NOVEMBER 1971

A Canadian Forces Dakota crashes on a rescue mission to the remote Arctic, killing eight.

3 NOVEMBER 1944

Japan begins launching 9,000 incendiary balloons to drift to the Pacific Coast of Canada and the United States.

4 NOVEMBER 1956

The United Nations General Assembly supports Lester Pearson’s proposal for a U.N. police force to oversee a ceasefire agreement following the Suez Crisis.

5 NOVEMBER 1957

Wing Commander J.G. Showler’s contribution to mapping the Arctic is rewarded with the McKee Trophy for the advancement of aviation.   

6 NOVEMBER 1814

British militiamen face off against American regular soldiers in The Battle of Malcolm’s Mills near Brantford, Ont.

7 NOVEMBER 1976

Two CF-5s refuel in mid-air in the first non-stop trans-Canada jet fighter flight.

8 NOVEMBER 1811

Governor William Harrison burns down Prophetstown (in what became Indiana in 1816) following the Battle of Tippecanoe; the Shawnee ally themselves with Britain.

9 NOVEMBER 1937

The Communist Party newspaper is the first target of Quebec’s Padlock Law, enacted to curb subversive propaganda.

10 NOVEMBER 1918

The 2nd and 3rd Canadian divisions encircle Mons, Belgium.

11 NOVEMBER 1918

At 9 a.m., the 28th Canadian Infantry Battalion learns of the 11 a.m. ceasefire, but Private George Lawrence, a conscript, is killed at 10:58.

12 NOVEMBER 1981

Space Shuttle Columbia launches, carrying the Canadarm.

[NASA]

13 NOVEMBER 1984

Pierre Trudeau is awarded the $50,000 Albert Einstein International Peace Prize for reducing the threat of nuclear war.

14 NOVEMBER 1938

Drivers pony up a quarter to cross the new Lions Gate Bridge linking Vancouver to the North Shore.

15 NOVEMBER 1945

HMCS Crusader, a destroyer, is commissioned, and serves until 1960.

16 NOVEMBER 1964

HMCS Cape Scott sails with 32 scientists on the Canadian Medical Expedition to Easter Island.

17 NOVEMBER 1915

A new German gas mask is an intelligence prize from the first trench raid carried out by the Canadian Corps over the Douve River in France.

18 NOVEMBER 1916

The 4th Canadian Division captures Desire Trench on the Somme—and 625 enemy prisoners.

19 NOVEMBER 1943

The Devil’s Brigade, a joint Canada-U.S. special service force, arrives in Italy.

20 NOVEMBER 1917

The tank’s effectiveness is proved in the taking of Cambrai, France.

21 NOVEMBER 1973

U.N. peacekeeper Warrant Officer D.M. Henderson dies in Cairo, policing an Israeli-Egyptian ceasefire agreement.

22 NOVEMBER 1951

Canadians occupy seven kilometres of front near the Samichon River in Korea.

23 NOVEMBER 1837

Armed rebellion breaks out in Saint-Denis, Lower Canada, between pro-democratic Patriotes and British colonialists.

24-25 NOVEMBER 1944

U-1228 torpedoes and sinks HMCS Shawinigan in Cabot Strait, north of Cape Breton.

26 NOVEMBER 1869

Prime Minister John A. Macdonald advises that the Métis seizure of Fort Garry will delay the transfer of Rupert’s Land.

27 NOVEMBER 2001

Two long-range patrol aircraft are deployed in support of the Naval Task Group in the Persian Gulf.

28 NOVEMBER 1944

HMCS Cataraqui leads the first convoy into the liberated port of Antwerp.

29 NOVEMBER 1993

Master Corporal Stéphane Langevin is killed while escorting a humanitarian aid convoy near Zenica, Bosnia.

30 NOVEMBER 1933

First World War General Arthur Currie dies.