2 October 1535
Jacques Cartier arrives at Hochelaga (now Montreal) on his second voyage to North America.
Credit: Classic Image/Alamy/2H336JJ
3 October 1914
The Canadian Expeditionary Force’s first contingent of 30,000 sails from Quebec to join the war effort in Europe.
4 October 1944
HMCS Chebogue is torpedoed by U-1227 in the mid-Atlantic and seven sailors die.
5 October 1970
British Trade Commissioner James Cross is kidnapped in Montreal by the Front de libération du Québec, beginning the October Crisis.
7 October 1918
The first of Canada’s 50,000 Spanish flu victims dies in Montreal.
9 October 1967
Reports from Bolivia state that Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara has been killed.
10 October 1970
Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte is kidnapped by the FLQ.
11 October 1918
Lieut. Wallace Algie leads the capture of two machine guns, an officer and 10 men at Cambrai, France, earning the Victoria Cross.
Credit: Canadian Virtual War Memorial
12 October 1915
British nurse Edith Cavell is executed for helping Allied prisoners escape occupied Brussels.
13 October 1812
Major-General Isaac Brock dies during the Battle of Queenston Heights. Total British losses are 105 killed and wounded. There are at least 300 American casualties.
14 October 1914
The First Canadian Contingent begins to disembark after arriving at Plymouth, England.
16 October 1970
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invokes the War Measures Act in response to a deepening crisis in Quebec.
Credit: D.I. Cameron/LAC/PA-110806
17 October 1970
Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte is found dead in the trunk of a car seven days after being kidnapped by members of the FLQ.
19 October 1944
HMCS Bras d’Or vanishes without a trace in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Thirty die.
21 October 1916
The first of three attacks are launched on Regina Trench by 4th Canadian Division.
22 October 1940
Squadron Leader Ernest A. McNab is awarded the Royal Canadian Air Force’s first Distinguished Flying Cross for his service during the Battle of Britain.
Credit: CWM/19890124-001
23 October 1958
An earthquake near a coal mine at Springhill, N.S., traps 174 miners underground. Seventy-five die.
25 October 1973
The second United Nations Emergency Force is established to supervise the implementation of a ceasefire in the Yom Kippur War.
26 October 1917
The Canadian Corps attacks Passchendaele Ridge. Fighting into November, the Canadians succeed, but suffer 15,654 casualties.
27 October 1915
King George V of Great Britain visits the Canadian Corps on the Western Front.
28 October 1790
On present-day Vancouver Island, Spain signs an agreement with Britain to end its Pacific Northwest monopoly.
30 October 2009
A landmine kills Private Steven Marshall while on foot patrol in Panjwaii district southwest of Kandahar, Afghanistan.
31 October 1995
Premier Jacques Parizeau resigns after a narrow loss in the Quebec sovereignty referendum.
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