SEPTEMBER 1, 1864
The Charlottetown Conference begins. It is a step towards Confederation.

SEPTEMBER 2, 1945
Japanese sign terms of surrender on a United States battleship in Tokyo Bay.

SEPTEMBER 3
Merchant Navy Veterans Day (annually)

SEPTEMBER 4, 1939
While serving as lead navigator on a bomber attacking German warships, Pilot Officer S.R. Henderson becomes the first Canadian to participate in a Second World War operational sortie.

SEPTEMBER 5, 1755
British troops begin expelling Acadians from Nova Scotia.

SEPTEMBER 6, 2009
Two Canadian soldiers are killed and five other soldiers are injured when their armoured vehicle strikes a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

SEPTEMBER 6-10, 1944
Sometime between these dates intelligence agents Frank Pickersgill, John Macalister and Romeo Sabourin are brutally murdered at Buchenwald concentration camp.

SEPTEMBER 8, 1939
Prime Minister Mackenzie King rejects conscription; it is approved by plebiscite in 1942.

SEPTEMBER 9, 1969
Canada becomes officially bilingual.

SEPTEMBER 10, 1941
His Majesty’s Canadian Ships Chambly and Moose Jaw sink a U-boat, a first for the Royal Canadian Navy corvettes.

SEPTEMBER 11, 1885
The Cree leader Big Bear is tried for treason during the Northwest Rebellion and sentenced to three years imprisonment.

SEPTEMBER 12-16, 1944
At the Second Quebec Conference, Britain offers its fleet to aid the U.S. in the Pacific war.

SEPTEMBER 13, 1944
In the battle of the Rimini Line in Italy, Canadians capture Coriano Ridge.

SEPTEMBER 14, 1884
Several hundred Canadians leave Halifax, part of a relief mission to rescue General Charles Gordon at Khartoum.

SEPTEMBER 15, 1950
In Korea, His Majesty’s Canadian Ships Athabaskan, Sioux and Cayuga are part of the naval forces backing the United Nations invasion of port in Inchon.

SEPTEMBER 16, 1914
Colonel Sam Hughes approves formation of Canadian Aviation Corps.

SEPTEMBER 17, 1814
The Americans stage a successful raid, but are unable to break the British siege of Fort Erie.

SEPTEMBER 18, 1998
Canadian Search and Rescue technicians Master Corporal Bryan Pierce and Sergeant Keith Mitchell receive the Cross of Valour for a Nov. 12, 1996, nighttime parachute jump into freezing Arctic waters to save a critically ill fisherman.

SEPTEMBER 19, 1915
The Newfoundland Regiment lands at Suvla Bay in Gallipoli, Turkey.

SEPTEMBER 20, 1917
The Income War Tax Act receives Royal Assent.

SEPTEMBER 21, 1995
The $2 coin—the Toonie—debuts.

SEPTEMBER 22, 1952
HMCS Nootka captures a North Korean minelayer.

SEPTEMBER 23, 1787
Mississauga chiefs sell 101,528 hectares of land—where today sits the city of Toronto—to the British for the modern equivalent of about $200,000.

SEPTEMBER 24, 1955
The last Canadian warship to leave South Korea after the war, Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship Sioux, returns home.

SEPTEMBER 25, 1942
A Japanese aircraft is destroyed by RCAF Squadron Leader K.A. Boomer over an Aleutian Island near Alaska.

SEPTEMBER 26, 1916
The 1st and 2nd Canadian Divisions make their objectives on the first day of the Battle of Thiepval Ridge.

SEPTEMBER 27, 1918
In France, the 1st and 4th Canadian Divisions retake Bourlon Wood and Bourlon village.

SEPTEMBER 28, 1875
Heavy timbers on the track derail a train near Yamaska, Que., killing 10. Sabotage or vandalism is suspected.

SEPTEMBER 29, 1927
The Hudson Strait Expedition begins; the RCAF will establish radio stations and explore the eastern Arctic.

SEPTEMBER 30, 1939
More than 58,000 Canadians sign up for military service in the 20 days after Canada declared war on Germany.

For our October On This Date items please see the September/October 2014 issue of Legion Magazine. Here’s a sample of what you’ll find:

OCTOBER 11, 1899
The Second Boer War begins in South Africa; more than 7,000 Canadians serve there over the next three years; 267 were killed.