08/6/1944
Sailing with the 10th Destroyer Flotilla out of Plymouth, HMCS Haida and HMCS Iroquois are part of an impressive action near Belle Isle. A cable ship and two minesweepers are among the seven enemy ships destroyed. An explosion on Haida kills two gunners and injures eight others.
08/6/1945
The first Atomic bomb is dropped on the Japanese industrial city of Hiroshima. Approximately 140,000 people die—many of radiation—in the days that follow.
08/7/1950
As the crisis in Korea worsens, the Canada government authorizes the recruitment of the Canadian Army Special Force.
08/7-13/1944
In conjunction with the American breakout in late July, Anglo-Canadian forces continue to drive south toward Falaise, France, in an attempt to encircle German forces that have launched an erratic westerly counterattack against American troops at Mortain.
08/8/1918
In conjunction with other Allied forces, the Canadian Corps launches a major attack to the east of Amiens, France, beginning a period of operations remembered as the Last 100 Days.
08/9/1974
A Canadian Buffalo aircraft, attached to the United Nations Emergency Force Middle East, is shot down by Syrian surface-to-air missiles. All nine Canadians on board are killed.
08/10/1840
Canada’s first manned flight. Louis Anselm Lauriat completes the task in a hot air balloon at Saint John, N.B.
08/11/1917
A Victoria Cross is awarded to Captain W.A. Bishop following a June 2 attack on a German aerodrome.
08/12/1944
RCN destroyers Qu’Appelle, Assiniboine, Skeena and Restigouche and RN destroyer Albrighton sink three ships of a German convoy in the Bay of Biscay.
08/12/1985
More than 500 people are feared dead after a Japan Airlines jumbo jet crashes on a mountainside 112 kilometres from Tokyo.
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