05/21/1991
A bomb hidden in a bouquet of flowers explodes and kills former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

05/21/1998
The Canadian submarine Ojibwa conducts her final sail past in Halifax.

05/22/1942
Mexico announces it has declared war on Germany and Japan.

05/22/1942
While hauling bauxite from the Caribbean to Sydney, N.S., the Canadian merchant ship Frank B. Baird is sunk by U-158 southeast of Bermuda. Her crew of 23 survives.

05/23/1873
Three years after the transfer of the Northwest Territories to Canada, Parliament creates the North West Mounted Police, a semi-military force of 300 policemen. Wearing the distinctive scarlet tunic and pillbox cap, the Mounties work to maintain law and order in the North.

05/23/1944
Canadians break through the Hitler Line southwest of Monte Cassino in Italy.

05/24/1943
U-boats begin a withdrawal from the North Atlantic.

05/24/1963
The CH-124 Sea King helicopter enters service with the Royal Canadian Navy. Its primary role is anti-submarine warfare.

05/25/1941
Seven Royal Canadian Navy corvettes arrive in St. John’s, Nfld. They are the first units of the Newfoundland Escort Force.

05/25/1982
Argentine missiles strike a container ship and the British destroyer HMS Coventry off the Falkland Islands. Two Argentine planes are shot down. Dozens of men are feared dead.

05/26/1932
The CBC’s predecessor—the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission—is established. The publicly funded organization provides Canadian content in an otherwise American-dominated medium.

05/26/1940
The evacuation of Dunkirk begins.

05/26/1953
His Majesty’s Canadian Ship Haida is patrolling off Korea when she spots a train under clear midnight skies. Shells from Haida’s guns destroy the train’s engine and boxcars.

05/27/1918
The German army launches its fourth offensive of the year against French forces in the Chemin des Dames.

05/27/1941
The German warship the Bismarck is sunk.