| 1 | 1864 | - 1864—1 Jan 1867: Canadian Confederation
Resources at Library and Archives Canada
Resources at Wikipedia
During the years before Confederation, there was much happening in the colonies that would eventually unite to become the Dominion of Canada. In this section you will find a selection of essays on pre-Confederation themes: the evolution of Upper Canada, Lower Canada and the Atlantic Colonies; the effect of the American Civil War on Canada's formation; and the three famous conferences - at Charlottetown, Québec and London - that led to Canadian Confederation in 1867.
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| 2 | 1869 | - 1869—1870: Red River Rebellion
Resources at Library and Archives Canada
Resources at Wikipedia
The Red River Rebellion (French: Rébellion de la rivière Rouge), also known as the Red River Resistance, Red River uprising, or First Riel Rebellion, was the sequence of events that led up to the 1869 establishment of a provisional government by the Métis leader Louis Riel and his followers at the Red River Colony, in what was the early stages of establishing today's Canadian province of Manitoba. For a prior period, it had been a territory called Rupert's Land and had been under control of the Hudson's Bay Company before it was sold.
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| 3 | 1914 | - 28 Jul 1914—11 Nov 1918: World War I (or the First World War)
"World War I or the First World War, often abbreviated as WWI or WW1, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously known as the Great War or "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It also was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated 8.5 million combatant deaths and 13 million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the related 1918 Spanish flu pandemic caused another 17–100 million deaths worldwide, including an estimated 2.64 million Spanish flu deaths in Europe and as many as 675,000 Spanish flu deaths in the United States."
-- Source: Wikipedia Entry
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| 4 | 1917 | - 9 Apr 1917—9 Apr 1917: The Battle of Vimy Ridge
Resources at Library and Archives Canada
On April 9, 1917, supported by a creeping artillery barrage, four Canadian divisions attacked Vimy Ridge, a position held by the Germans since October 1914.
The German troops were already suffering from heavy artillery bombardment that began three weeks earlier.
Despite moving uphill across difficult terrain, the Canadian troops were able to overtake many German trenches. It took them three more days to capture the last objective, known as the “Pimple.”
Despite their rapid progress, the Canadians suffered heavy troop casualties from German shellfire, snipers and bayonet fighting.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge was a great tactical success, and it signified, for many, Canada’s coming of age as a nation.
- 17 Oct 1917—6 Nov 1917: The Battle of Passchendaele
Resources at Library and Archives Canada
Passchendaele, or the Third Battle of Ypres, was one of the most controversial battles of the entire war, denounced by contemporary politicians as savage, vain, bloody and a pitiful waste of human courage. The spectre of soldiers dying, even drowning in a sea of mud, was so harrowing that it inspired poets, composers and artists to depict the unspeakable horror years after it took place. Nature conspired to turn the battlefield into the nightmare they described. Situated in a low-lying area reclaimed from marshy lands by means of an elaborate drainage system, the vulnerable terrain was easily and quickly destroyed by shellfire. Once shelling started, flooding would rapidly turn the whole battlefield into a sea of mud.
- 6 Dec 1917—6 Dec 1917: Halifax Explosion
Resources at Library and Archives Canada
The Halifax Explosion occurred on December 6, 1917 when two ships, the Imo and the Mont Blanc, collided. The French Mont Blanc was a munitions ship coming from New York with cargo to join the convoy for Bordeaux. The neutral Norwegian-registered vessel, Imo, was a chartered ship on the way to load relief supplies in New York for Belgium. The 2,750 tons of explosives devastated the city of Halifax, killing 1,600 persons and causing another 9,000 casualties.
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| 5 | 1918 | - 1918—1919: Spanish Flu Epidemic
Resources at Library and Archives Canada
Resources at Wikipedia
The Spanish flu killed 21 million people worldwide in 1918-1919, including some 50,000 Canadians. It was brought back to Canada by returning troops and made its way into the remotest communities. A number of villages in Quebec and Labrador were almost totally exterminated by the disease.
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| 6 | 1939 | - 1 Sep 1939—15 Aug 1945: World War II (or the Second World War)
"World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. In a state of total war, directly involving more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries, the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, including the strategic bombing of population centres, and, with the development of nuclear weapons, the only two uses of such in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, resulting in 70 to 85 million fatalities, with more civilians than military personnel killed. Tens of millions of people died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, massacres, and disease. In the wake of the war, Germany and Japan were occupied, and war crimes tribunals were conducted against German and Japanese leaders."
-- Source: Wikipedia Entry
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| 7 | 1950 | - 1950—1970: Construction of the Trans-Canada Highway
Resources at Library and Archives Canada
As early as 1910, there were calls for a national road across Canada. Nearly 40 years later, the Trans-Canada Highway Act (1949) provided millions of dollars in cost-shared funding for provincial governments. It was not until July 30, 1962, however, when the 7,821-kilometre Trans-Canada Highway was formally opened at Rogers Pass. Finished in 1970, the Trans-Canada Highway is the largest national highway in the world.
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| 8 | 1967 | - 1967—17 Apr 1982: Proclamation of the Constitution Act, 1982
Resources at Library and Archives Canada
By 1967, Canada had its own national symbols and possessed all the powers of an independent nation, with one exception: the power to amend its own Constitution, which could only be done by the British Parliament. Repatriating the Constitution was a long and complicated process.
The signing of the proclamation on April 17, 1982, marked the end of efforts by many successive governments. The new Constitution was accompanied by The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and an amending formula that would no longer require an appeal to the British Parliament.
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Rick Dondo's Family Tree
