| 1 | 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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| 2 | 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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