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Sinking of HMCS Esquimalt
On the evening of 15 April 1945, the Canadian minesweeper HMCS Esquimalt set out from Halifax on an anti-submarine patrol around the harbour approaches.
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On the evening of 15 April 1945, the Canadian minesweeper HMCS Esquimalt set out from Halifax on an anti-submarine patrol around the harbour approaches.
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Article
On the evening of 27 June 1918, while sailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Liverpool, England, the Canadian hospital ship Llandovery Castle was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat (U-86). Of the 258 crew and passengers, only 24 survived. Almost all the Canadian Army Medical Corps personnel were killed: six male officers, 64 enlisted men and 14 nursing sisters. Only one lifeboat escaped; the rest were either sucked under as the ship sank or attacked by the U-boat. The submarine’s officers were later charged with committing a war crime.
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The SS Caribou was a passenger and train ferry that operated in the Cabot Strait between Port aux Basques, Newfoundland and North Sydney, Nova Scotia. On 14 October 1942, the German submarine U-69 sank the vessel, causing the worst loss of life in Canadian waters during the Second World War.
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Spanish-American War, the 1898 conflict between the US and Spain, during which the US removed Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines from Spain, annexing the last 3.
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Article
In the third year of the American Civil War, around 20 Confederate agents raided the town of St. Albans, Vermont. The raid was planned by Confederate spymasters based in St. Catharines and Montreal. On 19 October 1864, the men robbed the town’s three banks and killed a man, before crossing the border into Canada. Fourteen of the raiders were soon arrested. They were brought to trial three times and released each time by Canadian judges. The raid and court decisions worsened relations between Canada and the US, which were already strained.
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Article
Airplanes became an important part of modern warfare during the First World War (1914–18). Aircraft technology developed rapidly and by war’s end, airplanes were involved in reconnaissance, artillery spotting, air-to-air combat, strafing ground targets, anti-submarine warfare, tactical and strategic bombing and home defence. More than 20,000 Canadians served in British flying services (Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force) during the war. Approximately 1,400 were killed or died from wounds or accidents. Canada did not have an air force during the First World War; a single-plane Canadian Aviation Corps was established in 1914, but never saw service and soon disbanded. Later, on 5 August 1918, two Canadian Air Force squadrons were formed in Britain, but were disbanded the next year when the British cut off funding. The Royal Canadian Naval Air Service was formed in September 1918 but lasted only three months before the war ended. Canada would not have a permanent air force until 1924 (see Royal Canadian Air Force).
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In the final summer of the War of 1812, British presence in the Chesapeake region was strengthened in an effort to divert the American forces from the frontiers of Upper and Lower Canada.
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Editorial
The following article is an editorial written by The Canadian Encyclopedia staff. Editorials are not usually updated.
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Editorial
The following article is an editorial written by The Canadian Encyclopedia staff. Editorials are not usually updated.
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Macleans
IT'S BEEN 90 YEARS now since the Guns of August began to fire, and the smoke has yet to clear from the world they made. The fault lines of modern history - from the quagmire in Iraq through Yugoslavia's implosion to the Cold War and beyond - all branch back to the cataclysm of 1914-1918.This article was originally published in Maclean's Magazine on November 8, 2004
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The Nancy was a schooner built in 1789 at the then-British port of Detroit, by a Montréal shipbuilding company under the supervision of John Richardson (whose daughter's and wife's names were Nancy).
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The New Canadian (1938–2001) was an English-language newspaper published by and for the Japanese Canadian community. Initially, the newspaper was founded as a forum for second-generation Japanese Canadians to express and foster their identity as English-speaking Canadians and to support a mission of “cultural, economic, and political assimilation.” (See also Canadian English; Languages in use in Canada.) The newspaper became the primary source of both English- and Japanese-language news for Japanese Canadians during their forced uprooting from the west coast in the 1940s (see Internment of Japanese Canadians). It continued to be published in the postwar years, with its English-language content shifting towards social and community news while its Japanese-language section grew in importance for pre-war and postwar Japanese immigrants. The newspaper was sold to Japan Communications in 1990 and its final edition was published in 2001.
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Editorial
The following article is an editorial written by The Canadian Encyclopedia staff. Editorials are not usually updated.
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Article
A crushing defeat for the British in the War of 1812, the sacking of York began on the morning of 27 April 1813. At dawn, a flotilla of 16 American ships under Commodore Isaac Chauncey made its way to the capital of Upper Canada, York [Toronto]. Landing to the west, the Americans suppressed the small group of warriors defending the shore, while knocking out the town's meagre batteries. The American force of approximately 1,700 men easily assumed control. With the fort poorly defended by an undersized garrison of 700 soldiers and backed by an unenthusiastic (indeed, almost wholly absent) militia, the British general, Sir Roger Hale Sheaffe, retreated. He left behind two local militia officers to negotiate the terms of surrender.
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Article
The Seven Years’ War (1756–63) was the first global war. In North America, Britain and France fought each other with the help of Indigenous allies. At the end of the war, France gave Canada (Quebec) and Ile Royale (Cape Breton) to Britain, among other territories. This is the reason that Canada has a British monarch but three founding peoples — French, British and Indigenous. (This article is a plain-language summary of the Seven Years’ War. If you are interested in reading about this topic in more depth, please see our full-length entry Seven Years’ War.)
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