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WW2 begins
WW2 begins when Adolf Hitler sends German troops to invade Poland. -
S.S St. Louis rejected from Canada
907 jewish passengers aboard the S.S St. Louis were desperate to flee from Germany and Canada was their last hope. Canada didn't let them dock in any ports and they were forced back to Europe. Many of the people aboard later died in concentration camps. -
Canada declares war on Germany
Canada declares war a week after Britain and France. The week delay was a symbol of independence for Canada. -
Air training plan established
Mackenzie King wanted to avoid conscription so instead of helping with the war by providing troops, he decided to create the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan to train pilots. -
Nazi, Communist and Facist groups in Canada made illegal
Leaders of these groups were jailed. -
Conscription act passed
The NRMA allowed for conscription, but only for home defence. -
German POW escapes from Canada
Oberleutnant Franz von Warrna escaped from Ontario and returned to Europe, making him the only German POW to make it back from Canada. -
Neil Diamond's birthday
Neil Diamond's birthday is January 24, 1941. He's a cool guy. -
Hyde Park declaration
Mackenzie King and F.D Roosevelt signed the Hyde Park declaration which united the economies for the war. -
Women enlist in army
The government passed legislation that allowed women to enlist. However, most were assigned jobs that were traditional female roles, such as cooking, laundry, etc. -
Attack on Pearl Harbour
Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes surprise attacked an American naval base near Honolulu. More than 2000 Americans died in the attack. -
Canada declares war on Japan
Canada declares war after the Pearl Harbour attacks. -
Japanese canadians interned
Over 20,000 men, women and children, most of them Canadian citizens, were taken from their homes into internment camps. They stayed in these camps for the rest of the war. -
Conscription Act amended
The Conscription Act was amended to give the government power to conscript overseas. -
Battle of Dieppe
More than 900 Canadians were killed after being sent to Dieppe as a test and to gain knowledge and experience. It did not end well. -
Germany surrenders to Soviet army
After years of the Soviets being pushed back by Nazi forces, they won the battle of Stalingrad after Germany surrenders. This ended one of the bloodiest battles of the war and turned the tide of the war. -
Quebec conference
These conferences were between Britain and America to discuss the course of the war. Mackenzie King didn't take part in these conferences, but instead hosted them. -
D-Day
About 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of France’s Normandy region. This was one of the biggest invasions in history. -
Air training program closes
The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan closes after training 130,000 pilots. -
Germany surrenders to western allies
Germany surrenders unconditionally, and surrenders to the Soviets the next day. -
War ends in Europe, VE-Day riots in Halifax
Riots broke out in Halifax over VE-Day. About 10 000 servicemen looted and vandalized downtown. The war ends in Europe after Germany surrenders. -
Canada joins United Nations
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Bomb dropped on Hiroshima
An American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb on August 6, 1945 on Hiroshima. It immediately killed 80,000 people and destroyed most of the city and killed tens of thousands more from radiation exposure. -
Bomb dropped on Nagasaki
The bomb destroyed about 30% of the city and those who survived suffered severe injuries or radiation sickness. -
Japanese surrender
This brought WW2 to a close.
