ON THIS DATE

1 March 1917 4th Division uses poison gas in an attack on Hill 145, Vimy Ridge.

2 March 2011 HMCS Charlottetown heads for Libya to provide humanitarian assistance.

3 March 1915 1st Canadian Division is assigned six kilometres of the front south of Armentières.

4 March 1982 Bertha Wilson is appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada.

5 March 1995 The Canadian Airborne Regiment is officially disbanded, its 600 paratroopers parade for last time as a unit.

6 March 1944 The hunt for U-744 involves HMC ships Chaudière, Gatineau, St. Catharines, Chilliwack and Fennel. 7 March 1866 The Fenian threat moves John A. Macdonald to put 10,000 volunteer militia on alert.

8 March 1975 Canada observes its first International Women’s Day.

9 March 1915 R.H. Mulock is the first Canadian to qualify as a pilot in the British air services.

10 March 1914 Canadians participate in their first WWI battle at Neuve Chapelle, France.

11 March 1952 HMCS Haida is recommissioned for service in Korean waters.

12 March 2014 The Canadian Armed Forces lower the Canadian flag in Afghanistan for the last time.

13 March 1964 Troops and equipment are delivered to the newly created peacekeeping force in Cyprus.

14 March 1974 Duties and equipment of regular and reserve armed forces units are combined under the Total Force concept.

15 March 1951 Seoul is liberated by the 1st Republic of Korea Division.

16 March 1943 One of the worst convoy attacks sinks several Allied merchant ships in a three-day fight as the Battle of the Atlantic begins.

17 March 2003 Prime Minister Jean Chrétien says Canada will not join a war against Iraq without United Nations support. 18 March 1885 The Métis at Batoche, Sask., are warned that soldiers are on their way to arrest Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont.

19 March 1964 Sgt. Maj. Walter Leja receives the George Medal for bravery in dismantling FLQ bombs in Montreal.

20 March 2009 Four soldiers are killed, eight wounded in roadside bombings near Kandahar.

21 March 1918 2nd Lieut. Edmund DeWind is mortally wounded defending a redoubt from attack and is posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

22 March 1885 Maj.-Gen. Frederick Middleton is given command of the Winnipeg Militia, in readiness for the Northwest Rebellion.

23 March 1942 Air Vice-Marshal E.W. Stedman becomes the RCAF’s first director general of air research.

24 March 1917 The Canadian Cavalry Brigade begins a four-day advance on a 20-km front east of Péronne, France.

March

29 March 1945 HMCS Teme is damaged beyond repair by U-246’s torpedoes in the English Channel.

30 March 1972 The Royal Canadian Navy discontinues the daily issue of a tot of rum, a tradition since 1910.

31 March 1902 Canadian Mounted Rifles 2nd Regiment stand their ground against Boer guerilla fighters at Hart’s River; 13 are killed, 40 wounded.

3 April 1669

King Louis XIV orders men to be organized into companies for military training.

25 March 1958 First test flight of the CF-105 Arrow interceptor.

26 March 1940 Re-election of William Lyon Mackenzie King and the Liberals. 27 March 1918 Wounded several times in a dogfight, Alan Arnett McLeod crash-lands in no man’s land. He is awarded the Victoria Cross.

28 March 1945 The Royal Canadian Engineers complete the longest Bailey bridge of the war, over the Rhine River in Germany.

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