| 1939 - 1950 | |
| 1939 | September 10 | Canada declares war on Germany. |
| September 16 | Convoy HX1 departs Halifax escorted by HMCS Fraser and HMCS St. Laurent. The Foreign Exchange Control Board pegs value of the Canadian Dollar at 90 cents US and the Pound Sterling at $4.34 Canadian. |
| October 25 | General Election in Quebec - the Liberal Party wins 53.5% of the popular vote and 69 seats in the National Assembly ousting Premier Duplessis' Union Nationale Government which goes into opposition with 39% of the popular vote and 15 seats. Quebec ministers in the federal cabinet had threatened to resign if Duplessis remained in power. |
| November 8 | Liberal Party leader Adelard Godbout becomes Premier of Quebec. |
| November | Canadian Military Headquarters is established in London under command of General A.G.L. MacNaughton who reports directly to the Chief of Staff in Ottawa. |
| December 10 | Troop Convoy #1 carrying 1st Canadian Infantry Division sails from Halifax. |
| December 17 | The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan agreement is signed by Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Canada is to provide bases and training for Commonwealth aircrews. |
| December 27 | The first Canadian troops arrive in England. They are based at base at Aldershot on Salisbury Plain where the Canadian Expeditionary Force camped on arrival for World War I. |
| 1940 | January | The Ontario legislature approves a resolution sponsored by Premier Mitchell Hepburn condemning the federal government's war policies as weak and inadequate. |
| January 18 | HMCS Morden sinks U-756 in the North Atlantic. |
| February 11 | The Governor General, Baron Tweedsmuir, dies of head injuries suffered during a stroke five days earlier. |
| February | The Royal Canadian Air Force No.110 City of Toronto Squadron arrives in Britain. |
| March 26 | General Election - MacKenzie King's Liberals win a record majority. Dorise Nielsen, a secret member of the Communist Party, is elected as an independent in the North Battleford district of Saskatchewan. |
| | Distribution of seats in the new House of Commons:Liberals 183, Conservatives 40, Social Credit 9, CCF 8 and Independents 5 |
| April 18 | The Loyal Edmonton and Princess Patricia's Regiments leave Aldershot bound for Norway but are turned back in Scotland. |
| April 25 | Quebec grants women suffrage in provincial elections. |
| April 30 | The Foreign Exchange Acquisition Order requires Canadian residents to sell their foreign exchange to the Foreign Exchange Control Board. |
| May 15 | Three members of the Communist Party are imprisoned for distributing seditious literature. |
| May 30 | National Unity Party leader Adrien Arcand is arrested in Montreal and charged with plotting to overthrow the state. |
| June | Force Z - 2650 officers and men of the Royal Regiment of Canada, Fusiliers Mont-Royal and Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa begin occupation duty in Iceland. |
| June 5 | Federal Justice Minister Ernest Lapointe issues the Defence of Canada Regulations under the War Powers Act. The Communist Party of Canada, the Labour Defence League, the League for Peace and Democracy, the German Labour Front, the Canadian Branch of the NADSP and other pro-fascist organizations are banned. |
| June 12 | Canadian troops land at Brest, France as part of second British Expeditionary Force attempting to halt the German advance into Brittany. |
| June 15 | Canadian troops reach Laval 200 kilometers east of Brest where the station master informs them that Paris has fallen and the Germans are only 40 km away. The retreat to Brest begins. |
| June 17 | Canadian forces are withdrawn from Brittany. |
| June 21 | Major General Sir Alexander Cambridge, Prince Alexander of Teck and Earl of Athlone, an uncle of King George VI sworn in as Governor General of Canada. |
| | Parliament passes the National Resources Mobilization Act allowing conscription for home defense. |
| | Royal Canadian Air Force No.1 Fighter Squadron arrives at RAF Middle Wallop. |
| | Justice Minister Lapointe bans the National Unity Party. Adrien Arcand and 10 other NUP leaders interned for the duration of the war. |
| June 25 | Destroyer HMCS Fraser sinks after colliding with HMS Calcutta in the estuary of the Gironde River during evacuation of Bordeaux. 59 crewmen are lost. |
| July 8 | The Federal Government announces that single men will be conscripted for 40 days of military training. Men married before July 15th are exempted. |
| August 1 | The first contingent of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division lands in Great Britain. |
| August 5 | Montreal Mayor Camillien Houde is arrested and interned after urging Quebeckers to refuse to register for home defense conscription. |
| August 18 | Prime Minister King and President Roosevelt meet in Ogdensburg, New York to sign an agreement establishing the Permanent Joint Board on Defense which is to coordinate Canadian and American defense planning. |
| August 24 | RCAF No.1 Fighter Squadron shoots down two Royal Air Force Blenheim bombers mistaken for Junkers JU-88s. |
| August 31 | HMCS Moose Jaw rams U-501 in the Denmark Straight. The crew and 1 member of a Canadian boarding party go down with the submarine when it is scuttled on orders of the captain. |
| August | The Canadian Government closes the Port Radium mines, citing reduced demand. |
| September 19 | HMCS Levis is torpedoed and sunk by U-74, 120 miles off Greenland. |
| September 20 | Six United States Navy destroyers are turned over to the Royal Canadian Navy under terms of the Lend Lease Agreement. |
| October 18 | HMCS Bras d'Or disappears while on convoy duty in Gulf of Saint Lawrence near Anticosti Island. |
| October 22 | HMCS Margaree collides with a freighter and sinks 500 km West of Ireland. 142 officers and crewmen are lost. |
| November 6 | HMCS Ottawa sinks the Italian submarine Faa di Bruno off the coast of Ireland. |
| November 9 | HMCS Collingwood, first corvette in the Royal Canadian Navy, is commissioned at Collingwood, Ontario. |
| December 1 | HMCS Saguenay is torpedoed and damaged by an Italian submarine off Gibraltar. |
| 1941 | March 26 | HMCS Otter is sunk after an accidental explosion and fire off Halifax. 19 crew are lost. |
| April | The Hyde Park Declaration is issued following a meeting between Franklin Roosevelt and Mackenzie King at the President's home. The United States agrees to increase purchases of Canadian goods. Canadian purchases of American material are to be charged against Great Britain's Lend Lease account. |
| June 1 | Census returns place Canada's population at 11,506,655. |
| August 13 | The Canadian Women's Army Corps is founded. |
| August | A combined Canadian-British-Norwegian expedition destroys mining and communication facilities on Spitzbergen. |
| September 10 | U-501 is sunk in Denmark Strait by HMCS Chambly and HMCS Moosejaw. The Moosejaw picks up 37 survivors after ramming the submarine. |
| October 18 | The Federal Government institutes wage and price controls. |
| October 21 | The Cooperative Commonwealth Federation finishes first in elections for the British Columbia legislature with 33.3% of the vote. |
| October 27 | 1,973 troops of The Royal Rifles of Canada and The Winnipeg Grenadiers depart Vancouver aboard the SS Awatea and HMCS Prince Robert for garrison duty in Hong Kong. |
| November 16 | Canadian troops land in Hong Kong. |
| December 7 | Canada declares war on Japan. |
| | The corvette HMCS Windflower is sunk following collision with Dutch freighter in convoy. 23 crewmen are lost. |
| December 9 | Liberal and Conservative party members form a coalition government in British Columbia to prevent a takeover by the socialist CCF. Premier Pattullo resigns rather than take part in the coalition. |
| December 11 | Winnipeg Grenadiers Company D is sent to reinforce British troops holding the Gin Drinkers Line on the Hong Kong mainland. Japanese attacks force a withdrawal to Hong Kong Island later that day. |
| December 18 | The Royal Rifles of Canada launch a failed counterattack against Japanese positions on Sai Wan Hill and Mount Butler on Hong Kong Island. |
| December 19 | Japanese troops surround the headquarters of Brigader J. K. Lawson at Wong Nei Chong Gap on Hong Kong Island. Lawson is killed in attempted breakout (first Canadian General killed in WWII). |
| December 19 | Sergeant Major John Robert Osborn of The Winnepeg Grenadiers dies during an attempt to recapture Mount Butler on Hong Kong Island. Osborn falls on a grenade to save others in his company. He is posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. |
| December 20 | The Royal Rifles of Canada attempt to relieve Lawson's headquarters. They advance as far as Ty Tam Tuck Reservoir before being driven back to the Repulse Bay Hotel which is held for two more days. |
| December 23 | The Royal Rifles of Canada withdraw to Hong Kong 's Stanley Peninsula. |
| December 25 | Canadians launch one last assault before Hong Kong surrenders at 3:15 p.m. The battle for Hong Kong ends with 290 Canadians killed and 493 wounded. 260 survivors die during captivity. |
| December 30 | Winston Churchill addresses the Canadian Parliament and replies to a French General's remark that England would have her neck rung like a chicken within three weeks, "Some chicken, some neck!" |
| 1942 | February 10 | The corvette HMCS Spikenard is torpedoed and sunk by U-136 off Iceland. 57 crewmen are lost. |
| February 26 | Prime Minister King orders the evacuation of all persons of Japanese ancestry from the coastal regions of British Columbia. |
| March 9 | Construction begins on the 1522 mile Alaska-Canada Military Highway linking Dawson Creek, British Columbia and Fairbanks, Alaska. |
| April 4 | A Catalina piloted by Squadron Leader L.J. Birchall of RCAF Squadron No.413 radios a sighting of the Japanese fleet 560 km south east of and steaming towards Ceylon. Birchall and his crew are shot down and taken prisoner. |
| April 27 | A national referendum frees the Liberal Government of Prime Minister King from its pledge not to impose conscription. The measure is approved in all provinces and territories by a margin of 64.2% to 35.8% except Quebec where voters defeat the measure by a 74.54% to 25.46% margin. |
| | The Norwegian heavy water supply is transferred from the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge to the Montreal Laboratory of the Canadian National Research Council. |
| May 11 | Canadian territory is attacked for the first time. Two freighters are torpedoed in the St.Lawrence River. |
| June 20 | Japanese ships fire 30 shells at a wireless station on the coast of Vancouver Island. |
| July | First Special Service Force "the Devil's Brigade" is activated at Fort William Henry Harrison near Helena, Montana. The mixed Canadian-American brigade received special training in amphibious, parachute and ski commando tactics. |
| July 15 | The Canadian Government acquires a financial interest in Eldorado Gold Mines Limited under a secret agreement concluded between the Minister of Defence C. D. Howe and Gilbert Labine. Howe rejected a British suggestion that the company be acquired by and the shares equally divided between the Canadian, American and British Governments. |
| July 24 | HMCS St. Croix sinks the U-90 in the North Atlantic. |
| July 31 | HMCS Wetaskiwin and HMCS Skeena sink the U-588 in the North Atlantic. |
| | Eldorado Gold Mines' Port Radium mines and Port Hope refinery are reopened to supply American and British research programs with uranium. |
| August 19 | Operation Jubilee - 4,963 Canadians accompanied by 1000 British commandos and 50 US Army Rangers launch an amphibious assault along 10 mile wide beachhead centered on the English Channel port of Dieppe, France. Operations commander Major General J. H. Roberts orders the troops to withdraw after a disastrous 8 hour battle. Canadians losses are 2753 killed, wounded or captured. |
| August 19 | Lieutenant Colonel Charles Cecil Ingersoll Merritt, The South Saskatchewan Regiment, is awarded the Victoria Cross for leading an assault on the Scie River bridge. |
| August 19 | Captain John W. Foote, chaplain of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, is awarded the Victoria Cross. Foote voluntarily left the landing craft evacuating him and surrendered to the Germans in order to minister to POWs. |
| September | Consolidated Mining & Smelting Company receives a $2.5 million contract to supply the United States Government with Heavy Water (deuterium) to be produced as a by product of the company's ammonia fertilizer plant at Trail, British Columbia. |
| September 7 | HMCS Raccoon is torpedoed and sunk in the Saint Lawrence River by U-165. All hands are lost. |
| September 10 | Corvette HMCS Charlottetown is torpedoed and sunk in the Saint Lawrence River near Cap Chat, Quebec by U-517.- 9 crewmen are lost. |
| September 14 | Destroyer HMCS Ottawa is torpedoed and sunk in the North Atlantic by U-91. 141 crewmen are lost. |
| October 11 | RCMP schooner Saint Roch arrives in Halifax after a two and one half year voyage from Vancouver via the Northwest Passage. |
| October 21 | Conservative leader Arthur Meighen is defeat in a bid to return to the House Commons by an unknown school teacher J.W. Noseworthy of the CCF in York South. Ontario's Liberal premier, Mitchell Hepburn, who crossed party lines to support Meighen's call for an intensified war effort resigns. |
| November 8 | Captain Fredrick Peters of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island leads HMS Walney in breaching the harbor defenses of Oran, Algeria. Peters, the only surviving officer on the Walney and is awarded the Victoria Cross. |
| November 9 | Canada breaks diplomatic relations with Vichy. The French consul in Quebec is expelled. The French legation in Ottawa is closed. General Vanier is appointed Canadian delegate to the French National Council of Liberation in London. |
| November 20 | A ceremony marking the opening of the Alaska-Canada Military Highway is held at Soldiers Summit, Yukon Territory in -35°weather. |
| December 5 | Toronto RCAF Hurricanes defeat the Winnipeg RCAF Bombers 8 to 5 to win the Grey Cup football championship. Canada's two football leagues suspended play for the duration the war and service teams competed for the cup. |
| December 10 | John Bracken former Liberal-Progressive Premier of Manitoba agrees to accept the leadership of the federal Conservative Party after its convention adopts a resolution renaming it the Progressive -Conservative Party. |
| December 27 | U-356 is sunk north of the Azores by HMCS St. Laurent, Chilliwack, Battleford and Napanee. |
| 1943 | February 6 | Corvette HMCS Louisbourg is sunk by Italian aircraft off Oran while escorting convoy from Gibraltar to Bone, Algeria. 42 crewmen are lost. |
| February 17 | Prime Minister King appoints a committee to study Social Security. |
| February 22 | Corvette HMCS Weyburn hits a mine and sinks off Gibraltar. 9 crewmen are lost. |
| March | Atlantic Convoy Conference - Rear Admiral Leonard W. Murray RCN is appointed Commander in Chief of the Canadian Northwest Atlantic sector covering an area east from New York and south from Greenland. |
| March 4 | U-87 is sunk in the North Atlantic west of Leixoes by HMCS Shediac and St. Croix. |
| March 13 | U-163 is sunk NW of Cape Finisterre by HMCS Prescott. |
| March 23 | Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railways announce that their Rocky Mountain resorts at Banff Springs, Lake Louise and Japser National Park will not open for the summer due to decreased tourism and lack of staff. |
| April 29 | Major General H. L. N. Salmon, commander of the 1st Canadian Division and several senior officers are killed when their Tunis bound plane crashes during takeoff from a British airfield. General Guy Simonds replaces Salmon as 1st Division commander. |
| May 23 | Alberta Premier William Aberhart dies. He is succeeded by Ernest C. Manning. |
| June | Eldorado Gold Mines is reorganized as Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited. |
| July 4 | Three ships of a convoy carrying Canadian troops to Sicily are torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean. 58 men are killed, 500 vehicles and 30 artillery pieces are sunk. |
| July 10 | Canadian troops land unopposed at Pacino Beach, Sicily. |
| July 12 | Italian General Achilles d'Havet surrenders his headquarters at Modica, Sicily to General Simonds without a fight. |
| July 24 | The Royal Canadian Regiment suffers heavy casualties at beginning of a five day battle to capture the key crossroads town of Agira, Sicily on the Catania-Palemro highway. |
| July | Eldorado Mining receives a request from the Soviet Government to supply it with 7.5 tons of uranium. The Defence Ministry refuses permission for the sale. |
| August 3 | Canadian and Maltese brigades force withdrawal of the Hermann Goering Division from Regalbuto, Sicily. |
| August 4 | General election for the Ontario legislature - Conservatives lead by George Drew win 38 seats to 34 for the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and 2 Communists. Tories control Canada's largest province for the next 42 years. |
| August 15 | 5,300 Canadian and 30,000 American troops led by the First Special Service Force "the Devil's Brigade" land on Kiska in the Aleutian Islands hours after Japanese troops have been evacuated under cover of fog. |
| August 17 | Allied leaders including President Roosevelt, Prime Ministers Churchill and King and Chinese Foreign Minister T.V.Soong meet at the Quebec Conference. A unified Allied command under Lord Mountbatten is created for the China-Burma- India Theatre over the objections of Admiral King. |
| September 3 | The 1st Canadian Division crosses the Straits of Messina and captures Reggio di Calbria without opposition. |
| September 20 | Destroyer HMCS St.Croix is torpedoed and sunk by U-305 off Iceland. 148 crewmen are lost (including 81 rescued by HMS Itchen which is itself sunk 2 days later). |
| October 21 | Minesweeper HMCS Chedabucto is sunk after a collision with the cable layer Lord Kelvin 30 miles off Rimouski, Quebec. One crewman is killed. |
| October 23 | The Royal Canadian Regiment advances to the northside of the Biferno River above Campobasso, Italy. |
| November 20 | U-536 is sunk NE of the Azores by HMCS Snowberry, HMCS Calgary and HMS Nene. |
| November 27 | Hamilton Flying Wildcats defeat the Winnipeg RCAF Bombers 23 to 14 to win the Grey Cup football championship. |
| December 5 | The Seaforth Highlanders, Hastings & Prince Edward and Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Regiments cross the Moro River towards Ortona. |
| December 6 | A German counterattack forces the Seaforths and Hasty P's back across the Moro. |
| December 9 | Engineers build a bridge across the Moro River. The 48th Highlanders and the Royal Canadian Regiment capture San Leonardo on the north bank of the Moro. |
| December 14 | Captain Paul Triquet, Royal 22e Regiment, leads an attack on German forces holding the key junction of Casa Berardi on the Ortona-Orsogana road, Italy. Triquet is awarded the Victoria Cross. |
| December 18 | The 48th Highlanders and Three Rivers Tank Regiment capture Casa Berardi. |
| December 20 | The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada and Loyal Edmonton Regiment begin an assault on Ortona at the Adriatic end of the Winter Line. |
| December 28 | Ortona falls to the Canadians after a week of house to house fighting with German paratroopers holding the city. |
| | Byelection in Montreal-Cartier - Fred Rose defeats David Lewis the candidate of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation to become the first member of the Communist Party openly elected to the House of Commons. |
| 1944 | January 8 | U-757 is sunk SW of Iceland by HMCS Camrose and HMS Bayntun. |
| February 16 | The Canol oil pipeline linking the fields at Norman Wells, NWT with a newly constructed refinery at Whitehorse Yukon is completed. The 577 mile pipeline cost $134,000,000. The refinery shutsdown at the end of the war and is sold to Imperial Oil in 1947 for $7,000,000. |
| February 16 | Major Charles Hoey of Duncan, British Columbia wipes out a Japanese machine gun nest while leading a company of the Lincolnshire Regiment in a night time assault in Burma. Hoey is killed in the attack and posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. |
| February 24 | HMCS Waskesiu sinks U-257 in the North Atlantic. |
| March 10 | U-845 is sunk in the North Atlantic by HMCS St. Laurent, Owensound, Swansea and HMS Forester. |
| | The Government exercises the right of eminent domain to acquire all outstanding shares in Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited. |
| April | The Combined Policy Committee decides that Canada should build a heavy water reactor for the production of plutonium and U-233 for use in atomic weapons. Defence Industries Limited begins construction of a small experimental reactor ZEEP, a large production reactor NRX and two separations plants (one for processing plutonium from uranium and another for the separation of U-233 from thorium) at Chalk River, Ontario. |
| April 4 | Destroyer HMCS Athabaskan is torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel by German torpedo boat T-24. 128 crewmen are lost. |
| April 14 | U-448 sunk north east of the Azores by HMCS Swansea and HMS Pelican. |
| May 6 | Frigate HMCS Valleyfield is torpedoed and sunk by U-548 fifty miles off Cape Race. 125 crewmen are lost. |
| May 11 | Allied forces including the 5th Canadian Armoured Division break through the Gustav and Hitler Lines and begin a march up the Liri Valley towards Rome. |
| May 22 | Major John Keefer Mahony, The Westminster Regiment, leads a successful crossing of the Melfa River, Italy and holds the bridgehead against a powerful German counter attack. Mahony is award the Victoria Cross. |
| June 6 | The 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion drops into Normandy just after midnight as part of the 6th British Airborne Division assigned to capture bridges over the River Orne. 10,000 sailors and 109 ships of the Royal Canadian Navy are in the D-Day armada. Sixteen RCN Bangor class minesweepers clear the invasion lanes for Allied landing craft. The 3rd Canadian Infantry Division led by the North Shore Regiment lands at Juno Beach near St. Aubin sur Mer, Normandy at 0745. 14,000 Canadians land on D-Day 359 are killed in action and 715 wounded. RCAF Squadrons 441, 442 and 443 fly the first allied sorties from French airfields since June 1940. |
| June 7 | 18 North Nova Scotia Highlanders and Sherbrooke Fusiliers taken prisoner by the Germans in fighting near Authie murdered in the garden of the Abbey of Ardenne. |
| June 12 | Pilot Officer Andrew Charles Mynarski RCAF dies of burns suffered when he attempts to free the tail gunner of his damaged Lancaster bomber before bailing out over Cambrai. The tailgunner survives the crash and Mynarski is posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. |
| June 15 | The Saskatchewan general election is won by the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation. |
| June 17 | Two more Canadian POWs are murdered in the Abbey of Ardenne. |
| June 24 | U-971 is sunk in the English Channel north of Brest by HMCS Haida, HMS Eskimo and a Czech piloted RAF Liberator bomber. |
| June 25 | Flight Lt. David Ernest Hornell, RCAF, pilots a twin engine amphibious plane in a an air-sea battle with a surfaced U-boat off the Shetland Islands. The U-boat is sunk but Hornell is forced to ditch his badly damaged aircraft and dies of exposure before the rest of his crew is rescued. Hornell is posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. |
| July 1 | RCN motor torpedo boat MBT-460 hits a mine and in the English Channel. The captain and 9 crewmen are lost. |
| July 4 | The North Shore Regiment and Regiment de la Chaudiere capture Capriquet on the outskirts of Caen after heavy fighting with SS Panzer Divisions. |
| July 7 | RCN motor torpedo boat MBT-463 hits a mine and sinks in the English Channel. |
| | U-678 is sunk in the English Channel off Brighton by HMCS Ottawa, Kootenay and HMS Statice. |
| July 9 | Canadian troops capture Caen. |
| July 10 | Saskatchewan Premier Tommy Douglas forms the first socialist provincial government in Canada. |
| July 25 | The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry captures Verrieres. The Black Watch of Canada reaches the height of the Verrieres Ridge only to be driven back by a German counter attack. 450 Canadians are killed in heaviest day of fighting since Dieppe. |
| August 4 | Squadron Leader Ian Bazalgette successfully completes a bombing raid on the V-1 rocket base at Trossy St.Maximin, France despite the loss of both starboard engines and a fire aboard his aircraft. Bazalgette remains at the controls after his crew bails out and guides his damaged Lancaster clear of a small village during a crash landing in which he is killed. Bazalgette is awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously. |
| August 8 | Corvette HMCS Regina is torpedoed and sunk by U-667 off Cornwall. 30 crewmen are lost. |
| August 8 | General Election in Quebec the Liberal Party Government of Adelard Godbout ousted by Maurice Duplessis' Union Nationale Party. Despite a slight edge in the popular vote 39.35% for the Liberal vs 38.6% for the Union Nationale the seats are divided 48 to 37 in favor of the UN. |
| August 18 - 20 | Major David Vivian Currie, The South Alberta Regiment, directs Canadian forces in a fierce battle to capture the village St.Lambert-sur-Dives, France which cuts off the last German escape route from the Falaise Pocket. Major Currie is awarded the Victoria Cross. |
| August 19 | Canadian and American armies link up to close the Falaise Gap. |
| August 20 | U-984 is sunk in the Bay of Biscay off Brest by HMCS Ottawa, Kootenay and Chaudiere. |
| August 21 | Corvette HMCS Alberni is torpedoed and sunk off the Isle of Wight by U-480. 59 crewmen are lost. |
| August 22 | U-621 is sunk in Bay of Biscay off La Rochelle by HMCS Ottawa, Kootenay and Chaudiere. |
| August 30 | Premier Maurice Duplessis' Union Nationale Party returns to power in Quebec. |
| August 30 | The 5th Canadian Armoured Division under Major General Bert Hoffmeister breaks through the Gothic Line south of Rimini on the Adriatic. |
| September 1 | Dieppe falls to the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division two years after the worst Canadian defeat of the war. |
| | U-247 is sunk in the English Channel off Land's End by HMCS St. John and HMCS Swansea. |
| September 16 | Churchill, Roosevelt and Mackenzie King meet at the second Quebec Conference to discuss plans for the upcoming invasion of Europe and the future of Germany. |
| September 17 | The Canadian 3rd Infantry Division begins an attack on German held Boulogne. |
| September 22 | Boulogne falls to the Canadians. 9500 Germans are taken prisoner. The Canadian 2nd Infantry Division crosses the Albert Canal northeast of Antwerp. |
| September 25 | Canadians begin an assault against Germans holding the Channel ports of Calais and Cap Gris Nez. |
| September 28 | The Canadian commander refuses a German request that Calais be declared an open city but agrees to 24 hour truce to allow evacuation of civilians. |
| October 1 | The Calais garrison surrenders. 7,000 Germans are taken prisoner. |
| October 4 | Frigate HMCS Chebouze is torpedoed. |
| October 14 | Frigate HMCS Magog is declared a total loss after suffering torpedo damage. RCN ships land British and Greek troops at the port of Piraeus near Athens. |
| October 16 | HMCS Annan sinks U-1006 southwest of the Faroe Islands. |
| October 21 - 22 | Private Ernest Alvia Smith, The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, single handedly halts a German armored column during an advance across the Savio River, Italy. Private Smith is awarded the Victoria Cross. |
| October 22 | Destroyer HMCS Skeena runs aground off Rekyjavik, Iceland. 15 sailors are killed while abandoning ship. |
| October | Canada recognizes the Provisional Government of the French Republic following General De Gaulle's triumphal visit to Montreal and Ottawa. |
| November 1 | General MacNaughton becomes Defence Minister replacing J. L. Ralston who resigned after Prime Minister King refused to introduce conscription for overseas service. |
| November 8 | Canadian and British forces clear German troops from Walchern Island at the mouth of the River Scheldt. |
| November 23 | Prime Minister King agrees to begin conscription for overseas service. |
| November 24 | Corvette HMCS Shawinigan torpedoed and sunk in Cabot Straight by U-1228. All 91 hands are lost. |
| November 25 | Montreal-St. Hyacinthe Navy Base defeats the Hamilton Flying Wildcats 23 to 14 in the Grey Cup football championship. |
| November 28 | A Canadian freighter leads the first Allied convoy to enter the port of Antwerp. |
| December 24 | Minesweeper HMCS Clayoquot torpedoed by U-806 and sunk at the entrance to Halifax Harbour. 8 crewmen are lost. |
| December 27 | HMCS St. Thomas sinks U-877 northwest of the Azores. |
| 1945 | February 7 | Two men suffer minor injuries after handling a Japanese balloon bomb found in a field near Provost, Alberta. |
| February 14 | Five RCN motor torpedo boats docked at Ostend, Belgium catch fire. 28 sailors die in the fire. |
| February 16 | HMCS St. John sinks U-309 the North Sea east of Moray Firth. |
| February 21 | British and Canadian troops break through the Siegfried Line east of the Reichwald after a two week offensive. |
| February 22 | Corvette HMCS Trentonian is torpedoed and sunk off Falmouth, England by U-1004. 6 of the crew are lost. |
| February 25 - 26 | Sergeant Aubrey Cosens, The Queens Own Rifles of Canada, leads four surviving members of his company in taking three German strong points on the Goch-Calcar Road near Mooshof, Germany. Cosens is awarded the Victoria Cross. |
| March 1 | Major Frederick Albert Tilston leads a company of the Essex Scottish Regiment in an assault on heavily fortified German positions in the Hochwald. Tilston is wounded three times during the battle in which his company overruns two German company headquarters. Tilston is awarded the Victoria Cross. |
| March 4 | Canadian forces clear last German troops from the Reichswald and Hochwald. |
| March 7 | U-1302 is sunk in St. George's Channel by HMCS LaHulloise, Strathadan and Thetford Mines. |
| March 17 | Minesweeper HMCS Guysborough is torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel by U-878. 51 crewmen are lost. |
| March 18 | Maurice Richard of the Montreal Canadiens scores his 50th goal in the 50th game of the National Hockey League season setting a record that stands for the next 40 years. |
| March 20 | U-1003 is rammed by HMCS New Glasgow in the Northern Channel off Malin Head. The damaged submarine is scuttled 3 days later. |
| March 23 | The 9th Canadian Infantry crosses the Rhine. |
| | The 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion dropped east of the Rhine near Wesel. |
| March 24 | Corporal Frederick George Topham, a medical orderly with the 1st Canadian Parachute Regiment, rescues three men from a burning personnel carrier though suffering from wounds sustained while tending to the injured after a drop at Diersfordt Wood, Germany. Topham is awarded the Victoria Cross. |
| April 5 | The 4th Canadian Armored Division crosses the Twente anal in Holland. |
| April 14 | The 5th Canadian Armored Division captures Arnhem after two days of house to house fighting. |
| April 16 | Minesweeper HMCS Esquimalt is sunk off Halifax by U-190, last RCN ship sunk in WWII. 44 crewmen are lost. |
| | The 2nd Canadian Infantry Division crosses the Shipbeck Canal and liberates Groningen, Netherlands. |
| April 18 | The 3rd Canadian Infantry Division liberates Leeuwarden, Holland on the North Sea. |
| April 28 | A truce between German forces on the Grebbe Line and Canadian forces allows food supplies to reach famine stricken civilians in western Holland. |
| April | The King Government announces that all Canadians assigned to the Pacific Theater will be volunteers. |
| May 5 | German troops in Holland surrender to General Foulkes at Wageningen and to General Simonds at Bad Zwischenahn. |
| May 8 | VE Day riot in Halifax - Servicemen ransack and loot department stores and businesses including the Keith Brewery from which 118,566 quarts of beer were stolen. |
| June 11 | General Election - The Liberal Government loses its majority. Prime Minister King loses his own seat in Prince Albert on the strength of the military vote. The Cooperative Commonwealth Federation finishes second in balloting by overseas servicemen. |
| | Distribution of seats in the new House of Commons: Liberals 122, Conservatives 66, CCF 28, Social Credit 13 and Others 16 |
| July 20 | The Federal Government distributes the first Family Allowance checks. |
| July 28 | HMCS Uganda withdraws from the British Pacific Fleet after the crew refuse to volunteer for service in the Pacific Theater. |
| August 9 | Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray RCNVR sinks the Japanese destroyer Amakusa in Onagawa Bay before crashing his Corsair. Gray is awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously. |
| August 9 | Lt. G.A. Anderson RCN is killed when the engine of his Corsair fails during approach to deck of HMS Formidable. Anderson is the last Canadian combat casualty of World War II. |
| August 30 | A landing party from HMCS Prince Robert liberates surviving POWs at Hong Kong. |
| September 2 | Japan surrenders. World War II ends. 40,042 Canadians were killed in action. |
| September 5 | Igor Gouzenko, a cypher clerk at the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, defects with evidence of a Soviet spy ring operating in Canada. |
| September 5 | Canada's first nuclear reactor achieves criticality, ZEEP (Zero Energy Experimental Pile) at the Chalk River Laboratory. |
| October 23 | Jack Roosevelt Robinson signs a contract to play baseball for the Montreal Royals. |
| November 9 | Canada joins the United Nations. |
| December 1 | The Toronto Argonauts defeat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 35 to 0 in the first Grey Cup competition between civilian teams in four years. |
| December | General Kurt Meyer is convicted of war crimes for the murder of 20 Canadian POWs in the Abbey of Ardenne and sentenced to life in prison. Meyer is released after serving 8 years of his sentence. |
| 1946 | February 15 | RCMP arrest members of an alleged spy ring reported by Soviet defector Igor Gouzenko. Fred Rose MP for Montreal-Cartier is among the detained. |
| March 2 | Castle Mountain in Banff National Park is renamed Mount Eisenhower. |
| March 14 | Parliament enacts the Canadian Citizenship Act defining Canadian citizenship as distinct from British subjecthood. |
| April 4 | Canada purchases the 1200 mile section of the Alaska-Canada Military Highway between Dawson Creek, British Columbia and the Yukon-Alaska boundary from the United States for $108 million. |
| April 12 | Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander, Earl Alexander of Tunis, is sworn in as Governor General at Ottawa. Alexander is the last non-native born Canadian Governor General. |
| November 1 | First National Basketball Association game is played in Canada. The New York Knickerbockers defeat the Toronto Huskies 68 to 66 at Maple Leaf Gardens. |
| December 18 | Four German POWs are hanged in Lethbridge, Alberta for the September 1944 murder of a fellow prisoner whom they suspected of leading a Communist conspiracy to overthrow their camp's Nazi leadership |
| 1947 | January 1 | The Canadian Citizenship Act takes effect. |
| January 30 | Fred Rose, Communist MP for Montreal-Cartier, is expelled from the House of Commons following his conviction on charges of spying for the Soviet Union. |
| February 13 | Oil is struck at Imperial Oil Company's Leduc No.1 well near Edmonton, Alberta. The modern Canadian petroleum industry is launched. |
| June 22 | NRX the first full scale nuclear reactor at the Chalk River Laboratory achieves initial criticality. |
| 1948 | January 21 | The Fleur de Lis replaces the Union Jack atop Quebec's legislative building. The new banner is adopted as the provincial flag by order in council moments later. |
| February 6 | Barbara Ann Scott wins the Olympic gold medal for figure skating at St. Moritz. |
| June 15 | Canadian citizens of Chinese, Japanese and Indian ancestry are enfranchised for federal elections. |
| November 15 | William Lyon Mackenzie King retires after serving a record 21 years 6 months and a day as Prime Minister of Canada. Louis Stephen Saint Laurent is sworn in as King's successor. |
| 1949 | March 31 | Newfoundland joins the Canadian confederation as the tenth province. |
| April 4 | Canada becomes a charter member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. |
| September 20 | Appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council are abolished. The Supreme Court of Canada becomes the court of last resort for Canadians. |
| 1950 | July 22 | William Lyon Mackenzie King dies at his Kingsmere estate in the Gatineau Hills of Quebec at age 76. |
