The military history of Canada entails millennia of armed actions in
the territory encompassing modern Canada, and the role of the Canadian
military in conflicts and peacekeeping worldwide. For at least 10,000
years, the area that would become Canada was the site of intertribal
wars among First Nation groups. Beginning in the 10th century, the
arrival of Europeans led to conflicts with the Natives and among the
invading Europeans in the New World. Starting in the 17th century, the
region was the site of fighting between the French and the British for
more than a century. New challenges soon arose when the northern
colonies chose not to join the American Revolution and remained loyal
to the British crown. The victorious Americans looked to extend their
republic and launched invasions in 1775 and in 1812. After Canada's
independence, and amid much controversy, a fully-fledged Canadian
military was created. Canada's links to Britain remained strong, and
Canadian forces joined their British counterparts in the Boer War, the
First and Second World Wars. Since the Second World War, Canada has
been committed to multilateralism and has gone to war only within
large, UN-sanctioned coalitions such as in the Korean War, the Gulf
War, and the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Canada
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1639:
Jeremiah Horrocks made the first observation of a transit of Venus
from his home near Preston, England.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/transit_of_Venus)
1642:
Dutch explorer Abel Tasman reached Tasmania. He named the island
Anthoonij van Diemenslandt.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmania)
1859:
The Origin of Species by British naturalist Charles Darwin was first
published, and immediately sold out its initial print run.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origin_of_Species)
1963:
On live television, Jack Ruby shot and fatally wounded Lee Harvey
Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ruby)
1971:
After collecting a ransom payout of US$200,000, "D. B. Cooper" leaped
out of the rear stairway of the airplane he had hijacked and
disappeared.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers,
having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or
into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according
to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms
most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."
-- Charles Darwin
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin)