Over the course of the 20th century, Canada has faced numerous terrrible and unpleasent misfortunes. These five events are Canada’s most significant low-light moments because every one of these events affected Canada in a negative way. The Halifax Explosion was a large explosion that happened during the First World War and destroyed the north end of Halifax completely. Twelve years later, the Great Stock Market Crash occured and led to the Great Depression that lasted for a decade. Then, during the Second World War, the Battle of Hong Kong and Dieppe Raid took place and took thr lives of many Canadian soldiers. These fve occasions were extremely devestating for Canada during the 20th century. …show more content…
October 29, 1929 otherwise known as Black Tuesday was the start of a very difficult time for Canada. The decline of the stock market began a couple days before Black Tuesday on October 24th. On that day the New York Stock Exchange experienced massive declines in wold trading. (Hillmer, The Great Crash) Thousands of accounts were demolished before leading bankers got involved and stopped the slump temporarily. (Hillmer, Great Depression) The declines extended to Toronto and forced a lot of people to start selling their stocks along with people in New York and Montreal out of panic. (Colyer, 252) On October 28th, the value of the Toronto Stock Exchange was falling $1 million a minute. (Colyer, 252) As the stock markets continued to worsen, the price of stocks decreased as sellers tried to get rid of their losses. (Colyer, 252) By the end of Black Tuesday, anyone who invested in the the Stock Market lost fortunes and the economy was in ruins. (Hillmer, Great …show more content…
The raid took place on August 19, 1942 annd nearly 5,000 of the 6,100 troops were Canadian (The 1942 Dieppe Raid) In the morning of August 19th, Major General J.H Roberts staged attacks on Dieppe beach at four designated sections. (Herd, Dieppe Raid) The four sections were named Blue, Green, Red and White Beach. (Herd, Dieppe Raid) The plan was for Canadian troops to attack Dieppe while the British distracted German batteries. (Thompsan, The Dieppe Raid) But, nothing went as planned because last minute changes were made to the plan and caused the mission to be chaotic. (Thompson, The Dieppe Raid) For example, the seaborne attack was cancelled due to bad weather and air bombardment and battleships were reduced as well. (Thompson, The Dieppe Raid) Along with the changes, the Canadian soldiers weren’t properly trained and the allies lost the element of surprise when an allied naval craft heading towards Dieppe crossed paths with a German Convoy. (Herd, Dieppe Raid) During the attack, the allies had trouble getting past Dieppe beach because the Germans were prepared and awaiting the attack. At the beach, the infantry was slaughtered by vicious cross-fire from machiene guns and tanks couldn’t get past the beach and into the city because of anti-tank guns and cement road blocks. (Thompson, The Dieppe Raid) The raid ended nine hours after it began with 907 Canadians dead. (1942 Dieppe