May 1940: General Maurice Gamelin, Commander in Chief of the French Army, reviews Canadian troops at Aldershot, England shortly before the Dunkirk evacuation.
Second World War.
Tag Archives: Photograph
On this day: the end of the war
7th May 1945: Two women stand on Saint Catherine Street, reading the front page of The Montreal Daily Star. The newspaper announces “Germany Quit” – signalling the end of the Second World War in Europe.
Canada declared war on Germany on the 10th of September, 1939.
Happy May Day!
Happy May Day! Here is May Day on the village green in Luddington, Warwickshire, England in 1933.
On this day: Frenchwomen finally vote
After decades of campaigning, the women of France voted for the first time on the 29th of April, 1945, when municipal elections were held. Legislation for women’s suffrage had been passed in October the year before.
While late, France wasn’t the last European country to grant women the vote. Women’s suffrage came even later in Italy, Greece, San Marino, Monaco, Andorra and Switzerland. Liechtenstein was the last to adopt equal voting rights – only in 1984.
This image from May of 1935 is of French suffragette Louise Weiss demonstrating alongside women holding papers saying The Frenchwoman Must Vote.
On this day: Workmen in London
Workers at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London remove scaffolding from the Victoria Tower. The image appeared in The Illustrated London News on the 20th of March, 1954.
From The Londonist, via the British Newspaper Archive.
On this day: the Christmas Season in Spain
5th January 1962: The Three Wise Men arrive at Barajas Airport in Madrid, Spain, where crowds of children wait to greet them.
On this day: Wounded soldiers in Norway.
27th December 1941: Wounded soldiers are transferred onto a landing craft in Vaagso (the island of Vågsøy), Norway. The country was under Nazi occupation at the time.
The photograph was taken during the one-day Operation Archery, a combined British and Norwegian raid against German forces that resulted in an Allied victory over the Nazis.
The Norwegian commander of the raid, Martin Linge, was killed in action during the operation.
