Re: Happy Birthday, USA

>New Zealand : Feb 6th - "Waitangi Day"
>celebrating the signing of the treaty of Waitangi between the
>Maori and the Pake Ha (Europeans) in 1840.
>
>Australia : Jan 27th - "Australia Day"
>commemorating the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788.
>

For completeness sakes...

Canada's 'birthday' is July 1st (yes, it was us this week too...), and
that
celebrates, quite literally, the 'birth of the nation' - Confederation,
when the separate British colonies that became Canada (well, the first
ones... more joined later) all signed up - July 1, 1867.

<trivia>
Speaking of Confederation, Canada's last joinee was Newfoundland, which
was
a separate independent British colony until 1949.

>From a military trivia point of view, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment
suddenly found itself part of the Canadian Army (and is currently a
reserve
regiment of the Canadian Army) and *last* on the list of Regimental
order
of precedence.

They have an honoured tradition dating back a *long* time, to the first
founding by Royal Proclamation in April, 1795 - including the capture of
Detroit in 1812, Ogdensburg in 1813, and the capture of Fort Prairie du
Chien in 1814 and then showing up those high-falootin' Canadians by
getting
into battle much earlier than the Canadians during the WWI (including
fighting at Gallopili - the only "Canadian" regiment there);  they're
also
the only non-Scottish troops to ever garrison Edinburgh Castle.

They didn't become "Canadian" until 1949, after all the other regiments.
There have been a couple of regiments founded after that, but they're
part
of the regular forces, and regular regiments always take precedence over
reserve regiments.  So, the poor Royal Newfoundlanders are rated last,
despite the fact that their traditions go back a lot farther than most
of
the other regiments in the army...

In fact, they claim to be the longest serving Canadian regiment, despite
being last on the list...
</trivia>

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Adrian Johnson
adrian@stargrunt.ca
http://www.stargrunt.ca

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