Readable, teachable news.
Friday, April 19, 2024
Toronto had a special visitor last week. The United Kingdom’s Prince Henry of Wales — better known as Prince Harry — was in town to announce that Toronto will host the Invictus Games in 2017.
The Invictus Games are similar to the Olympics or the Paralympics, except that the competitors are all soldiers–most of them wounded from combat.
Special events were held around the world in August to mark the hundredth anniversary of the start of World War I.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper attended a ceremony at the National War Memorial in Ottawa on August 3. He placed a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to honour all soldiers who have fought for Canada.
Veterans’ Affairs, the government department that serves men and women from Canada’s military, is being criticized.
The last remaining veteran from the WWI has died. Claude Choules was 110 years old.
A “veteran” is someone who has fought in a war. WWI, or World War I, began in the summer of 1914 and ended in November 1918. About 70 million people fought in the war, and more than seven million of them were killed. More than half a million Canadians fought in WWI and 60,000 died. Another 170,000 Canadians were wounded in the war.
Choules pretended to be older than he was, when he signed up for the war at age 13. He tried to become a boy bugler, but was sent instead to a boys’ training ship. He served in the British Navy on the battleship HMS Revenge. From his ship, he watched as the Germans surrendered on Nov. 21, 1918.
