On the afternoon of May 7, 1945, more than 9,000 Canadian sailors were allowed to go ashore to celebrate V-E Day. By midnight the bars and restaurants had closed but downtown Halifax was filled to bursting with celebrating sailors and civilians who had no place to eat or relax. With the bars closed, they rioted instead, setting ablaze streetcars and a police vehicle, smashing windows, looting liquor stores and shops. On Barrington Street, there was so much broken glass in the street it spilled over the top of the curb. One reporter who wandered through the downtown devastation the next morning compared it to "London after a blitz."

The riots might have ended that morning as hungover sailors and civilians stumbled home to sleep off their night before. But the Admiral was not informed of the events of the night before and he allowed another 9,500 sailors to go ashore to join the official VE Day festivities on 8 May. By the time the mayhem ended later that day - after the naval and civic authorities imposed a curfew on the city - there were three men dead, 363 arrested, 654 businesses damaged and 207 bars looted. The total price tag: more than $5 million, including the cost of replacing 2,624 sheets of plate glass.