Canada History Timeline

Events 1 - 200 of 616

• 1000-10-09 Leif Ericson reaches "Vinland" (possibly L'Anse aux Meadows, Canada) reputedly becoming first European to reach North America

• 1534-07-24 French explorer Jacques Cartier claims for France the lands around Gaspé by erecting a 30ft cross at Pointe-Penouille [1]
• 1536-07-09 French navigator Jacques Cartier returns to Saint-Malo, France from his exploration of what is now Canada
• 1541-08-23 French explorer Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec City on his third voyage to Canada accompanied by five ships and 1500 people to establish a colony (colony fails after two years) [1]
• 1578-05-31 Martin Frobisher sails from Harwich, England, to Frobisher Bay, Canada. Eventually mines fools gold, famously used to pave the streets of London.
• 1613-03-27 The first English child born in Canada at Cuper's Cove, Newfoundland to Nicholas Guy
• 1620-06-03 Construction of the oldest stone church in French North America, Notre-Dame-des-Anges, begins at Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
• 1634-07-04 The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France, later to become the Canadian province of Quebec

• 1671-06-04 Pageant of 1671: French claim possession of lands "from the northern and western seas to the southern sea, including lands yet to be discovered" in ceremony at Jesuit Mission, Sault Saint, Canada [1]
• 1672-05-17 Frontenac becomes Governor of New France (Canada)
• 1686-06-20 A French force led by Pierre de Troyes retakes Fort Monsoni (Moose Factory) from the English, on James Bay, Canada [1]
• 1694-04-28 French-Canadian explorer Louis Jolliet sets out from Quebec leading the first documented journey of the Labrador coastline (reaches Zoar area) [1]
• 1699-03-02 French Canadian explorer Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville is the first European to discover the mouth of the Mississippi river [1]
• 1713-06-23 The French residents of Acadia are given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia, Canada
• 1733-05-29 The right of Canadians to keep Indian slaves is upheld in Quebec City
• 1741-07-28 Danish Captain Vitus Bering, on a Russian expedition, is the first European to sight Mount Saint Elias, second-highest mountain of Canada and the US
• 1752-03-23 Canada's first newspaper "Halifax Gazette" published in Halifax by John Bushell [1]

• 1755-06-16 British capture strategic Fort Beauséjour, eastern Canada, expelling the Acadians and renaming it Fort Cumberland
• 1760-06-04 The Great Upheaval: New England planters arrive in Nova Scotia, Canada, to claim land taken from the Acadians
• 1763-02-10 Treaty of Paris ends French-Indian War, France surrenders Canada to Great Britain
• 1771-05-07 Samuel Hearne explores Copper Mine River of Canada
• 1773-07-20 Scottish settlers arrive at Pictou, Nova Scotia (Canada)
• 1775-05-17 American Revolutionary War: the Continental Congress bans trade with Canada
• 1780-05-19 About midday, near-total darkness descends on New England, now known to be caused by forest fires in Canada
• 1783-05-18 First United Empire Loyalists reach Parrtown, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada after leaving the United States
• 1790-05-31 Alferez Manuel Quimper explores the Strait of Juan de Fuca (now the international border between Canada and the US)
• 1792-12-17 Opening of 1st legislative assembly of Lower Canada in Quebec city
• 1793-03-14 Lieutenant Governor Simcoe of Upper Canada passes legislation for the first time against the importation of slaves, after a black female slave forcibly transported to New York state to be sold [1]

• 1796-02-01 The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to York
• 1812-07-11 US invades Canada (Detroit frontier)
• 1812-07-12 US forces led by General Hull invade Canada (War of 1812)
• 1812-10-13 Battle of Queenstown Heights: British forces defeat United States forces attempting to invade Canada
• 1813-05-27 Americans capture Fort George, Canada
• 1813-06-06 US invasion of Canada halted at Stoney Creek (Ontario)

• 1814-07-03 Americans capture Fort Erie, Canada (War of 1812)
• 1814-07-05 Americans defeat British and Canadians at Chippewa, Ontario
• 1814-07-25 Battle of Niagara Falls (Lundy's Lane), bloodiest battle of the War of 1812 ends in a stalemate between invading American army and Canadian and British forces [1]
• 1817-07-18 Selkirk Treaty: Lord Selkirk signs agreement with five chiefs of Sautaux and Cree Nations for land use either side of Red and Assiniboine Rivers - 1st agreement in Western Canada recognizing Indigenous land rights [1]
• 1818-04-16 Senate ratifies Rush-Bagot amendment (unarmed US-Canada border)
• 1818-10-20 49th parallel forms as border between US & Canada
• 1822-06-18 Part of US-Canadian boundary determined
• 1825-02-22 Russia and Britain establish the Alaska-Canada boundary
• 1826-08-19 Canada Co. chartered to colonize Upper Canada (Ontario)
• 1827-08-15 Race riots in Cincinnati, Ohio spurred by city's threat to enforce restrictive residency requirements on Blacks begin; over 1,000 (more than half of the Black population) leave, many bound for Canada
• 1832-06-07 Asian cholera reaches Quebec, brought by Irish immigrants, and kills about 6,000 people in Lower Canada
• 1836-07-21 1st Canadian RR opens, between Laprairie and St John, Quebec
• 1837-03-24 Canada gives its black citizens the right to vote
• 1837-05-25 The Patriots of Lower Canada (Quebec) rebel against the British for freedom.
• 1837-12-05 Uprising under William Lyon Mackenzie in Canada
• 1837-12-29 Canadian militia destroy Caroline, a US steamboat docked at Buffalo
• 1838-02-28 Robert Nelson, leader of the Patriotes, proclaims the independence of Lower Canada (today Québec)
• 1838-03-03 Rebellion at Pelee Island, Ontario, Canada
• 1840-07-23 Union Act passed by British Parliament, uniting Upper & Lower Canada
• 1841-06-14 1st Canadian parliament opens in Kingston, Ontario
• 1841-10-16 Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, is chartered
• 1842-08-09 US-Canada border defined by Webster-Ashburton Treaty
• 1844-09-25 Canada defeats USA by 23 runs in the first cricket international match at the grounds of the St George's Cricket Club in Manhattan, NYC
• 1845-05-28 Fire in Quebec, Canada, 1,500 houses destroyed
• 1848-03-11 Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin become the first Prime Ministers of the Province of Canada to be democratically elected under a system of responsible government
• 1849-04-25 The Governor General of Canada, Lord Elgin, signs the Rebellion Losses Bill, outraging Montreal's English population and triggering the Montreal Riots.
• 1851-04-23 Canada issues its 1st postage stamp - a Three-Pence Beaver
• 1852-07-09 Fire destroys 1,100 construction sites in Montreal, Canada

• 1857-03-12 Desjardins Canal Train Disaster: Canadian Great Western passenger train crashes through rotting timber bridge over Desjardins Canal, near Hamilton, Ontario, killing 59 people [1]
• 1857-06-10 Britain passes an act putting Canada on the decimal currency system

• 1858-01-01 Canada begins using decimal currency system

• 1858-07-01 1st Canadian coins minted (1, 5, 10 and 20 cent) at the Royal Mint in London, England
• 1858-12-12 1st Canadian coins circulated (1 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent & 20 cent)
• 1859-06-15 Pig War: Ambiguity in the Oregon Treaty leads to the "Northwestern Boundary Dispute" between U.S. and British/Canadian settlers
• 1861-11-09 1st documented Canadian football game (at U of Toronto)
• 1864-06-29 Canada's worst railway accident: Grand Trunk Railway train crashes onto a barge on the Richelieu River killing 100 people
• 1867-03-08 British North America Act is passed in the House of Commons, serves as Canada's constitution for more than 100 years
• 1867-03-29 British North America Act (Canadian constitution) is given Royal Assent

• 1867-09-16 Ottawa Rough Riders & Senators play Canadian Football game
• 1867-10-23 72 Senators are summoned by Royal Proclamation to serve as the first members of the Canadian Senate.
• 1868-04-07 Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the Canadian Fathers of Confederation is assassinated by the Irish, in one of the few Canadian political assassinations, and only federal politician
• 1868-10-10 1st written account of a Canadian football game
• 1869-04-09 Hudson Bay Company cedes its territory to Canada
• 1869-10-05 A strong hurricane known as the Saxby Gale devastates the Bay of Fundy region in Maritime Canada. Incredibly British naval officer Stephen Martin Saxby predicted the storm 10 months earlier in December 1868 via astronomy.
• 1869-11-03 Canada's Hamilton Football Club forms
• 1869-11-19 Hudson Bay Company signs deed of transfer of Prince Rupert's Land (3.9 million sq. km) to the British Crown, who then cedes it to Canada for £300,000, or $1.5 million (effective 1870) [1]
• 1869-12-08 Timothy Eaton founds T. Eaton Co. Limited in Toronto, Canada.
• 1869-12-18 Canada's Hamilton Football Club plays its 1st game
• 1870-02-12 Official proclamation sets April 15 as last day of grace for US silver coins to circulate in Canada

• 1870-04-15 Last day US silver coins allow to circulate in Canada
• 1870-05-12 Royal assent passes Manitoba Act of 1870, approving Manitoba becoming a province of Canada
• 1870-07-15 Manitoba becomes the 5th Canadian province and the Northwest Territories are created and transferred to Canada by the Hudson's Bay Company
• 1871-04-14 Canada sets denominations of currency as dollars, cents, & mills
• 1871-07-01 The decimal currency system is made uniform in Canada
• 1871-07-20 British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada.
• 1872-04-14 Dominion Lands Act passed: Canada's Homestead Act
• 1872-06-14 Trade unions are legalised in Canada
• 1873-05-23 Canada's North West Mounted Police Force forms (it doesn't get the "Royal" until 1904)
• 1873-07-01 Prince Edward Island becomes 7th Canadian province
• 1873-11-05 Due to the fallout from the Pacific Scandal, John A. Macdonald resigns as Prime Minister of Canada

• 1874-09-12 1874 The District of Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada is founded.
• 1876-04-12 Canada's parliament passes the Indian Act to administer status and lands of First Nations People - primarily to assimilate them [1]
• 1876-06-03 Lacrosse introduced in Britain and Canada
• 1876-08-10 1st phone call between Brantford & Paris, Canada

• 1878-07-01 Canada joins the Universal Postal Union
• 1878-10-17 After serving as the opposition for five years, John A. Macdonald is re-elected as Prime Minister of Canada
• 1879-02-08 Sandford Fleming first proposes dividing the world into 24 equal time zones and adopting a Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute (adopted 1884)
• 1879-11-06 Canada celebrates 1st Thanksgiving Day

• 1880-07-16 Dr. Emily Stowe becomes the first woman licenced to practise medicine in Canada.
• 1881-05-24 Overloaded Canadian river ferry "Princess Victoria" sinks near London, Ontario, 180 die
• 1883-05-10 First appendectomy performed in North America by Abraham Groves in Canada
• 1883-10-11 US and Canadian railroads agree to use of five time-zone system for North America, based on the Allegheny Observatory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• 1883-12-20 International cantilever railway bridge opens at Niagara Falls between Canada and US

• 1885-03-19 Louis Riel returns to Canada, proclaims provisional government in Saskatchewan
• 1885-03-26 Battle of Duck Lake: Louis Riel's forces defeat Canadian forces at Duck Lake, Saskatchewan, 1st engagement of the North-West Rebellion
• 1885-05-15 Canadian Métis insurgent Louis Riel captured in the aftermath of the Battle of Batoche in Saskatchewan
• 1885-07-01 The United States terminates reciprocity and fishery agreement with Canada
• 1885-07-02 Canada's North-west Insurrection ends with surrender of Big Bear
• 1885-11-07 Canadian Pacific Railway completed at Craigellachie - connects British Columbia with Eastern Canada
• 1885-11-25 Banff National Park, Canada's first national park established as Rocky Mountains Park, Alberta [1]
• 1888-03-13 Great Blizzard of 1888 rages across the east coast of the USA and Canada
• 1889-06-03 The Canadian Pacific Railway is completed from coast to coast
• 1890-06-27 Canadian boxer George Dixon becomes first black world champion when he stops English bantamweight champion Edwin "Nunc" Wallace in 18 rounds in London, England
• 1890-07-01 Canada and Bermuda are linked by telegraph cable

• 1891-06-29 Street railway in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, commences operation

• 1896-07-08 Charles Tupper resigns as Prime Minister of Canada after losing the June 23rd election, his 69-day term the shortest in Canadian history
• 1896-07-11 Wilfrid Laurier sworn in as the 7th Prime Minister of Canada
• 1896-08-16 Gold first discovered in Klondike, found at Bonanza Creek in the Yukon, Canada by George Carmack
• 1898-06-13 Yukon Territory of Canada established, Dawson chosen as capital
• 1898-06-27 Canadian-American adventurer Joshua Slocum arrives in Newport, Rhode Island, completing the 1st solo circumnavigation of the globe
• 1898-10-08 First Canadian Intercollegiate football game: McGill beats Queen's, 3-2
• 1900-01-21 The second contingent of Canadian troops sails from Halifax to fight in South Africa against the Boers
• 1900-07-23 The Canadian government reviews immigration policy, prohibiting criminals and paupers from landing in Canada
• 1900-11-07 Battle of Leliefontein, a battle during which the Royal Canadian Dragoons win three Victoria Crosses.
• 1900-11-07 In Canada, the Liberal Government led by Wilfrid Laurier retains its majority
• 1901-07-12 Striking Canadian salmon fishermen on the Pacific coast, resentful of the non-union Japanese who continue to fish, maroon and imprison 47

• 1902-06-15 Canada's Maritime Provinces switch from Eastern to Atlantic time
• 1902-07-29 Union of Orthodox Rabbis of US and Canada forms
• 1902-11-21 The Canadian government appoints a commission to consider revising, classifying, and consolidating the many public statutes passed over the years
• 1903-04-29 Limestone slide at Turtle Mountain drops 30 million cubic metres (82 million tons) on to town of Frank, Alberta, Canada, kills 70-90 residents
• 1903-10-20 US wins disputed boundary between District of Alaska & Canada
• 1904-09-26 Earl Grey is named British governor-general of Canada
• 1905-09-01 Wilfrid Laurier oversees Alberta and Saskatchewan joining the Confederation of Canada as its 8th and 9th Canadian provinces; both were separated from the Northwest Territories
• 1906-03-27 Founding of the Alpine Club of Canada in Winnipeg, Manitoba
• 1906-05-22 A British garrison leaves Esquimalt, on the Pacific coast, after a military occupation that began in 1858: the last British soldiers stationed in Canada
• 1906-09-01 Canadian province of Alberta adopts Mountain Standard Time
• 1907-09-23 Proclamation sets fineness & weight of silver & bronze coins of Canada
• 1907-10-17 Guglielmo Marconi's company begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada and Clifden, Ireland
• 1907-11-07 Test tokens are struck in 1st production of Canadian coins
• 1908-01-02 Canadian branch of the Royal Mint opens in Ottawa

• 1908-09-12 Canada appoints a Civil Service Commission, initiating a more equitable system for selecting civil servants
• 1909-11-20 Jack Williams of Canadian football team Ottawa Rough Riders kicks 9 singles in a game
• 1909-12-11 Canadian Football exhibition game played in Van Cortlandt Park in Bronx, Hamilton Tigers beat Ottawa Rough Riders, 11-6 before 15,000
• 1910-03-04 Avalanche at Bear Creek in Rogers Pass, British Columbia, kills 58 railway line workers - Canada's worst avalanche disaster [1]
• 1910-05-04 Canadian Currency Act, 1910, receives Royal Assent
• 1910-05-04 Wilfrid Laurier passes the Naval Service Act, which creates the Royal Canadian Navy
• 1910-05-14 Canada authorizes issuing of silver dollar coins
• 1910-05-17 Canada sets the designs for the 1-50 cent coins
• 1910-09-07 In the Hague, the International Court arbitrates a fishing-rights dispute between the US and Newfoundland (still separate from Canada)
• 1911-01-30 The Canadian Naval Service becomes the Royal Canadian Navy
• 1911-02-22 The Canadian Parliament resolves to maintain union with the British Empire, while controlling domestic fiscal affairs

• 1911-07-01 Proclamation removes "Dei Gratia" (by the Grace of God) from Canadian coins
• 1911-07-11 Forest fire destroys Canadian town of South Porcupine, Ontario, killing at least 70 people [1]

• 1911-10-10 Robert Borden becomes the 8th Prime Minister of Canada
• 1911-10-19 Royal Mint in London sends dies for Canadian $1 coin to Ottawa Branch
• 1911-11-15 Proclamation sets designs for Canadian $5 & $10 gold coins
• 1911-12-29 Proclamation restores "Dei Gratia" from Canada's coins
• 1914-05-29 Norwegian ship Storstad collides with Canadian ship Empress of Ireland on St Lawrence River; 1,024 die
• 1914-06-19 Hillcrest Mine Disaster: explosion at Hillcrest mine, Alberta, kills 189 men in Canada's worst mining disaster [1]
• 1914-08-22 Canada's Finance Act, 1914, receives assent
• 1914-09-05 Proclamation prohibits Canadian mint from issuing gold coins
• 1914-09-09 First fully mechanized unit in the British Army created - the Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade (WWI)
• 1914-10-01 The first division of Canadian troops, 33,000 sail for Britain; most Canadians are volunteers, anxious to prove their loyalty to the Commonwealth

• 1916-01-28 Manitoba women are the first in Canada to win the right to vote and to hold provincial office [1]
• 1916-02-03 Canada's original Parliament buildings in Ottawa burn down
• 1916-03-16 US & Canada sign migratory bird treaty

• 1917-01-02 Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank

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