1534 Jacques Cartier begins the voyage during which he discovers Canada and Labrador.
1541 French explorer Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec City in his third voyage to Canada.
1578 Martin Frobisher sails from Harwich, England to Frobisher Bay, Canada, eventually to mine fool's gold, used to pave streets in London.
1604 Samuel de Champlain discovers the mouth of the Saint John River, site of Reversing Falls and the present day city of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.
1613 The first English child born in Canada at Cuper's Cove, Newfoundland to Nicholas Guy.
1620 Construction of the oldest stone church in French North America, Notre-Dame-des-Anges, begins in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
1713 The French residents of Acadia are given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia, Canada.
1733 The right of Canadians to keep Indian slaves is upheld at Quebec City.
1745 British troops take Cape Breton Island, which is now part of Nova Scotia, Canada.
1760 Great Upheaval: New England planters arrive to claim land in Nova Scotia, Canada taken from the Acadians.
1775 American Revolutionary War: the Continental Congress bans trade with Canada.
1783 First United Empire Loyalists reach Parrtown (later called Saint John), New Brunswick, Canada after leaving the United States.
1791 A Constitutional Act is introduced by the British House of Commons in London which envisages the separation of Canada into Lower Canada (Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario).
1793 Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean becoming the first Euro-American to complete a transcontinental crossing of Canada.
1812 War of 1812: the United States invade Canada at Windsor, Ontario.
1812 War of 1812: American frigate ''USS Constitution'' defeats the British frigate ''HMS Guerriere'' off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada earning her nickname "Old Ironsides".
1813 War of 1812: United States troops capture the capital of Upper Canada, York (present day Toronto, Canada).
1813 War of 1812: In Canada, American forces capture Fort George.
1813 War of 1812: Canadians and Mohawks defeat the Americans in the Battle of Chateauguay.
1816 Battle of Seven Oaks between North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
1817 The Bank of Montreal, Canada's oldest chartered bank, opens in Montreal, Quebec.
1837 Canada gives African Canadian men the right to vote.
1837 Canadian journalist and politician William Lyon Mackenzie called for a rebellion against Great Britain in his essay "To the People of Upper Canada", published in his newspaper ''The Constitution''.
1841 Queen's University is founded in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
1842 The Webster-Ashburton Treaty is signed, establishing the United States-Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains.
1846 The Oregon Treaty establishes the 49th parallel as the border between the United States and Canada, from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
1847 The second Canadian railway line, the Montreal and Lachine Railway, is opened.
1857 Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, Ontario, as the capital of Canada.
1859 Pig War: Ambiguity in the Oregon Treaty leads to the "Northwestern Boundary Dispute" between U.S. and British/Canadian settlers.
1861 The first documented football match in Canada is played at University College, University of Toronto.
1864 Ninety-nine people are killed in Canada's worst railway disaster near St-Hilaire, Quebec.
1866 In the Fenian Invasion of Canada, John O'Neill leads 850 Fenian raiders across the Niagara River at Buffalo, New York/Fort Erie, Ontario, as part of an effort to free Ireland from the United Kingdom. Canadian militia and British regulars repulse the invaders in over the next three days, at a cost of 9 dead and 38 wounded to the Fenian's 19 dead and about 17 wounded.
1869 The Saxby Gale devastates the Bay of Fundy region of Maritime Canada. The storm had been predicted over a year before by a British naval officer.
1870 Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory are transferred to Canada from the Hudson's Bay Company, and the province of Manitoba and the North-West Territories are established from these vast territories.
1871 British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada.
1872 Trade unions are legalised in Canada.
1873 The Canadian Parliament establishes the North West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
1874 The District of Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada is founded.
1875 The first ever organized indoor game of ice hockey is played in Montreal, Canada as recorded in ''The Montreal Gazette''.
1877 Indian Wars: Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles.
1877 Alexander Graham Bell installs the world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
1878 Canada joins the Universal Postal Union.
1880 First performance of ''O Canada'', the song that would become the national anthem of Canada, at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français.
1880 Emily Stowe becomes the first female physician licensed to practice medicine in Canada.
1885 Cree and Assiniboine warriors win the Battle of Cut Knife, their largest victory over Canadian forces during the North-West Rebellion.
1885 North-West Rebellion: the four-day Battle of Batoche, pitting rebel Métis against the Canadian government, comes to an end with a decisive rebel defeat.
1885 In Craigellachie, British Columbia, construction ends on the Canadian Pacific Railway railway extending across Canada.
1885 Canadian rebel leader of the Métis and "Father of Manitoba", Louis Riel is executed for treason.
1886 The first transcontinental train trip across Canada departs from Montreal. It arrives in Port Moody, British Columbia on July 4.
1887 The Rocky Mountains Park Act becomes law in Canada creating the nation's first national park, Banff National Park.
1891 John Abbott becomes Canada's third Prime Minister.
1891 Street railway in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, commences operation.
1893 Former Governor General Lord Stanley pledges to donate a silver challenge cup, later named after him, as an award for the best hockey team in Canada; originally presented to amateur champions, the Stanley Cup has been awarded to the top pro team since 1910, and since 1926, only to National Hockey League teams.
1896 Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.
1903 A 30 million cubic-metre landslide kills 70 in Frank, Alberta, Canada.
1905 Alberta and Saskatchewan join the Canadian confederation.
1907 Guglielmo Marconi's company begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada and Clifden, Ireland.
1908 University of Alberta in Alberta, Canada, is founded.
1909 The AEA Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.
1916 Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada burn down.
1917 World War I: Canadian forces successfully complete the taking of Vimy Ridge from the Germans.
1917 Sir Thomas Whyte introduces the first income tax in Canada as a "temporary" measure (lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%).
1917 World War I: Third Battle of Ypres ends: After three months of fierce fighting, Canadian forces take Passchendaele in Belgium.
1917 Halifax Explosion: In Canada, a munitions explosion kills more than 1,900 people and destroys part of the City of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
1918 First airmail service in Canada from Montreal to Toronto.
1937 Joseph-Armand Bombardier of Canada receives patent for sprocket and track traction system used in snow vehicles.
1938 The Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting New York State, United States with Ontario, Canada over the St. Lawrence River, is dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1939 The Canadian National War Memorial is unveiled by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa.
1939 World War II: Canada declares war on Nazi Germany, joining the llies of World War II|Allies
1940 Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees her country to Great Britain after the Nazi invasion. Princess Juliana takes her children to Canada for their safety.
1942 The Alaska Highway (Alcan Highway) is completed through Canada to Fairbanks, Alaska.
1943 World War II: Operation Gomorrah begins: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb Hamburg by night, those of the Americans by day. By the end of the operation in November, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.
1944 Royal Canadian Air Force pilots shoot down the first German jet fighter over France.
1945 World War II: Canadian and UK troops liberate the Netherlands and Denmark from Nazi occupation when Wehrmacht troops capitulate
1949 The Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec.
1949 The Dominion of Newfoundland joins the Canadian Confederation and becomes the 10th Province of Canada.
1950 Forest fires black out the sun over portions of Canada and New England. A blue moon (in the astronomical sense) is seen as far away as Europe.
1952 Vincent Massey is sworn in as the first Canadian-born Governor-General of Canada.
1952 Canada's first television station, CBFT-TV, opens in Montreal.
1954 The Yonge Street subway line opens in Toronto. It is the first subway in Canada.
1956 Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810, a Canadair North Star, crashes near Hope, British Columbia, Canada, killing all 62 people on board.
1957 Toronto's CHUM-AM, (1050 kHz) becomes Canada's first radio station to broadcast only top 40 Rock n' Roll music format.
1957 The United States and Canada form the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).
1958 Canada's Avro Arrow makes its first flight.
1958 Ripple Rock, an underwater threat to navigation in the Seymour Narrows in Canada is destroyed in one of the largest non-nuclear controlled explosions of the time.
1958 The Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing, in the process of being built to connect Vancouver and North Vancouver (Canada), collapses into the Burrard Inlet killing many of the ironworkers and injuring others.
1958 The Wooden Roller Coaster at Playland, which is in the Pacific National Exhibition, Vancouver, Canada opens. It is still open today.
1959 The Avro Arrow program to design and manufacture supersonic jet fighters in Canada is cancelled by the Diefenbaker government amid much political debate.
1959 The last Canadian missionary leaves the People's Republic of China.
1961 The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded with the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress.
1962 ''Alouette 1,'' the first Canadian satellite, is launched.
1962 Arthur Lucas, convicted of murder, is the last person to be executed in Canada.
1964 Canada: A Multi-Party Parliamentary Committee selects the design which becomes the new official Flag of Canada.
1965 The Hamilton River in Labrador, Canada is renamed the Churchill River in honour of Winston Churchill.
1965 Several U.S. states and parts of Canada are hit by a series of blackouts lasting up to 13 hours in the Northeast Blackout of 1965.
1966 The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto.
1967 Expo 67 officially opens in Montreal, Canada with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world. It opens to the public the next day.
1967 Expo 67 opens to the public in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
1967 During an official state visit to Canada, French President Charles de Gaulle declares to a crowd of over 100,000 in Montreal: ''Vive le Québec libre!'' ("Long live free Quebec!"). The statement, interpreted as support for Quebec independence, delighted many Quebecers but angered the Canadian government and many English Canadians.
1968 Canada's three military services, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force, are unified into the Canadian Forces.
1969 In Canada, the Official Languages Act is adopted making the French language equal to the English language throughout the Federal government.
1969 The United Kingdom introduces the British fifty-pence coin, which replaced, over the following years, the British ten-shilling note, in anticipation of the decimalization of the British currency in 1971, and the abolition of the shilling as a unit of currency anywhere in the world. (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, etc., had already abolished the shilling in favor of a decimal currency with exactly 100 pence per pound sterling or dollar, whichever was applicable.}
1970 In Montreal, Quebec, a national crisis hits Canada when Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte becomes the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.
1971 The first unit of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, the first commercial nuclear power station in Canada, goes online.
1972 The ''Don't Make A Wave Committee'', a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to "Greenpeace Foundation".
1974 Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from the Soviet Union to Canada while on tour with Bolshoi Ballet.
1975 Construction of the CN Tower is completed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It reaches {{convert|553.33|m|ft}} in height, becoming the world's tallest free-standing structure.
1976 The Groundhog Day gale hits the north-eastern United States and south-eastern Canada.
1976 The Canadian House of Commons abolishes capital punishment.
1976 Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs. The dye is still used in Canada.
1977 President Jimmy Carter pardons nearly all American Vietnam War draft evaders, some of whom had emigrated to Canada.
1977 The 300 metre tall CKVR-TV transmission tower in Barrie, Ontario, Canada is hit by a light aircraft in a fog, causing it to collapse. All aboard the aircraft are killed.
1979 A 106-car Canadian Pacific freight train carrying explosive and poisonous chemicals from Windsor, Ontario, Canada derails in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada just west of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, causing a massive explosion and the largest peacetime evacuation in Canadian history and one of the largest in North American history.
1980 Through cooperation between the U.S. and Canadian governments, six American diplomats secretly escape hostilities in Iran in the culmination of the Canadian caper.
1980 In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejects by a 60% vote the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada.
1982 Turkish military diplomat Colonel Atilla Altıkat is shot and killed in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's capital. Justice Commandos Against Armenian Genocide claim responsibility, saying they are avenging the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
1982 Canada adopts the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as part of its Constitution.
1983 The Sri Lankan Civil War begins with the killing of 13 Sri Lanka Army soldiers by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Terrorist group. In the subsequent riots of Black July, about 1,000 Tamils are slaughtered, some 400,000 Tamils flee to neighbouring Tamil Nadu, India and many find refuge in Europe and Canada.
1984 Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announces he will retire as soon as the Liberals can elect another leader.
1984 The Good Friday Massacre, an extremely violent ice hockey playoff game, is played in Montreal, Canada.
1985 Amputee Steve Fonyo completes cross-Canada marathon at Victoria, British Columbia, after 14 months.
1990 Oka Crisis: First Nations land dispute in Quebec, Canada begins.
1990 The Dalai Lama unveils the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights in Canada's capital city of Ottawa.
1991 Rita Johnston becomes the first female Premier of a Canadian province when she succeeds William Vander Zalm (who had resigned) as Premier of British Columbia.
1992 Three employees at a McDonald's Restaurant in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, are brutally murdered and a fourth permanently disabled after a botched robbery. It is the first "fast-food murder" in Canada.
1992 The Charlottetown Accord fails to win majority support in a Canada wide referendum.
1995 Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
1995 Quebec sovereignists narrowly lose a referendum for a mandate to negotiate independence from Canada (vote is 50.6% to 49.4%).
1996 Lt. Gen. Maurice Baril of Canada arrives in Africa to lead a multi-national policing force in Zaire.
1997 In Ottawa, Canada, representatives from 121 countries sign The Ottawa treaty prohibiting manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel landmines. The United States, People's Republic of China, and Russia do not sign the treaty, however.
1998 A massive ice storm hits eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, continuing through January 10 and causing widespread destruction.
1998 The Supreme Court of Canada rules that Quebec cannot legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval.
1999 Toronto, Ontario Mayor Mel Lastman becomes the first mayor in Canada to call in the Army to help with emergency medical evacuations and snow removal after more than one meter of snow paralyzes the city.
1999 Nunavut is established as a Canadian territory carved out of the eastern part of the Northwest Territories.
1999 An 87-automobile pile-up happens on Highway 401 freeway just East of Windsor, Ontario, Canada after an unusually thick fog from Lake St. Clair.
2001 The Canadian province of Newfoundland is renamed Newfoundland and Labrador.
2002 Canada bans human cloning but permits government-funded scientists to use embryos left over from fertility treatment or abortions.
2003 Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada.
2003 The Tli Cho land claims agreement is signed between the Dogrib First Nations and the Canadian federal government in Rae-Edzo (now called Behchoko).
2005 Prime Minister Paul Martin announces that Michaëlle Jean will be Canada's 27th Governor General.
2005 First part of the Gomery Report, which discusses allegations of political money manipulation by members of the Liberal Party of Canada, is released in Canada.
2006 The Canadian House of Commons endorses Prime Minister Stephen Harper's motion to declare Quebec a nation within a unified Canada.
2008 Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes an historic official apology to Canada's First Nations in regard to a residential school abuse in which children are isolated from their homes, families and cultures for a century.