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- 50,000 BC - ** Siberian People Arrive in North America
- 9000 BC - Aboriginal people living along the Eramosa River near what is now Guelph, Ontario.
- 5200 BC - Stolo people are living alongside the Fraser River near what is now Mission, BC (possibly from as early as 9000 B.C.)
- 5000 BC - Aboriginal people spread into what is now Northern Ontario and Southeastern Québec.
- 2000 BC - Inuit people move into what is now the Northwest Territories.
- 500 BC - Northwest Coast native peoples begin to flourish.
- 459 - An old Chinese history relates a journey, when Hussein ("Hui-Shen"), an Afghan priest, sailed with four Buddhist monks to Fu-Sang. They went part of the way in a Chinese sailing ship called a junk, then traveled on foot down the coast. They saw smoking mountains (volcanoes) and tried to convert the local people (Aztecs?) to Buddhism. Hui Shen returned to China 44 years later, and reported his adventures to Lord Yu Kie and Emperor Wu in the year 502 AD.
- 535 - ** Brendan the Navigator May Have Reached North America
- 985 - Greenlanders Led by Bjarni Herjolfsson Arrive in North America
- 1000 - ** Leif Ericsson builds L'Anse aux Meadows
- 1006 - ** Skræling Drive Norse Settlers Away From Vinland; L'Anse aux Meadows is soon abandoned.
- 1153 - Beothuk from Newfoundland may have been the first native North Americans to reach Europe. A medieval legend from Lubeck, Germany, tells the story of the arrival in Europe of a canoe with natives of the land of "Baccalaos." The is the Basque word for "codfish" - a later name for Newfoundland. Other accounts suggest these people were rescued from a canoe drifting in the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1398 - ** Henry Sinclair May Have Visited Nova Scotia
- 1475 - ** The Great Peace of the Iroquois
- 1481 - ** Bristol Mariners May Have Reached Newfoundland in 1481.
- June 24, 1497 - ** John Cabot From Bristol Claims America for England; reaches Cape Breton Island or Newfoundland on a voyage underwritten by Bristol merchants and backed by King Henry VII.
- 1498 - John Cabot makes a second voyage to North America.
- 1534 - Jacques Cartier visits the Strait of Belle Isle (Newfoundland), and charts the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
- July 24, 1534 - Jacques Cartier lands at Gaspé. He takes two native Indians with him back to France.
- October 2, 1535 ** Jacques Cartier Visits the Iroquois Town of Hochelaga
- 1536 - ** Canada's First Tourists Visit the Gulf of St. Lawrence and nearly die of starvation.
- August 23, 1541 - ** Jacques Cartier Builds Fort Charlesbourg-Royal at the mouth of the Cap Rouge River; first French settlement in America.
- 1542 - ** Roberval's French Colony a Disaster
- 1547 - ** Vallard Map Shows First Use of Name Canada.
- 1576 - Martin Frobisher of England makes the first of three attempts to find a Northwest Passage, sailing as far as Hudson Strait. What he thought was gold discovered on his journey was later proven worthless.
- 1600 - King Henri IV of France grants a fur-trading monopoly in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to a group of French merchants.
- 1600s War Breaks Out Between Huron and Iroquois people.
- August 18, 1605 - ** Samuel de Champlain and the Sieur de Poutrincourt found Port Royal (Annapolis, Nova Scotia).
- November 14, 1606 - ** Marc Lescarbot Produces Canada's First Play, Le Théâtre de Neptune en la Nouvelle France. (Annapolis, Nova Scotia).
- July 3, 1608 - Samuel de Champlain Founds Québec, creating the first permanent European settlement
- 1609 - Samuel de Champlain supports the Algonkians and Hurons against the Iroquois at Lake Champlain.
- 1610 - Etienne Brûlé goes to live among the Huron and eventually becomes the first European to see Lakes Ontario, Huron and Superior.
- June 11, 1611 - ** Henry Hudson Cast Adrift by Mutineers.
- September 9, 1615 - ** Étienne Brûlé Discovers the Site of Toronto.
- 1617 - Louis Hébert, an apothecary who had stayed at Port Royal twice, brings his wife and children to Québec, thus becoming the first true habitant (permanent settler supporting his family from the soil).
- 1619 - Danish mariner Jens Munk sails into Hudson Bay and reaches the estuary of the Churchill River near present day Churchill, Manitoba; forced to winter at the site, only Munk and two others survive; 61 crewmen die, either of trichinosis, from raw polar bear meat, or Vitamin A poisoning from eating toxic bear liver.
- February 4, 1623 - ** Louis Hébert becomes Canada's first French colonist
- 1624 - ** The Birth of New Scotland
- 1625 - Jesuits begin missionary work among the Indians in the Québec area. Jean de Brébeuf founds missions in Huronia, near Georgian Bay.
- April 29, 1627 - The Company of One Hundred Associates (a.k.a. the Company of New France) is given a fur monopoly and title to all lands claimed by New France. In exchange, they are to establish a French colony of 4000 by 1643, which they fail to do.
- 1629 - ** The Kirkes and the Company of Adventurers to Canada
- July 19, 1629 - David Kirke captures Québec; sends Samuel de Champlain to England.
- August 28, 1632 - ** Paul Le Jeune Writes First Jesuit Relation
- 1632 - Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye returns Québec to France.
- 1633 - David Kirke is knighted.
- 1634-40 - Epidemics of Smallpox and Influenza nearly wipe out Huron people in Ontario - up to 20,000 killed.
- 1637 - David Kirke named first governor of Newfoundland.
- 1640 - French and Iroquois Wars
- 1641 - ** Jean de Brébeuf Composes the Huron Carol
- May 18, 1642 - ** Paul de Maisonneuve founds Ville-Marie de Montréal.
- 1645 - ** The Tragic Death of Madame la Tour
- 1648 - Iroquois attack Huronia and disperse the Huron nation.
- March 16, 1649 - Jesuit father Jean de Brébeuf is martyred during Iroquois raids on the Hurons at St-Ignace.
- November 25, 1657 - ** Marguerite Bourgeoys Starts Teaching in Montréal.
- June, 1659 - François de Laval arrives in Québec as vicar general of the pope.
- May 2, 1660 - Adam Dollard des Ormeaux and about sixty others withstand an attack by over 500 Iroquois at Long Sault; the small party fights so well that the Iroquois decide not to attack Montréal.
- 1663 - Québec becomes a royal province. Bishop François de Laval organizes the Séminaire de Québec, a college of theology which eventually becomes Université Laval (1852).
- 1664 - Hans Bernhardt is the first recorded German immigrant to Canada.
- 1665 - Jean Talon becomes Québec's first intendant (administrative officer overseeing agriculture, education, justice, trade, and the like).
- 1665 - Carignan-Salières regiment sent from France to Québec to deal with the Iroquois.
- 1666 - Carignan-Salières regiment destroys five Mohawk villages, eventually leading to peace between the Iroquois and the French.
- August 31, 1666 - Jean Talon takes Canada's first census; finds 3,418 non-native inhabitants in New France; 63% are males; 257 women and 791 men are unmarried; 40% are aged 14 and under; 7 married women are aged 14 or under.
- 1668 - Radisson & Groseilliers help English mount fur trading expedition to Hudson Bay
- 1668 - Carignan-Salières regiment recalled to France, but several hundred choose to remain behind, many in return for being granted local seigneuries.
- May 2, 1670 - Prince Rupert and London merchants fo the Hudson's Bay Company; underwritten by a group of English merchants, the HBC is granted trade rights over Rupert's Land, all territory draining into Hudson Bay.
- 1672 - Count Frontenac becomes governor general of New France, later quarrelling frequently with the intendant and the bishop.
- 1673 - Count Frontenac sends Marquette and Jolliet to explore the Mississippi River.
- 1674 - François de Laval becomes the first Bishop of Québec.
- 1686, June-July - Chrétien de Troyes and Pierre dIberville capture three English posts on James Bay.
- 1689 - Iroquois warriors kill many French settlers at Lachine.
- 1689 - King William's War to 1697
- May 11, 1690 - King William's War - William Phips captures Port Royal; sent by Massachusetts Governor.
- October 16, 1690 - King William's War - ** Count Frontenac Repels American Attack on Québec
- August 20, 1691 - ** Henry Kelsey Writes First Account of Assiniboine Buffalo Hunt
- September 5, 1697 - Pierre d'Iberville, commanding the 'Pélican', attacks and defeats 3 Hudson's Bay Company ships, sinking 2, in pitched naval battle near York Factory on Hudson Bay.
- September 20, 1697 - The Treaty of Ryswick ends King William's War; all places taken during the war to be mutually restored; France returns York Factory and the Hudson's Bay Company posts seized by Pierre d'Iberville between 1686 and 1697; France gives Newfoundland to the British in exchange for Acadia.
- January 26, 1700 - ** West Coast People Hit by Tsunami
- August 4, 1701 - ** The Great Peace of Montréal
- 1702 - Queen Anne's War - Having begun in Europe in 1701, The War of the Spanish Succession spreads to North America in Acadia and New England; to 1713
- 1707 - ** David Thompson Crosses the Rockies
- 1710 - Francis Nicholson captures Port Royal for England.
- August 22, 1711 - Fleet of English supply ships runs aground in fog at Ile-aux-Oeufs, Québec, dooming Admiral Hovenden Walker's assault on New France - 884 drowned
- 1713 - Treaty of Utrecht ends Queen Anne's War, confirming British possession of Hudson Bay, Newfoundland and Acadia (except Île-Royale (Cape Breton Island.
- 1713 - France starts building Fort Louisbourg near the eastern tip of Île-Royale (Cape Breton Island).
- May 7, 1715 - ** Thanandelthur Brokers Peace Between Cree and Chipewyan
- 1725 - French Warship Le Chameau wrecked in storm off Louisbourg - 316 drowned
- 1730s - The Mississauga drive the Seneca Iroquois south of Lake Erie.
- 1731 - The La Vérendrye family organize expeditions beyond Lake Winnipeg and direct fur trade toward the east; to 1743
- 1740s - The Mandan nation west of the Great Lakes begin to trade in horses descended from those brought to Texas by the Spanish. Itinerant Assiniboine traders bring them from Mandan settlements to their own territories southwest of Lake Winnipeg.
- 1744 King George's War - Having begun in Europe in 1770, The War of the Austrian Succession spreads to North America; to 1748
- 1745 King George's War - Massachusetts Governor William Shirley captures the French fortress of Louisbourg.
- 1746 King George's War - Four French warships sink near Sable Island, Nova Scotia - 200-300 drowned
- 1746 King George's War - Pestilence on French armada ships in Bedford Basin, Nova Scotia after surviving Sable Island storm - 1,000+ killed
- October 18, 1748 King George's War - Louisbourg and ÎIle-Royale are returned to France by the Treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle.
- June 21, 1749 - Lord Cornwallis founds Halifax to counter the French presence at Louisbourg.
- April 15, 1750 - ** French Fur Traders Found Toronto
- March 23, 1752 - Canada's First newspaper, the weekly Halifax Gazette, appears.
- 1754 - Beginning of the French and Indian War in America, though not officially declared for another two years; to 1763
- May 28, 1754 - French and Indian War - ** George Washington Sparks the French and Indian War; Battle of Fort Necessity aka Battle of Great Meadows and Battle of Jumonville Glen
- 1754 - ** Anthony Henday Visits the Blackfoot
- 1754 - Start of Sixty Years' War to 1814
- 1755 - The First post office opens in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
- July 9, 1755 - French and Indian War - ** French and Indians Ambush British at Battle of the Monongahela
- 1755 - French and Indian War - Battle of Fort Beauséjour
- 1755 - French and Indian War - Battle of Lake George
- July 28, 1755 - ** The English Expel the Acadians
- 1756 - French and Indian War - The Marquis de Montcalm assumes a troubled command of French troops in North America; the Seven Year's War between Britain and France begins in Europe).
- 1756 - French and Indian War - Battle of Fort Oswego
- 1756 - French and Indian War - Battle of Great Cacapon
- 1756 - French and Indian War - Kittanning Expedition
- 1757 - French and Indian War - Battle of Fort William Henry
- August 10, 1757 - ** Massacre at Fort William Henry
- 1757 - French and Indian War - Battle of Sabbath Day Point
- 1757 - French and Indian War - Battle on Snowshoes
- July 26, 1758 - French and Indian War - ** British Forces Capture Louisbourg.
- October 2, 1758 - ** Canada's First Legislative Assembly Meets in Halifax
- 1758 - French and Indian War - Battle of Carillon
- 1758 - French and Indian War - Battle of Fort Duquesne
- 1758 - French and Indian War - Battle of Fort Frontenac
- 1758 - French and Indian War - Battle of Fort Ligonier
- 1758 - French and Indian War - Forbes Expedition
- 1759 - French and Indian War - Battle of Beauport
- 1759 - French and Indian War - Battle of Fort Niagara
- 1759 - French and Indian War - Battle of Ticonderoga (1759)
- September 13, 1759 - French and Indian War - ** James Wolfe takes Québec, by defeating the Marquis de Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham; both generals are killed.
- 1760 - French and Indian War - Battle of Sainte-Foy
- 1760 - French and Indian War - Battle of Montreal (1760)
- August 25, 1760 - French and Indian War - Battle of the Thousand Islands - Pierre Pouchot mounts France's last stand at Fort Lévis (Prescott, Ontario), with 400 defenders; surrenders to William Colville, Lord Amherst, who is advancing on Montréal with 10,000 men from Fort Oswego down the St. Lawrence, while William Haviland marches up Lake Champlain.
- 1760 - British Conquest - General James Murray is appointed first British military governor of Québec.
