Dateline

1670 Hudson's Bay Company is established by English King Charles II.

1741 Danish sailor Vitus Bering explores northern Pacific coast for Russia.

1759 English defeat French at Montreal's Plains of Abraham, ending the French and Indian War; British take control of Upper and Lower Canada.

1774 Spaniard Juan Perez sails up British Columbian coast from Mexico, landing in the Queen Charlottes and on Vancouver Island; the first European to explore the coast, he claims all of the Pacific coast for Spain.

1776 American colonies declare their independence from Britain; Canada remains royalist.

1778 Capt. James Cook of England lands at Nootka Sound, on Vancouver Island, and trades for otter furs on his way to China, establishing the beginning of the Northwest/China trade triangle. Establishes British claim to Northwest.

1778 North West Company establishes Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca, the first European settlement in Alberta.

1792 Nootka Accord settles British/Spanish dispute over the Northwest coast; Spain renounces claims to the northern coast.

1793 British fur trader Alexander Mackenzie arrives in Bella Coola, becoming the first European to traverse North America.

1794 Rocky Mountain House, a North West Company trading post, opens at the juncture of the Peace and Moberly rivers, becoming the first permanent European settlement in British Columbia.

1795 Hudson's Bay Company establishes Edmonton House on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River.

1804-06 Americans Lewis and Clark journey up the Missouri River and down the Columbia River to the Pacific, then Spanish territory. The journey reveals a great wealth of furs in the Northwest, piquing American settlement interest.

1808 Fur trader Simon Fraser floats the Fraser River from the Rocky Mountains to the site of present-day Vancouver.

1811 David Thompson floats the entire length of the Columbia River, arriving at the Pacific to find an already-established American trading post, Fort Astoria.

1812 Outbreak of War of 1812; British take control of Fort Astoria.

1818 Treaty of Ghent ends War of 1812; Spain renounces claim in Pacific Northwest; United States and Britain agree to "joint occupancy" of Pacific Northwest.

1821 Hudson's Bay Company and North West Company merge.

1825 Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Vancouver is established near present-day Portland, becoming the administrative center over nearly all of the Pacific Northwest.

1841 Act of Union creates the United Provinces of Canada.

1843 Settlers in Oregon decide to set up American-style government, and British withdraw to north of the Columbia River; Fort Victoria is established on Vancouver Island.

1846 U.S.-Canada boundary is established at 49th Parallel.

1849 Vancouver Island becomes British colony.

1858 Fraser River gold rush begins; the B.C. mainland becomes colony of New Caledonia.

1859 First wine grapes are planted along Lake Okanagan by Catholic missionary Father Pandosy.

1862 Gold is discovered at Barkerville, beginning the Cariboo gold rush.

1866 Colonies of Vancouver Island and New Caledonia combine to form colony of British Columbia.

1867 Britain grants further independence to the new Dominion of Canada.

1871 British Columbia agrees to join the Dominion of Canada and not the United States, as long as Canada builds the transcontinental railroad.

1872 The Dominion Lands Acts, Canada's Homestead Act, opens the prairies to farmers and ranchers.

1874 Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) ride west to establish order on prairies of Ruperts Land (Alberta and Saskatchewan).

1875 RCMP establish Fort Calgary at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow rivers.

1877 Blackfoot chief Crowfoot signs treaty relegating the tribe, the largest and most powerful of the Canadian Plains tribes, to reservations.

1883 Canadian Pacific Railroad reaches Calgary.

1885 Canadian Pacific Railroad is completed, and the first train steams from Montreal to Burrard Inlet, on the Pacific near Vancouver; Banff National Park, Canada's first, is proclaimed by Prime Minister John Macdonald.

1886 Vancouver, a rail siding near a popular tavern named Gassy's, is established.

1896 Gold is discovered in the Yukon; Edmonton becomes a major outfitting center for overland journey to the Klondike.

1904 Butchart Gardens opens to the public.

1905 Alberta becomes a province.

1914 Grand Trunk Railroad reaches from Winnipeg to Prince Rupert, becoming Canada's second transcontinental railroad.

1914 First ski resort opens at Whistler.

1914-18 In World War I, 60,000 Canadian troops die and another 173,000 are wounded.

1923 British Columbia restricts immigration by Japanese and Chinese.

1930s The depression and mass unemployment hit Canada. Prairie farms and ranches are especially hard hit; social unrest rocks Vancouver.

1935 Social Credit Party forms in response to the Great Depression; becomes leading political party in much of western Canada until 1980s.

1939 Canada declares war on Germany.

1945 World War II ends; 42,000 Canadians die in the war, another 54,000 are wounded.

1947 Native Canadians are granted right to vote in provincial elections; first major oil reserves are discovered in Alberta.

1960 Native Canadians are granted right to vote in federal elections.

1967 "Vive le Quebec Libre": de Gaulle visits Quebec, spurring Quebec secessionism.

1968 The Official Languages Bill declares French and English the two official languages of Canada.

1972 Canada bans whaling off the Pacific Coast.

1988 Calgary hosts winter Olympic Games.

1989 Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement eliminates all tariffs on goods of national origin moving between the two countries.

1993 Environmentalists, loggers, and law enforcement clash near Clayoquot Sound; 800 logging protesters are arrested.

1995 Quebec votes narrowly to remain in Canada.

1997 Britain hands over Hong Kong to mainland Chinese. Major emigration of Hong Kong Chinese to Vancouver area precedes the repatriation; Port Hardy fishermen and -women blockade Alaska Marine Highway ferry in protest of Alaskan fishing practices.

1999 Nunavut becomes a standalone territory, splitting off from the Northwest Territories -- the first new territory in over a century.

2000 Jean Chretien is re-elected for a third consecutive term, defeating Stockwell Day of the right-wing Canadian Alliance Party.

2003 In the worst Canadian forest fire year in recent history, wildfires burn vast tracts of forest near Kamloops, Kelowna, and Cranbrook; hundreds of homes burn in Kelowna.

2003 Vancouver awarded 2010 Olympic Winter Games as tourism starts to rebound following major drop due to SARS outbreak and discovery of mad cow disease in some Alberta cattle.

2003 Former Finance Minister Paul Martin is sworn in as Prime Minister after Jean Chrétien retires after 10 years in office.

2005 Canada's Civil Marriage Act, legalizing same-sex marriage, passes parliament and receives royal assent. Same-sex marriage has been legal in B.C. since 2003; Alberta never permitted it until mandated by federal law.

2005 Michaëlle Jean, born in Haiti, becomes the 27th Governor General of Canada, the first black person to hold that position.