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HISTORY
About AD 1000--Vikings explored the coast of Newfoundland.
1497 - John Cabot discovered the rich fishing grounds off Canada's Atlantic coast.
1534 - Jacques Cartier claimed Canada of France.
1604 - French colonists founded the first settlement in Canada, in present-day Nova Scotia.
They developed thriving fish and fur trades.
1670 -The Hudson's Bay Company, an English company, opened its first fur-trading posts
in Canada.
1760 -The English captured Montreal during the French and Indian War. France formally
surrendered its Canadian lands in 1763.
1775 - An American invasion of Canada during the American Revolution failed. Many
American Loyalists moved to Canada in the following years.
1791 -Britain divided Canada into predominantly French Lower Canada and predominantly
English Upper Canada.
1837- Revolts against the colonial government failed in both Lower and Upper Canada.
1867 -The British North America Act was passed, creating the Dominion of Canada.
1885 -The Canadian Pacific Railroad was completed, uniting Canada.
1931 -Canada achieved complete independence from Britain.
1939-1945 - Nearly 1.5 million Canadians fought in World War II. After the war, a new wave of European immigrants helped transform Canada into an industrial power.
1980 - Quebec voters rejected a proposal to negotiate their province's independence from the
rest of Canada.
1982 - A new constitution was approved by all the provinces except Quebec.
1990 - The Meech Lake Accord, which sought to win Quebec's acceptance of the new
constitution while guaranteeing the rights of French Canadians, was rejected by Manitoba
and Newfoundland.
1992 - A second attempt at constitutional revision, the Charlottetown accord, was defeated in a nationwide referendum
1994 - Canada entered into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) along with
Mexico and the United States.
1995 - A second referendum on the independence of Quebec was voted down by a narrow margin (50.6percent) of Quebec voters.
1999 - New territory of Nunavut was created out of the Northwest Territories
By world standards, Canada has a high literacy rate.
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