1535 – Jacques Cartier visits Hochelaga; names “Mont
Royal”.
1611 – Samuel de Champlain (founder of Quebec City)
explores part of the island of Montreal
1642 – Paul de Chomedy de Maisonneuve establishes
Ville-Marie and erects a wood cross on Mount Royal. His mission was to convert the Indians to Christianity.
1670 – the Hudson Bay Company is formed, thus initiating
full-scale economic war between France and England for fur trade profits in
Quebec
1716 – French authorities begin building a wall around
Montreal that was about 6.4 meters high.
The project was completed 20 years later.
1721 – Large scale fire… henceforth all buildings within
the city walls were built of stone.
1734 – Another fire, allegedly started by a slave,
Marie-Joseph Angélique (note: historian Marcel Trudel has documented the
presence of at least 2077 slaves in Montreal during the early part of its
history).
1759 – British General Jeffrey Amherst marches into
Montreal
1760 – Wolfe defeats Montcalm at Quebec … New France
officially surrenders at a ceremony in Montreal
1775 – An American army marches into Montreal, and
Benjamin Franklin and other American politicians try to convince the local
people to join the American revolution.
The Americans finally leave in the summer of 1776.
1783 – The North West Company is formed and begins to
seriously challenge the Hudson Bay Company for domination of the fur trade.
1801-1820 – the walls surrounding Montreal are demolished and
the stone used in new buildings
1817 – The Bank of Montreal begins operations
1821 – McGill University receives its Royal Charter
1821-24 – Lachine Canal completed (bypassing the Lachine
rapids), built mainly by Irish workers
1828-30 – Cholera epidemic in Montreal. Patients are quarantined at the military
barracks on Isle Ste-Hélène
1832 – William IV gives royal assent to a law
incorporating the city of Montreal
1833 – Jacques Viger is elected first mayor of
Montreal. The city adopts its coat of
arms and the motto “Concordia Salus” (prosperity through harmony).
1837-38 – Patriotes rebellion (led by Louis-Joseph Papineau)
is brutally suppressed
1843 – A new Lachine Canal project is launched, which will
double the depth of the Canal. Workers
strike after their pay is reduced, but the army is called in to break it. In
Canada’s bloodiest labour confrontation, about 20 workers are killed, as
many as 50 are wounded.
1844 – the United Province of Canada establishes its
Parliament in Montreal at Marché Ste-Anne (Place Youville)
1847 – Immigrants arriving from Ireland to escape the
potato famine are quarantined in sheds near Griffintown, where many end up
dying
1849 – the Montreal Parliament is burned down by Doric
Club members (paramilitary Anglo group) who were enraged at the passage of the
Rebellion Losses Act
1852 – Great Montreal Fire – 1,100 homes destroyed
1853 – Construction of Victoria Bridge begins (completed
in 1859)
1861 – first streetcars in Montreal
1877-78 – successful strike by workers at Lachine Canal,
thanks in part to support of Joe Beef (Charles McKiernan)
1917 – 5.3 km tunnel (for trains coming from TMR) under
Mount Royal is completed
1924 – the new cross erected on Mount Royal is first
illuminated on Dec. 25
1934 – Harbor Bridge (1930) is renamed Jacques Cartier
Bridge for 400th anniversary
1952 – Buses begin to replace streetcars
1954 – Jean Drapeau is elected mayor of Montreal for the
first time
1959 – St. Lawrence Seaway is opened; Place Ville Marie construction begins;
Laurentian Autoroute opened (up to St. Jerome)
1960 – Metropolitan Expressway opens
1962 – Construction of metro lines begins
1965 – municipalities on Isle Jésus merged to form the
city of Laval
1966 – Decarie Expressway opened
1967 – Montreal World Exposition (EXPO ’67). First metro lines open to public. Louis-Hippolyte Fontaine Tunnel is
inaugurated.
1970 – the October Crisis: FLQ militants kidnap James
Cross and Pierre Laporte
1972 – Common Front walkout (the largest labour strike in Canadian history)
1976 – Montreal Olympics
1989 – 14 female students killed at l’école Polytechnique
1990 – the Oka Crisis: Mohawk warriors resist expansion of
golf course onto ancestral lands, occupy Mercier Bridge, etc.
1998 – the Ice Storm
2002 – Montreal municipalities merged into one ‘mega-city’