This information is updated frequently. Timeline
1670 - King Charles II of Britain grants the territory of Rupert's Land to the Hudson's Bay Company
1754 - Anthony Henday of the Hudson's Bay Company arrives in present-day Alberta
1793 - Sir Alexander Mackenzie crosses present-day Alberta on his way to the Pacific
1794 - Hudson's Bay Company fort built at present-day Edmonton
1807 - Fort at Edmonton is destroyed
1819 - Fort at Edmonton is rebuilt and serves traders and missionaries
1821 - The North West Company merges with Hudson's Bay Company
1868 - Hudson's Bay Company sells Rupert's Land to the new confederation of Canada for 300,000 pounds sterling ($1,460,000 Canadian)
1869 - Canadian Parliament adopts An Act for the temporary Government of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory when united with Canada, which establishes an advisory council of members selected by Ottawa
1871 - the advisory council is formed to make recommendations to the
lieutenant-governor
1872 - Canada's Dominion Lands Act offers immigrants a 160-acre homestead in the West for $10 and allows ownership of the land after three years if certain conditions are met
1874 - Northwest Mounted Police establish Fort Macleod in southern Alberta
1875 - Northwest Mounted Police build log fort at present-day Calgary
- Canadian Parliament adopts the Act to amend and consolidate the Laws respecting the North-West Territories to separate the lieutenant-governor of Manitoba from the lieutenant-governor of the Northwest Territories and to establish a new advisory council with greater powers
- The new advisory council had members elected by districts of populations greater than 1,000
- The advisory council becomes a legislative assembly when the council consists of at least 25 members
1876 - John Ware (American) brings the first cattle into Alberta territory
- Most of the early ranchers were English settlers, and most of the cowboys were American
1882 - Alberta is created and named in honour of Queen Victoria's daughter, whose husband is governor-general of Canada
1883 - Canadian Pacific Railway builds through Alberta
1885 - Northwest Territories elects four members of Parliament, including D.W. Davis for the Alberta constituency
- The first senators for the Northwest Territories are named
- The Canadian government sends military personnel to Calgary as part of the move against Louis Riel
- Charles Fitzpatrick acts as defence counsel for Louis Riel, earning him the accusation of treason by the Canadian government
1888 - Richard Charles Hardisty is appointed to the Senate of Canada as the first senator from the District of Alberta and is Canada's first Metis Senator
1889 - Northwest Territories is administered by a legislative assembly which held certain powers such as taxation, issuing permits, establishing municipalities, courts and local company incorporations, and the ability to spend money from taxes; the lieutenant-governor is authorized to spend money from the Canadian government
1890 - Legislative assembly members officially notify the lieutenant-governor about political problems: "Government by the minority against the expressed wish of the majority is a violation of the act … Your Honour may govern under instruction from Ottawa … or by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly, but we can find nothing to show that Your Honour is empowered to govern with advisers responsible only to yourself"
1891 - Canadian Parliament amends the North-West Territories Act, 1875, so the Legislative Assembly recommends expenditures of all public funds and forms an executive committee whose members take an oath of office and receive a salary
1896 - Canadian Minister of the Interior, Clifford Sifton, advertises in Europe for immigrants, offering free acres to settlers
- People from Germany, the Ukraine and Romania respond to Sifton's offer
1897 - Canadian Parliament makes extensive changes to Northwest Territories administration, leading to responsible government of the people. An executive council replaces the executive committee. Government departments are created.
However, the Territories cannot borrow money, cannot obtain revenues from public lands which are administered by Ottawa, cannot tax the CPR according to the charter, and cannot grant exploration charters to new railway companies. Federal monies are not enough to pay for the schools and other public services that are required for the increasing population.
- Frederick William Haultain becomes president of the Executive Council, earning him the unofficial role of premier of the territories
1898 - Edmonton serves as supply base during the Klondike gold rush
1900 and 1901 - Prime Minister Laurier meets with F.W.G. Haultain and J.H. Ross of the Territories to discuss territorial self-government
1904 - As federal Parliament is dissolved, Laurier promises to resolve the issues in the Territories if he is re-elected
1905 - Alberta becomes a province
- The Canadian government refuses to give Alberta control of its own resources, resulting in a 25-year feud in part because the Canadian government wanted to retain control of immigration policies for the Prairies
- George Hedley Vicars Bulyea becomes lieutenant-governor of Alberta
- Clifford Sifton resigns from Laurier's cabinet in disagreement over the Canadian government's stand on schools for Alberta and Saskatchewan
1914 - oil is discovered at Turner Valley, near Calgary
1916 - Emily Murphy accepts an appointment as Judge in Edmonton's new Women's Court - the first female judge in the British Empire
1917 - Louise McKinney is elected to the Alberta Legislature
1918 - W.R. (Wop) May shoots down Baron von Richthofen (the Red Baron - famous for 80 kills during his wartime career)
1921 - Nellie McClung is elected to the Alberta Legislature
- Irene Parlby is elected to the Alberta Legislature and is appointed Minister Without Portfolio, the second female cabinet minister in the British Empire
1926 - Albertans elect the first Canadian MP of Ukrainian descent - Michael Luchkovich
1927 - The Famous Five (Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise McKinney, Nellie McLung, Emily Murphy, Irene Parlby) challenge the ruling that the word "persons" in the British North America Act excludes women from access to the Senate, and lose their case at the Supreme Court of Canada
1929 - stockmarkets crash, followed by droughts, severe frosts, grasshopper plagues, dust storms, and extensive emigration from Alberta
- The Famous Five (Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise McKinney, Nellie McLung, Emily Murphy, Irene Parlby) challenge the ruling that the word "persons" in the British North America Act excludes women from access to the Senate, and win their case at the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council of Great Britain (the highest Court of Appeal for Canada). The Senate can now admit women.
- Clennell Haggerston (Punch) Dickins flies from Waterways, Alberta, to Fort Simpson, NWT, to Aklavik (in the Arctic) on the first airmail delivery
1930 - Clennell (Punch) Dickins flies the first prospectors to Great Bear Lake where uranium was discovered
1938 - Alberta's government supports oil exploration and development while the Canadian government refuses to consider investments
1947 - Leduc oil fields open
1958 - Alberta Premier Ernest Manning warns, "A National Energy Program should not be empowered to interfere in any way in such fields as regulation or control of production control of wellhead or field prices or control of ultimate consumer prices."
1971 - Tony Belcourt serves as the first president of the Native Council of Canada after serving as vice-president of the Metis Association of Alberta
1974 - Federal Finance Minister John Turner says, "The whole concept of taxing the resources of the provinces is simply going to destroy confederation. If the provinces don't have the opportunity to take the ownership of resources to build the provinces and to strengthen the provinces - particularly the regions and those provinces smaller than the central provinces - then we're going to have a different kind of Canada and in my opinion not a better Canada."
1976 - The Canadian Government establishes Petro-Canada as a Crown Corporation with $1.5 billion in start-up money
- Maurice Strong is the first President of Petro-Canada
- Petro-Canada later acquires Atlantic Richfield, Pacific Petroleum and Petrofina at a cost of about $14 billion to Canadian taxpayers
1979 - Petro-Canada buys Pacific Petroleums
1980 - The Canadian Government introduces the National Energy Program to "Canadianize" the Alberta oil patches
-The Canadian Government pays higher prices for foreign oil than for Alberta oil during the National Energy Program's lifetime
- Albertans respond with the famous bumper sticker "Let the eastern bastards freeze in the dark"
- Petro-Canada drills its first offshore wells in explorations off Labrador
1981 - Petro-Canada buys Petrofina Canada to create a refining and marketing presence in Eastern and Central Canada
1982 - Petro-Canada announces the discovery of oil at Valhalla, Alberta
1983 - Alberta extends oil incentives for a year, including reactivation of expired development drilling and well servicing incentives
-Petro-Canada buys refining and marketing assets of BP Canada to enlarge operations in Ontario and Quebec
1990 - The Canadian Government announces the privatization of Petro-Canada
1991 - The first shares of Petro-Canada are sold for $13 each, and the price drops to $8 a share within the first year
1993 - The Conservative government buys 50 state-of-the-art helicopters. Later, the Liberal government cancels this contract at a cost of $500,000,000.
1994 - James Gosling invents the programming language Java. Gosling also built the original Emacs text editor
1995 (February) - Liberal Justice Minister Allan Rock is confident the Firearms Registration program will cost $85,000,000 over five years.
1996 - Alberta farmers are charged for conducting business as their eastern Canadian counterparts conduct business
1997 - Human Resources Development Canada grants for Transitional Job Funding increase dramatically just before, and just after, the federal election campaign
1999 - "The Edmonton Protocol" is the most successful pancreatic islet cell transplant
2001 - Alberta produces 55% of Canada's conventional crude oil, 80% of Canada's natural gas, 49% of its coal, and all of Canada's oil sands
- Sales of marketable natural gas: 16% sold in Alberta, 33% sold to the rest of Canada, 51% exported to the United States
2002 (October) - These Alberta farmers go to jail six years after being charged and found guilty of conducting business the way eastern Canadian farmers are allowed to conduct business: Gary Brandt, Ron Duffy, Jim Chatenay, Martin Hall, Rod Hanger, Noel Hyslip, Ike Lanier, Bill Moore, Jim Ness, Mark Peterson, Rick Strankman, John Turcato, Darren Winczura
- The Globe and Mail reports the Firearms Registry program cost at $1 billion. The Liberals announce they will replace the helicopters first scheduled to be replaced in 1993.
2004 (May) - The Separation Party of Alberta is registered as an official provincial political party
2005 - Floods affect much of Alberta, particularly Southern Alberta. The Canadian Prime Minister visits 17 days after High River declared a state of local emergency.
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