Timeline of Quebec history (beginnings–1533)

This section of the Timeline of Quebec history concerns events through 1533.

Prehistory

• Paleo-Amerindians, whose presence in Quebec can be traced back 10,000 years, preceded the Algonquian and Iroquoian aboriginal peoples, with whom the Europeans first made contact in the 16th century.
• Some 8,500 years ago, the south of Quebec became habitable as it grew warmer. The first peoples began to immigrate on what is today the Province of Quebec. They were the ancestors of today's Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples.

15th century

• 1491 Dec. 31st Jacques Cartier is born
• 1492 - For the Queen of Castile (later, Spain), Christopher Columbus crosses the Atlantic Ocean.
• 1497 - John Cabot reaches the island of Newfoundland, which he claims for England.

16th century

• 1524 - Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine in the service of the King Francis I of France explores the East coast of North America from Florida to Newfoundland as well as parts of New York Harbor. The French would take narrow land ports of the Boroughs Queens and Brooklyn from the upper and lower parts of the harbor until 1609 when the British and the Dutch take control of it from the French.
• 1525 and after - Basque fishermen and whalers regularly sail in the St. Lawrence estuary and the Saguenay River.