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- 1759 — General Wolfe defeats General Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham outside Quebec City.
- 1763 — With the signing of the Treaty of Paris, 60,000 French-speaking Catholics in Quebec become British subjects.
- 1774 — The Quebec Act guarantees religious freedom, French civil law and the French seigneurial land system in the colony.
- 1783 — Almost 70,000 Loyalists flee to Nova Scotia and Quebec following the American Revolution.
- 1791 — The Constitutional Act divides Quebec into mostly French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada.
- 1840 — The Act of Union joins French-speaking Canada East and English-speaking Canada West in the Province of Canada.
- 1867 — The Constitution Act, 1867 joins Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in Confederation as a constitutional monarchy under the British Crown.
- 1870–1949 — Manitoba joins the Canadian federation, followed by British Columbia (1871), Prince Edward Island (1872), Alberta and Saskatchewan (1905) and Newfoundland (1949).
- 1926 — The Balfour Report recognizes the autonomy of Canada and the other self-governing dominions of the British Empire.
- 1931 — Canada ceases to be a British colony with passage of the Statute of Westminster.
- 1969 — The Official Languages Act reinforces the equal status of French and English in federal institutions. New Brunswick gives English and French equal status as official languages, making it the only officially bilingual province.
- 1976 — The sovereigntist Parti Québécois is elected to lead the Quebec government.
- 1980 — Quebec voters defeat "sovereignty-association" — political sovereignty combined with economic association with Canada-in a referendum by a margin of 60 to 40 per cent.
- 1982 — With the agreement of nine provinces, the Constitution is patriated to Canada from Britain with a new Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and an amending formula. The Quebec legislature withholds its consent, but the Supreme Court of Canada rules that it is bound by the Constitution.
- 1987 — Prime Minister Mulroney and all 10 provincial premiers sign the Meech Lake Accord, which would have, among other things, entrenched recognition of Quebec as a distinct society in the Constitution.
- 1990 — The Meech Lake Accord lapses when Manitoba and Newfoundland fail to ratify it within the three-year deadline.
- 1992 — The Charlottetown Accord, a comprehensive package of constitutional reforms including, among other things, aboriginal self-government, election of the Senate, guarantee of 25 per cent of House of Commons seats to Quebec and distinct society recognition for the province, is defeated in a national referendum.
- 1995 — A proposal for sovereignty combined with an offer to Canada for an economic and political partnership is narrowly defeated by Quebec voters.
- 1995,1996 — Parliament passes a resolution recognizing that Quebec is a distinct society and legislation lending the federal veto over constitutional change to each of five regions: Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, the Prairie provinces and the Atlantic provinces.
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