Grade 8 Social Studies: Unit Five - Appendix 14 - Chronology

1805 - First post office opens.

1806 - Benevolent Irish Society founded in St. John’s.

1807 - Newfoundland's first newspaper, The Royal Gazette and Newfoundland Advertiser, established by John Ryan.

1815 - End of the Napoleonic wars.

1816, 17 - Fires in St. John's.

1816 - Gower Street Methodist Church opens.

1816-17 - Winter of the Rals (or Rowdies).

1817 - Governor stays year-round for the first time.

1819 - Demasduit ("Mary March") captured and brought to St. John's.

1822 - William Cormack walks across Newfoundland.

1823 - Shanawdithit captured at Badger Bay with her mother and sister.

1824 - Newfoundland becomes a Crown Colony. "Coast of Labrador" placed once again under Newfoundland jurisdiction.

1825 - Sir Thomas Cochrane, first civil governor.

1825 - First highway opened, from St. John's to Portugal Cove.

1829 - Death of Shanawdithit.

1832 - Representative government granted, first elections.

1833 - House of Assembly opens for the first time.

1834 - Newfoundland Savings Bank established.

1836 - Cape Spear lighthouse lit for the first time.

1836 - First Education Act.

1837 - Land granted for Roman Catholic cathedral in St. John's.

1845 - Introduction of gas to St. John's.

1846 - Great gale of 1846 causes widespread damage.

1846 - Great fire in St. John's leaves 12,000 homeless.

1847 - Construction begins on present Anglican cathedral, St. John's.

1850 - Colonial Building opens.

1852 - Harbour Grace streets illuminated by gas lights for the first time.

1855 - Responsible government instituted. Liberal party forms government, led by P.F. Little.

1857 - Census puts population at 122,638.

1860 - Terra Nova mine opened at Baie Verte.

1861 - Serious riot in St. John's following general election.

1862 - Steamers used in the seal fishery for the first time.

1864 - Establishment of Newfoundland Geological Survey. Tilt Cove copper mine opened.

1866 - Transatlantic cable links Ireland and Heart's Content.

1869 - Pro-confederates badly defeated in general election.

1871 - Newfoundland Constabulary formed, a year after the withdrawal of British troops.

1872 - Better steam communication established with Nova Scotia and Britain.

1875 - Betts Cove copper mine opened.

1876 - Arrival of the Irish Christian Brothers.

1878 - First telephone system in St. John's.

1879 - First successful daily newspaper: The Evening Telegram.

1881 - Construction of the Newfoundland railway begins.

1883 - Orange-Catholic affray at Harbour Grace.

1884 - St. John's dry dock opens. Census lists population at 197,589.

1885 - Flavin Lane station produces the first electricity in St. John's.

1887 - Secret ballot introduced.

1888 - Municipal government in St. John's.

1886 - Electric lights on St. John's streets.

1890 - Railway construction contract with R.G. Reid.

1891 - Newfoundland Teachers Association formed.

1892 - July 8: Great Fire destroys much of downtown St. John's.

1892 - Wilfred Grenfell's first voyage to Newfoundland and Labrador.

1893 - Railway operating contract with R.G. Reid.

1894 - “Black Monday' (December 10): Crash of the Union and Commercial banks.

1895 - Canadian banks set up in St. John's. Confederation negotiations fail. Iron ore mining begins on Bell Island.

1897 - Cornerstone of Cabot Tower laid.

1898 - First train runs from St. John's to Port aux Basques. First pulp mill at Black River, Placentia Bay.

1900 - Inaugural run of St. John's Street Railway.

1901 - December 12/13: Marconi receives the first transatlantic wireless signals at Signal Hill. Formation of the Reid Newfoundland Company. Population approximately 220,000.

1902 - Governor Cavendish Boyle composes The Ode To Newfoundland.

1904 - The Entente Cordiale ends French Treaty Shore dispute.

1905 - Agreement with Anglo-Newfoundland Development Co. to build newsprint mill at Grand Falls.

1908 - Tie election. Foundation of the Fishermen's Protective Union.

1909 - Branch line railway programme begins. Grand Falls mill opens. Old age pensions introduced.

1914 - Sealing disasters: the Southern Cross and the crew of the Newfoundland. Outbreak of First World War, formation of the Newfoundland Regiment.

1916 - July 1, Newfoundland Regiment decimated at Beaumont Hamel.

1917 - Prohibition introduced. Daylight Savings Time instituted.

1918 - Conscription introduced. War ends.

1919 - Alcock and Brown make the first nonstop transatlantic flight from St. John's. Spanish flu epidemic.

1923 - Government takes over the railway and coastal steam service.

1925 - Corner Brook pulp and paper mill begins production. Legislature passes the Women's Suffrage Bill. Memorial University College opens.

1927 - Privy Council defines the Labrador boundary in Newfoundland's favour.

1928 - Buchans mine opens.

1929 - Onset of the Great Depression. Burin Peninsula tsunami.

1932 - Riot outside the Colonial Building.

1932 - Amelia Earhart departs from Harbour Grace on her flight across the Atlantic.

1933 - Louise Saunders of Greenspond becomes Newfoundland's first woman lawyer. Royal Commission chaired by Lord Amulree examines condition of Newfoundland.

1934 - Responsible government suspended. Commission of Government installed. Capt. Abraham Kean catches his one millionth seal.

1938 - Gander Airport opens.

1939 - Outbreak of Second World War.

1940 - Leased bases deal between Britain and the United States.

1941 - Atlantic Charter signed in Placentia Bay. Construction of Goose Bay air base, Labrador.

1942 - German submarines sink ore carriers off Bell Island and the SS Caribou.

1945 - End of war.

1946 - Election of the National Convention.

1947 - Cars now drive on the right.

1948 - Confederation wins the second referendum. Negotiation of terms of union with Canada

1949 - Newfoundland with Labrador becomes a Canadian province (31 March). J.R. Smallwood premier of a Liberal provincial government. Memorial University College becomes Memorial University of Newfoundland.

1953 - Start of the government-sponsored resettlement programme.

1955 - CJON television opens.

1957 - Unemployment programme for fishery workers established.

1959 - IWA strike in central Newfoundland. Relocation of Inuit from Hebron.

1960 - Viking site at L'Anse aux Meadows discovered.

1961 - Holyrood oil refinery opens.

1962 - Mining begins at Labrador City.

1964 - Asbestos mining at Baie Verte.

1965 - Mining begins at Wabush. Trans-Canada highway across Newfoundland completed.

1966 - Bell Island iron mines close. Stephenville air base closed. Agreement reached on development of Churchill Falls.

1967 - Marystown shipyard opens. Avalon Mall opens in St. John's. Baie d'Espoir hydro development on stream.

1968 - Phosphorus plant goes into production at Long Harbour, Placentia Bay.

1969 - Medicare instituted. Passenger rail service closed.

1970 - Formation of Fishermen's Union (NFFAW).

1971 - First teachers' strike.

1972 - Frank Moores heads the first PC provincial government. First power from Churchill Falls is delivered to Hydro-Quebec.

1973 - Come by Chance refinery opens. Stephenville mill opens.

1975 - Cable television comes to Newfoundland. Sir Wilfred Grenfell College opens.

1976 - Come by Chance refinery closes: bankruptcy.

1977 - Linerboard mill in Stephenville closes. Fluorspar mines at St. Lawrence close. First McDonald's franchise in Newfoundland opens in St. John's Two hundred mile limit established. Brigitte Bardot protests the seal hunt.

1978 - L'Anse aux Meadows is declared a UNESCO world heritage site

1978 - Abitibi Price buys Stephenville linerboard mill.

1979 - Offshore oil discoveries confirmed. First women appointed to a provincial cabinet: Hazel Newhook and Lynn Verge.

1980 - New provincial flag is adopted. Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council established.

1982 - Loss of the Ocean Ranger. EEC bans import of seal pup pelts. Publication of the Dictionary of Newfoundland English.

1983 - Construction of the Trans-Labrador Highway begins. Mi'kmaq of Conne River recognized as status Indians.

1984 - Supreme Court of Canada rules that the Hibernia oilfield belongs to Canada, not Newfoundland. The Pope visits Newfoundland. Kruger Inc. takes over the Corner Brook mill. Formation of Fishery Products International.

1985 - Signature of the Atlantic Accord. Arrow Airlines crash at Gander. Buchans mine closes.

1986 - Official end to the killing of seal pups or 'whitecoats.' Spanish trawlers arrested on the Grand Banks.

1987 - First plantings at the Sprung Greenhouse, Mount Pearl (closed 1989).

1988 - Labrador becomes a separate federal riding. Mount Pearl becomes a city. Federal-Provincial agreement to close the Railway in return for $800 million for roads

1989 - Closure of phosphorus plant at Long Harbour.

1990 - Agreement on Hibernia oil field development.

1992 - Cod moratorium imposed

1994 - Argentia base closed.

1995 - Arrest of the Spanish trawler Estai. Discovery of Voisey’s Bay mineral deposit.

1996 - Agreement on Terra Nova oil field development.

1997 - John Cabot 500th anniversary celebrations. Referendum approves end of denominational school system. Hibernia platform towed out.

2001 - Name of province changed. Agreement reached on Inuit land claim.

2002 - Agreement on development of Voisey's Bay. Davis Inlet Innu begin move to Natuashish.