Timeline of Alberta history

Below is a brief timeline covering the history of the province of Alberta and its history pre-1905.

Date	Event	Reference
May 2, 1670	King Charles II of England grants the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) a royal charter for "the sole Trade and Commerce of all those Seas, Streights, Bays, Rivers, Lakes, Creeks, and Sounds, in whatsoever Latitude they shall be, that lie within the entrance of the Streights commonly called Hudson's Streights... which are not now actually possessed by any of our Subjects, or by the Subjects of any other Christian Prince or State... and that the said Land be from henceforth... called Rupert's Land". Rupert's Land included part of today's Alberta. (The Milk river valley in the extreme south of the province and the north half of the province were not part of the Hudsons Bay watershed, draining into the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic Ocean respectively.)	^[2]
1715	Cree leader Swan ("Captain Swan"), visiting York Fort, reports the existence of "gum or pitch" in the region now known as the Athabasca oil sands. His report, noted in the papers of the fort, is the first known mention of the oil sands.	^[3]
1730	Horses first appear in Alberta, coming in from present-day U.S. Horse stealing joins taking of a scalp and counting coup as way to gain honor. The use of horses in hunting, alongside the adoption of firearms about the same time, shifts the age-old balance between human hunters/predators and prey animals such as buffalo.	^[4]
September 11, 1754?	Anthony Henday, believed to be the first European to explore the area, enters present day Alberta. Although the route of his journey is uncertain, his trip was significant as he ruled out the possibility of the existence of a great Inland sea west of Winnipeg that would serve as a Northwest Passage to the Orient.^[5] He also reported the presence of friendly self-governing horse-riding Natives and huge herds of bison, and opened the way for others.	^[6]
1778	Peter Pond and Alexander Mackenzie establish the first fur trading post in Alberta, Pond House near Lake Athabasca.^[7] They are working for a group that forms the North West Company a short time later. Pond submits a map of the area to the United States Congress and Lt. Governor of Quebec in 1785.^[8]^[7] Mackenzie records the presence of "bituminous" substances along the Athabasca River. ^[9]
July 3, 1789	Alexander Mackenzie embarks from Fort Chipewyan on his 1789 expedition to the Arctic Ocean .
1793 July	Alexander Mackenzie embarks from Fort Chipewyan, crosses present-day Alberta and BC, and achieves the first transcontinental journey across Canada (and of North America) by arriving at tidewater at Dean Channel.^[10]^[11]
February 12, 1793	Peter Fidler reports coal deposits on the banks of Kneehills Creek, near the Red Deer River, north of present-day Drumheller. Fidler is the first known to mention coal deposits on the Prairies.	^[12]
1795	HBC establishes Fort Edmonton as a fur trading post at the present site of Fort Saskatchewan, at mouth of Sturgeon River on the North Saskatchewan River, as part of the Saskatchewan River fur trade. (Prior to 1812, it moves to what is now Rossdale and to a location near Smoky Lake.)
1799	HBC establishes Rocky Mountain House as a trading post; the North West Company establishes Acton House nearby. David Thompson uses Acton House as base for explorations of the Rocky Mountains. It is also used as transshipment point for supplies to new NWC forts in BC.^[13]
December 20, 1803	Mississippi drainage lands lying within present day Alberta are transferred to United States when the Louisiana Purchase, which was signed on April 30, 1803, comes into effect.
1810	Yellowhead Pass is explored by fur-trading companies, assisted by local Natives. 1813 NWC Jasper House is established on Brule Lake. The route became well used to access furs in interior BC.^[14] The lowest of the passes through the Canadian Rockies, it is used as the route of the CNR and the Yellowhead Highway today.
1811	Peigan imposes a blockade on the North Saskatchewan preventing NWCo canoe brigade from using Howse Pass to deliver to NWCo forts in BC. David Thompson discovers another way through mountains - Athabasca Pass. Athabasca Pass becomes well used by the NWCo and the HBC's York Factory Express.
October 10, 1812	HBC factor Jame Bird marks out the layout of Fort Edmonton IV. This marks the start of recorded permanent human occupancy on the site of present-day City of Edmonton.^[15]
1821	HBC and North-West Company amalgamate. Many forts in Alberta are put out of operation.^[16]
1823	HBC establishes Fort Assiniboine as a trans-shipment point on the Athabasca River, part of the Mackenzie River watershed flowing to the Arctic. Starting in 1824–25, it serves as the north end of a 130-kilometre (80 mi) horse track from Fort Edmonton. (see 1898)
1830	Flood of North Saskatchewan River causes Fort Edmonton to be rebuilt up the hill near the present site of the Legislative Building. This fort contains the head office of the entire Saskatchewan district, as well as gateway to the Columbia district across the Rockies and the Arctic district to the North.^[17]
October 18, 1840	Methodist missionary Robert Rundle arrives at Fort Edmonton as the first permanent cleric to the area.
1862	Methodist missionary George McDougall and his missionary family settle on the north bank of North Saskatchewan at a place they call Victoria Settlement. HBC fur trading post Fort Victoria is built there in 1864. (Later the settlement of Pakan develops there.)
December 4/5, 1865	Cree, Stoney and Ojibway fighters attack a Blackfoot tipi camp at Battle River. About a hundred Blackfoot dead or wounded, two children taken captive; the Cree side suffered about 60 dead or wounded.	^[18]
1866	George McDougall, missionary at Victoria Settlement, organizes theft of the Manitou Stone, or Manitou Asinîy ('Creator's Stone') from its ancient site near Hardisty. (see 2022)

Date	Event	Reference
July 15, 1870	The Prairies and Great Northland become part of the young country of Canada, which had accomplished its Confederation in 1867. Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory are combined under the new name of the North-West Territories, part of which will become the province of Alberta.	^[19]
October 25, 1870	Battle of the Belly River occurs. The battle is the last major conflict between the Cree (the Iron Confederacy) and the Blackfoot Confederacy, and the last major battle between First Nations on Canadian soil.
September-October, 1870	Hunters and their families left from Fort Edmonton and St. Albert to hunt buffalo in the Battle River area. Smallpox broke out, and over a two-month period, 122 persons died of it and were buried near Camrose. ^[20]
October 1, 1874	First North-West Mounted Police outpost in Alberta at Fort Macleod is established. (The police force was legally established in 1873 and was staffed and put into the field in 1874, in response to the Cypress Hills Massacre of 1873.)
Spring, 1875	Mounties establish a post at Fort Saskatchewan, outside Edmonton. This location is thought to be on the route of the transcontinental railway (CPR) expected to be built a few years later. But instead the route selected is through southern Alberta.
September 1875	NWMP officer Éphrem-A. Brisebois establishes Fort Brisebois, at present site of Calgary. James Macleod renames it Fort Calgary in 1876.	^[21]
August 23, 1876	Treaty 6 receives its first signatories, ceding much of north-central Alberta to the Crown. Treaty 6 land stretched from the Red Deer River to the Athabasca River.	^[22]
1876	Athabasca Landing -- the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) built a warehouse to facilitate its supply route to Lesser Slave Lake. (Soon more shipping facilities built there. Place became transshipment point to the Mackenzie river system. Settlement developed. 1904 name changed to just Athabasca.)
September 22, 1877	Treaty 7 is signed between the Crown and Blackfoot people, led by Chief Crowfoot, ceding much of southern Alberta to the Crown and officially opening the territory to settlement.
May 2, 1882	North-West Territories, which includes the land of today's province of Alberta, is divided into provisional districts, including districts Alberta, Athabasca, Saskatchewan and Assiniboia. But purpose of these districts queried at time as each is too small to be a future province and is too large to have just one NWT Assembly seat.	^[23]^[24]
October 13, 1882	Alexander Galt's company, the North Western Coal and Navigation Company, opens its first drift mine. The community of Coalbanks, later named Lethbridge, establishes itself around the mine.	^[25]^{[additional citation(s) needed]}
1883	Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) construction enters Alberta in early May. Line reaches Calgary, on August 10. CPR establishes new townsite west of Elbow River.The old Calgary settlement moves to the new site.	^[26]
1883	CPR employees drilling for water at Langevin Siding (later renamed Carlstadt and later Alderson) discover natural gas.	^[27]^{[additional citation(s) needed]}
1883 May 26	Edmonton elects its first member of the North-West Territorial Council -- Frank Oliver	^[28]^[29]
1884 June 28	Calgary elects its first member of the North-West Territorial Council -- James Davidson Geddes
November 27, 1884	Calgary is incorporated as a town. This is accomplished due to lobbying by an elected "Civic Committee", which includesMajor James Walker and James Murdoch. (Murdoch is elected Calgary's first mayor in December 1884.)	^[30]^[31]
April 2, 1885	Frog Lake Massacre occurs as the North-West Rebellion stretches into modern day Alberta. Cree discontents belonging to Big Bear's band kill nine white officials, instructors and priests living in the small settlement of Frog Lake (at the time in the District of Saskatchewan). Several of the perpetrators later are hanged.
1885	Edmonton under threat of First Nations uprising. The Alberta Field Force marched north on the Calgary and Edmonton Trail to secure the Red Deer River ford and Edmonton from the threat. The AFF then proceeded down the North Saskatchewan River to the scene of fighting in Saskatchewan.
June 23, 1887	Rocky Mountains Park (later renamed Banff National Park), is created by the Rocky Mountains Park Act.	^[32]
February 22, 1887	District of Alberta elects its first MP, former whisky pedlar Donald Watson Davis.
1888	Richard Hardisty is appointed Senator for District of Alberta. Served to his death a short time later on October 15, 1889. (Replaced by James Lougheed.)
1891	Calgary and Edmonton Railway is completed, connecting Calgary to the south bank of North Saskatchewan River, opposite Edmonton. South Edmonton (later named Strathcona) grows up at the rail-head, the northern-most railway line in North America at the time.
1892	Edmonton is incorporated as a town. Town council is elected. Matthew McCauley elected mayor by acclamation.
1892	Calgary is site of anti-Chinese riot, with up to 200 city residents wrecking Chinese laundries and other businesses.^[33]
January 1, 1894	Calgary is incorporated as a city. Town council is elected.	^[21]
1895, March 22	Mass meeting held at Calgary to discuss possibility of pressuring the federal government to establish the district of Alberta as a province. The result of the meeting was the formation of a Provisional Committee authorized to "take steps towards the organization of a representative League for the advancement of the movement." A booklet was published to explain the position - "Provincial government for Alberta, its meaning and necessity".	^[34]
1897	Klondike Gold Rush occurs. Many use Calgary and Edmonton Railway and the South Edmonton railway station on way to goldfields, still thousands of kilometres to the northwest.
November 7, 1898	Thomas Chalmers begins construction of the Klondike Trail on behalf of the North-West Territorial government. He extends the Edmonton–Fort Assiniboine trail to Lesser Slave Lake. Many who attempt to trek overland to the Yukon Gold Rush use this trail.	^[35]
June 21, 1899	Treaty 8 is signed, ceding much of Northern Alberta to the Crown.
1899	South Edmonton is incorporated as Town of Strathcona, named after Lord Strathcona, kingpin in both the Hudson's Bay Company and the CPR.
April 29, 1903	Frank Slide, Canada's deadliest rockslide, destroys part of the town of Frank. Kills 70 to 90 or more.
November 7, 1904	Edmonton incorporates as a city.	^[36]

Date	Event	Reference
September 1, 1905	Federal government's Alberta Act creates Alberta as a province separate from the North-West Territories. The whole district of Alberta, and parts of the districts of Assiniboine, Saskatchewan and Athabasca, combined to make new province.
November 9, 1905	1st Alberta general election. The Alberta Liberal Party is elected government with majority of the votes.
1906	Edmonton is confirmed as capital city of province.	"From the Press Gallery" Saturday News, April 28, 1906, p. 3
1907	Strathcona incorporates as a city.
1907 June 8	Strathcona mine disaster -- six are killed. It is the worst industrial disaster in Edmonton's history.^[37]
1906–1911	Canadian Northern Railway and Grand Trunk Pacific Railway built through Edmonton and Jasper National Park. (The railways later were combined to form CN.)
1909 January 8	Alberta's first Labour MLA, Donald McNabb, elected in Lethbridge City by-election. (He lost his seat in general election later this same year.)
1909 March 22	Alberta's first Socialist MLA, Charles M. O'Brien, elected in the Rocky Mountain district. (He lost his seat in the 1913 general election.)
1910 December 10	Bellevue mine disaster, Crowsnest Pass. 30 dead
January 11, 1911	Lowest temperature ever recorded in Alberta, −61.2 °C at Fort Vermilion.^[38]
September 3, 1912	Alberta Legislature Building opens. Governor General of Canada, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, cuts the ribbon.	^[39]
1912	The cities of Edmonton and Strathcona amalgamate.
May 14, 1914	A.W. Dingman strikes wet natural gas at Turner Valley. This produced gasoline. The Turner Valley/Black Diamond oilfield became a major supplier of oil and gas and the largest producer in the British Empire.^[40]
1912–1913	start of economic crash. (Edmonton's population did not grow substantially again until 1940s.)
June 19, 1914	Hillcrest mine disaster, Canada's deadliest coal mining accident and deadliest industrial disaster, kills 189 workers.
July 21, 1915	1915 Alberta liquor plebiscite. 61% vote in favour of Prohibition. Prohibition (ban on sale of alcohol) goes into effect on July 1, 1916.	^[41]
April 19, 1916	Women's suffrage movement prevails in Alberta, women earn the right to vote, with the passage of the Equal Suffrage Statutory Law Amendment Act. Alberta is the third province to grant the right.	^[42]
1917 March 1	Alberta Provincial Police take over policing in Alberta. RCMP were out until 1932.
1917	4th Alberta general election .Louise McKinney and Roberta MacAdams elected to the Alberta Legislature, the first women elected to a legislature in the British Empire. McKinney and James Weir were elected under the label of the leftist Non-Partisan League^[43]
October 1918	Spanish Influenza. Oct. 2 Alberta Board of Public Health order all citizens to be masked in public and theatres close. Around 4,700 Albertans die; more than 31,000 Albertans taken sick.	^[44]^[45]
1918–1922, especially 1919	Great Labour Revolt General strikes in Edmonton, Calgary and more. One Big Union is founded in Calgary. Workers at all but one of Alberta coal mines are on strike in 1919.	^[46]^[47]
July 18, 1921	5th Alberta general election the United Farmers of Alberta win election to government, electing 38 of the 61 members of the Legislature. Four Labour MLAs were elected, two in Calgary. The UFA government would hold power until 1935.
December 6, 1921	1921 Canadian election the United Farmers of Alberta took ten of Alberta's 12 federal seats. Two Labour MPs are elected in Calgary to take the other two Alberta seats.
November 5, 1923	1923 Alberta prohibition plebiscite, on the cancellation of prohibition. 58% vote in favour of clause (d), ending Prohibition and enabling government sale of liquor and private operation of beerhalls. Prohibition had been in effect since 1916, following the 1915 Prohibition plebiscite.	^[48]
1924	Alberta adopts proportional representation in the cities and instant-runoff voting elsewhere, the first province in Canada to elect all its MLAs using non-plurality systems. (The STV/IRV hybrid system is in use until 1956.)	^[49]
June 16, 1926	The City of Edmonton receives a licence to operate airport, later named Blatchford Field, the first municipal airport in Canada.	^[50]
June 28, 1926	Provincial election. Single transferable voting used in Edmonton and Calgary. A UFA MLA and Labour MLA elected in Edmonton for first time. Liberal, Conservative and Labour MLAs elected in Calgary.	^[51]
December 14, 1929	Alberta Natural Resources Act transfers control of Alberta's natural resources and Crown land to the province.	^[52]
1929–1939	Great Depression. Massive unemployment. Prices plummet for agricultural products and manufactured goods. Southern Alberta suffers from drought as well.
1932	Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (Farmer-Labour-Socialist) party, a predecessor of the NDP, founded in Calgary
1932 December 20	Edmonton Hunger March. A demonstration by struggling workers and farmers is repressed by billyclub-wielding police, some on horseback. Subsequently, police raid the Hunger March headquarters. 27 leaders and activists arrested.^[53]^[54]
1933	League of Indians of Alberta (LIA) founded by Cree and Stoney leaders from central Alberta. Later it became the Indian Association of Alberta
1933	Blairmore, Alberta elects a city council of socialist activists.^[55]
1933 –	July 2, 1934 Brownlee sex scandal captures widespread attention, resulting in the premier's resignation. He is replaced by Richard Reid.	^[56]
August 22, 1935	8th Alberta general election. Alberta Social Credit League, led by William Aberhart, wins a majority of seats in the Legislature — ending 15 years of the United Farmers of Alberta being elected to majority power in the Legislature. The Social Credit government would hold power until 1971.
1935 December 9	Coalhurst coal mine explosion kills 16, almost an entire shift of underground miners. (Coalhurst is located about 15 kilometres north of Lethbridge.)^[57]^[58]
1936 April 1	Alberta became the first and only Canadian province to default on its bond payments. The province failed to redeem two bond issues totaling $3,200,000. (The bonds were eventually honored once the province's economy improved in the 1940s.)^[59]
1937	Lieutenant Governor John C. Bowen refused to give royal assent to three pieces of legislation passed by the Social Credit government. Two of the bills would have imposed government control over private banks operating in Alberta. The Accurate News and Information Act would have forced newspapers to print government rebuttals to stories the provincial cabinet deemed "inaccurate". The three bills were later declared unconstitutional (ultra vires) by the Supreme Court of Canada and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council due to limits on the powers of provincial governments. The government's debt moratoriums intended to save homes and farms from foreclosure, were overturned by the federal government and the courts.^[60]
1938	Alberta Treasury Branches established as a provincially owned bank, as part of the Social Credit government's monetary reform policies.
1939	Indian Association of Alberta founded by John Callihoo and John Laurie, based on the League of Indians of Alberta.
1939–1945	Alberta plays a role in the WWII Allied war effort. This includes participation in the Commonwealth Air Training Plan, Edmonton being a base and administrative headquarters for construction of the Alaska Highway, and hundreds of planes being ferried through Alberta on their way to aid the Soviet Union's war effort.

Date	Event	Reference
February 13, 1947	Leduc No. 1 strikes oil. it is the first major oil discovery in northern Alberta, growing the petroleum industry in Alberta.
June 3, 1956	Stettler MLA John Etter Clark killed his family and others, and then himself. Total of eight died. (Clark's murders, the Cook Family murders of 1959, and Phu Lang's murders in 2014 are the deadliest in Alberta's history.)
1958	James Gladstone of the Kainai Nation, appointed to Senate. He was the first First Nations person (person of Treaty status) to serve in the Senate.^[61]
August 30, 1971	17th Alberta general election . The Progressive Conservatives win a majority, led by Peter Lougheed — ending 36 years of the Social Credit government's hold on majority power in the Legislature. The Progressive Conservative government would hold power until 2015.
May 19, 1976	Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund is created, after Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund Act receives royal assent. The Heritage fund is the only sovereign wealth fund in Canada.	^[62]
October 28, 1980	National Energy Program. Pierre Trudeau's government announces the NEP, arousing anger and resentment in the West. It is set to take effect on January 1, 1981.	^[63]
September 15, 1981	West Edmonton Mall, at the time the world's largest, opens.
October 19, 1984	NDP leader Grant Notley and five others are killed when Wapiti Aviation Flight 402 crashes in snow and trees southeast of Grande Prairie.
September 25, 1985	Royal Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology opens.
February 8, 1986	The Hinton train disaster kills 23 people, the deadliest railway accident in Alberta history.
June 14, 1986	The Mindbender derails, killing three people
July 31, 1987	The Edmonton tornado kills 27 people and causes more than $330M in damage.
February 13, 1988	1988 Winter Olympics open in Calgary with closing ceremonies on February 28.
1999 August 9	Hub Oil explosion, at a Calgary refinery, kills two workers. Likely deadliest industrial disaster in Calgary history. Series of three major explosions and many smaller ones. The Calgary Fire Department lost two truck units in the second explosion, and several firefighters sustained injuries. Approximately 300 nearby residents were evacuated for 20 hours.
2002	Alberta teachers strike. 21,000 either on strike or locked out, for three weeks in February. Government ordered them back to work, but that was overturned in legal appeal. Government passed Bill 12, banning teachers' strikes and putting in place an arbitration process that was considered unfair by the Alberta Teachers Association. Finally in April a new contract was achieved through a fair arbitration process, to teachers' relief. (First major teachers' strike since 1992. Next one in 2025).^[64]
2011 October 7	Alison Redford becomes first female premier of Alberta. She serves in that post to 2014.
June 19, 2013	2013 Alberta floods damage parts of Calgary and other areas in south and central Alberta. Kills five. causes some of the worst flood damage in Alberta's history.
May 5, 2015	29th Alberta general election gives the Alberta New Democratic Party, led by Rachel Notley, a majority of seats in the Legislature — ending 44 years of Progressive Conservative party rule.
May 1, 2016	2016 Fort McMurray wildfire begins. It displaces more than 88,000 people from their homes.
December 2, 2018	Rachel Notley#Oil_curtailments announced to take effect in January 2019, limiting production to 3.56 million barrels per day.
April 16, 2019	30th Alberta general election occurs. The United Conservative Party win a majority of seats in the Legislature, displacing the Alberta NDP government after one term.
January 8, 2020	The shoot-down of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 in Iran kills 51 Canadians, including 13 Edmontonians, of whom 10 were faculty at the University of Alberta. This is believed to be the most Edmontonians killed in a single event since the 1987 tornado, and deadliest day in the history of the university.
February 23, 2020	Teck Resources withdraws its application to build the Frontier Mine in northern Alberta despite having spent more than one billion dollars on the project over a ten year period.
March 17, 2020	COVID-19 causes the government of Alberta to declare a state of emergency.^[65] The first person in Alberta dies from the virus on March 19.^[66] Kills almost 5000 Albertans.
September 30, 2022	On National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the Alberta government and Manitou Asinîy-Iniskim-Tsa Xani Centre commit to returning the Manitou Stone (Creator Stone), a 145 kg meteorite, to its landing site near Hardisty, from where it had been removed in 1868.^[67] A $7.5 million–10 million geodesic dome designed by Indigenous architect Douglas Cardinal, will be a prayer healing facility and shrine for the allegedly sacred stone. Former Poundmaker Chief Blaine Favel says land for the site and funding from corporate donors is being negotiated. The Royal Alberta Museum is to continue to curate the artifact until the site is constructed.^[68]
2024	Wildfire destroys a large portion of the Jasper townsite.

Timeline of Alberta history

Pre-history

Pre-Confederation

Post-Confederation, in North-West Territories

Provincehood 1905–1945

Post World War II

Timeline of Alberta Premiers

Other Alberta timelines

References

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