See also: 15th century in Canada, other events of the 16th century, 17th century in Canada and the list of 'years in Canada'.

Events

• c. 1500: European diseases begin killing native North Americans, who have no immunity to them.
• 1523-24: Giovanni da Verrazano, sailing for France, explores the Atlantic coast, encountering Wampanoag, Narragansett, and Delaware Indians.
• c. 1530-50: The French explorer Jacques Cartier sails up the St. Lawrence River, claiming the land for France. His failure to find a northwest passage - or gold, as the Spanish had in Peru - discourages further exploration. France was also too preoccupied with domestic religious wars to make any substantial commitment. The discovery of Canada was important, however, to English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese fishing fleets, all of which regularly fish the Grand Banks off the coast of Newfoundland.
• 1534-41: Jacques Cartier of France explores the St. Lawrence River area in three voyages, making contact with Algonquian and Iroquoian speaking tribes. On one trip he reaches the Huron towns of Stadacona and Hochelaga (now Quebec City and Montreal).
• 1534: French explorer Jacques Cartier visits the Strait of Belle Isle (Newfoundland), enters and charts Gulf of St. Lawrence River, landing in Gaspé, July 14. His ship becomes icebound, men suffering from scurvy aided by Haudenosee, who feed them vitamin C in boiled spruce. He takes two native Indians with him back to France.
• 1535: Cartier sails up the St. Lawrence River to Stadacona (Quebec) and Hochelaga (Montreal).
• 1541: Jacques Cartier and Sieur de Roberval attempt to colonize Quebec, founding the first French settlement in America, Charlesbourg-Royal, at the mouth of the Cap Rouge River.
• 1542: Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo and Bartolome Ferrelo explore the California and Oregon coasts.
• 1542: Charlesbourg-Royal is abandoned. Cartier meets the sieur de Roberval, who was officially part of the same expedition, in Newfoundland.
• 1564-65: Rene de Laudonniere heads French colony on St. Johns River in Florida until expelled by Spanish. French artist Jacques le Moyne paints first known European depiction of Indians.
• 1576: Martin Frobisher of England makes the first of three attempts to find a Northwest Passage, sailing as far as Hudson Strait. What he thought was gold discovered on his journey was later proven worthless.
• 1579: British Navigator Sir Francis Drake (c.1540-96) on a voyage around the world in the Golden Hind, claims California for Queen Elizabeth I.
• c. 1575: The English explorer Martin Frobisher continues the fruitless search for a passage to Asia.
• 1576-78: Martin Frobisher of England, seeking a Northwest Passage to the Pacific, encounters various Eskimo groups.
• 1583: Sir Humphrey Gilbert, brother-in-law of Sir Walter Raleigh, sails for Newfoundland from England.
• 1585: Sir Walter Raleigh founds colony on Roanoke Island in what will become Virginia.
• 1588: English fishing fleet delays sailing to Newfoundland to participate in the defeat of Spanish Armada.
• 1591: Gov. John White returns to the colony on Roanoke Island from a trip to England to find that the colonists have vanished.
• 1598: The Marquis de la Roche lands 40 convicts on Sable Island.
• 1599: Samuel de Champlain, French explorer, arrives, followed by Catholic missionaries.