This section of the Timeline of Quebec history concerns events up to 1533.

Astronomy

• 4.6 Billion years ago, on the inner rim of the Orion (local) Arm of the Milky Way galaxy, gas and dust at the central core of a spinning interstellar gas nebula collapsed, and the resulting nuclear fusion at its centre generated the heat and light we now refer to as the Sun. Small lumps of dust and ice that remained in orbit around this core formed the nine planets, 60 moons, and millions of rocky asteroids of the Solar System. The planet earth was the third planet from this Sun.

Geology

• 2,9 billion years ago, the enormous continental shield of mainly metamorphic and igneous rocks known as the Canadian Shield was being formed.
• 350 million years ago, an enormous meteorite fell down on what is now the region of Charlevoix.
• 255 million years ago, the supercontinent of Pangaea began its Tectonic fragmentation, forming (among other geological phenomena) the Appalachian mountains, and leading to the formation of the Continents as we know them today.

Prehistory

• 13 thousand years ago, groups of hunters would have landed in America through the Bering Strait. (This is the dominant theory since 1927, however, there are other plausible theories being explored today.)
• 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 thousand years ago, the south of Quebec became habitable when the temperature warmed up on this part of the Earth. The first peoples began to immigrate on what is today the territory of Quebec. They are the ancestors of today's Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples.

1000s

• 1001 - The Viking explorer Leif Ericson reaches America.

1400s

• 1492 - For the Queen of Spain, Christopher Columbus crosses the Atlantic ocean.
• 1497 - John Cabot reaches the North American mainland, which he claims for England.

1500s

• 1524 - Giovanni da Verrazzano explores the East coast of America from Florida to Newfoundland.
• 1525 to 1530 - Basque fishermen and whalers regularly sail in the St. Lawrence estuary and the Saguenay River.