Chronology

1808
June 30	Simon Fraser, John Stuart, Jules Maurice Quesnel, representing the North West Company, with nineteen voyageurs, and two Indians, descend the Fraser River past Langley to the sea.
1821	Rival Hudson's Bay Company and North West amalgamate.
1824 Back to TOP
Nov 24	Chief Trader James McMillan, Clerks Francis Noel Annance, Thomas McKay, and John Work, together with 36 others, leave Fort George on the Columbia River in three bateaux to search out a suitable location for a fort on the Lower Fraser River.
Dec 13	McMillan's party enters Mud Bay and begins to ascend the Nicomekl River.
Dec 15	McMillan party reaches the Fraser River via the Salmon River.
Dec 30	McMillan's party back at Fort George.
1827 Back to TOP
June 27	Chief Trader James McMillan, Clerks Annance, George Barnston, and Donald Manson, together with 21 other voyageurs leave Fort Vancouver on the Columbia to establish a Hudson's Bay Company post on the Lower Fraser, via two bateaux and schooner Cadboro.
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Aug 1	First timber for the construction of Fort Langley cut.
Sept 18	Cadboro weighs anchor leaving the fort occupants to fend for themselves.
Dec 24	Chief Trader Alexander McKenzie party arrives at Fort Langley from Fort Vancouver to wish Fort Langley staff a Merry Christmas
1829 Back to TOP
Feb 15	Rumours received that Chief Trader McKenzie party murdered by Clallams while camped on shores of Puget Sound.
Oct.	Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Northern Department in America for the Hudson's Bay Company arrives at Fort Langley, having descended through the Fraser Canyon after making a tour of inspection of the upcountry New Caledonia posts. Simpson leaves Archibald McDonald in charge of Fort Langley.
1833 Back to TOP
Feb 20	James Murray Yale takes command of Fort Langley.
1838
Oct 14	Yale moves into second Fort Langley some 2½ miles upriver from the original site.
1839 Back to TOP
Feb 6	Governor George Simpson signs agreement with Baron Wrangell whereby the Hudson's Bay Company will supply Russian forts in the panhandle with food for the right to trade in the area.
1840
April 11	Second Fort Langley burns to the ground.
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1841 Back to TOP
Aug	Father Modeste Demers arrives at Fort Langley and brings the word of God to several thousand Indians.
1854
Mar	England and France become allies of the Turks against the Russians in the Crimean War. The Hudson's Bay Company signs a secret agreement with the Russians to continue supplying food for the Russian forts in the Northern Pacific.
1857 Back to TOP
Spring	James Houston discovers gold on Tranquille Creek near Fort Kamloops on the Thompson River.
1858
July 4	The Surprise, an American sternwheeler, reaches Fort Hope.
July	The Umatilla, another American vessel, passes beyond Fort Hope to end of navigation at the bottom end of the Fraser Canyon at Fort Yale.
Aug 22	England's Parliament revokes the exclusive trade licence of the Hudson's Bay Company in New Caledonia.
Oct 29	First contingent of Royal Engineers, under Captain Parsons, arrives at Victoria.
Nov 19	Inauguration of the Crown Colony of British Columbia takes place in the Big House at Fort Langley under the direction of Chief Justice Matthew Baillie Begbie and James Douglas as Governor of the Crown Colony of British Columbia.
1859 Back to TOP
Jan 4	Governor Douglas promulgates first Pre-emption Act.
Feb 20	Reverend William Burton Crickmer holds first services at Derby Townsite.
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Nov 8	Second contingent Royal Engineers under Captain Grant, land at Victoria.
Dec 1	Gov. Douglas calls for tender for erection of parsonage, church, courthouse and gaol at Derby.
1872 Back to TOP
April 11	Provincial Legislature passes the Municipality Act.
1873
April 26	Chilliwack and Langley become the first two rural districts to incorporate.
June 2	First election of warden and councillors takes place for the newly incorporated Municipality of Langley in the little red schoolhouse located just east of Fort Langley. James Mackie is elected first warden.
1904 Back to TOP
Sept 10	Bill Miner, Louis Colquhoun and William Grell, successfully pull Canada's first train robbery at Silverdale.
1910
Oct 3	British Columbia Electric Railway inaugural train with three gaily decorated coaches leave New Westminster en route to Chilliwack with Premier Richard McBride for the driving of the last spike ceremony.
1914 Back to TOP
June 28	Student in Sarajevo, Austria, assassinates Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the thrones of Austria and Hungary, and his wife. They were the most fateful shots in history. In five weeks the First World War broke out and in four years more than 8,000,000 men died in battle and 20,000,000 were wounded.
Aug 4	Britain declares war on Germany bringing Canada into the First World War.