• 1917-1923: Amalgamation of 5 debt-laden railways leads to government nationalization

  • June 6, 1919: Incorporation of Canadian National Railways

  • 1922: Sir Henry Thornton appointed first president of the CNR by governing Liberals; CNR has 99,000 employees, debt of $1.3 billion

  • 1922-1932: Thornton maintains small branch lines; introduces school cars and Red Cross cars to transport sick in rural areas; uses CN facilities to establish network of radio stations that led to the formation of the CBC; fends off intense competition from Canadian Pacific Railways

  • 1932: Thornton forced to resign as CNR president; governing Conservatives accuse him of being a Liberal partisan

  • 1930s: CNR cuts employees and slashes wages as it copes with Depression

  • 1938: Government cancels $1 billion of CNR's debt

  • 1940-1945: CN locomotives haul millions of tons of freight and hundreds of thousands of troops as part of the war effort

  • 1950: Donald Gordon appointed CNR president

  • 1950s: Passenger traffic steadily declines; Gordon begins extensive modernization program; locomotives converted to diesel; 80 subsidiary companies re-structured to form 30

  • 1958: CN buys Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal

  • 1967: Gordon retires; becomes president of Brinco

  • 1970s: CN, CP merge telecommunications systems; CN Tower completed

  • 1988: CN announces plans to sell many of its hotels

  • 1992: Paul Tellier appointed chief executive officer of CNR; CNR reports losses of $840 million on revenues of $3.9 billion

  • 1992-1996: Tellier sells off non-core assets (CN Tower, other real estate); abandons or sells 8,000 kilometres of track; 14,000 of 32,000 positions slashed

  • 1995: Government privatizes CNR; shares sold for $2.2 billion to mainly American investors

  • 1996: CN records profit of $850 million

  • 1998: CN buys Illinois Central Corp. for $2.4 billion, making CN the only North American transcontinental railroad.

  • Dec. 20, 1999: Canadian National Railways and Burlington Northern Sante Fe announce plans to merge and form new railway: North American Railways Inc.; new railway will be the largest on the continent