Short answers, pulled from the story.
Jacques Cartier landed on the shores of Gaspé on the 24th of July 1534 to claim the land for King Francis I of France. This event marked the first European exploration of what is now Quebec, although Indigenous peoples had inhabited the region for thousands of years prior.
The 1980 referendum on sovereignty-association resulted in 40% voting yes and 60% against independence. Following this outcome, Premier René Lévesque returned to Ottawa to negotiate constitutional changes while other provinces reached agreement without Quebec's delegation during the Kitchen Accord on the 4th of November 1981.
Quebec occupies territory nearly three times the size of France with borders extending over 7,000 kilometers across eastern Canada. More than 95% of its land lies within the Canadian Shield featuring flat exposed mountainous terrain interspersed with ranges like the Laurentian Mountains and Torngat Mountains near Ungava Bay.
The British North America Act came into force on the 1st of July 1867 creating Canada with four founding provinces including Quebec. Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau became Quebec's first premier on the 15th of July 1867 following negotiations at the Charlottetown Conference and Quebec Conference.
French remains the sole official language understood spoken by 93.7% of the population making Quebec the only major Francophone region in the Americas alongside Haiti. English serves as a mother tongue for 7.6% of residents primarily residing on West Island downtown areas or Pontiac regions.