Alaska History Timeline

15,000 B.C.-4000

The Beginning

15,000 B.C.-

4000 B.C.

4000

B.C.

4000 B.C.

Fossil Artifacts

New data from the fossil record revealed the first permanent settlements in the high arctic areas appeared 4,000-3,500 years ago. Obsidian artifacts dating from 4,000-1,000 years before present have provided concrete evidence of transcontinental interaction between Siberia and Alaska.

700 A.D.

Developing Culture

A living site belonging to the Birmirk, a people who are consisted a key link

between the splitting of of the prehistoric native cultures between Canada and Alaska, was found in Barrow, Alaska.

700 A.D.

1728

Exploration Begins

Vitus Bering

Peter the Great died and Empress Anna became head of Russia. She employed Vitus Bering who explored the Northwest coast and established Russia's claim on Alaska.

Vitus Jonassen Bering was one of the world's most famous explorers.

He was born in Horsens, Jutland (Denmark) in 1681.

He went sailing as a young man and learned navigation on Dutch and Danish ships. After a voyage to the East Indies he enlisted in the Russian Navy in 1703.

In 1724, the Tsar Peter I the great appointed him leader of an expedition that was to determine whether or not Asia and North America were connected land. Known among the Russian sailors as "Ivan Ivanovich", he was assigned to explore the vast areas North of the Russian coast in search of the Northwest Passage and for Russia's interest in colonial expansion.

On July 13, 1728, Bering set sail from the Siberian Peninsula and in August passed through the Bering Straight and into the Arctic Ocean. Poor weather conditions prevented thorough observation and though he did not sight the North American Coast, he concluded that Russia and North America were not connected.

1741

Russia’s Great Nordic Expedition

A Russian expedition led by Vitus Bering, along with George Steller, made the first "discovery" of Alaska, landing on or near what today is Kayak Island. Bering explored the western coast of Alaska until he was shipwrecked and died on Commodorsky Island, later named Bering Island.

1741

1778

The British Are Coming!

British captain James Cook explores the Alaskan coast seeking the Northwest Passage. On the journey he discovers Mt. Edgecumbe, Prince William Sound, Bristol Bay, and Norton Bay. On his return journey, his crew nearly commits mutiny after discovering the price of otter pelts while docking in China.

1784

Grigory Shelikhov

The first Russian Settlement in Alaska was established on Kodiak Island at Three Saints Bay.

1784

1857

1857

Alaska Mining

The discovery of coal on the Kenai Peninsula in 1786 was one of the many things that helped Alaska become colonized in her infancy.

Coal mining didn’t begin until 1855 when Enoch Hjalmar Furuhjelm opened the first coal mine in what is now called Port Graham.

In 1857, Coal mining begins at Coal Harbor on the Kenai Peninsula.

1867

Alaska Purchase

The United States purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million dollars in gold, two cents an acre. At the time of the purchase, the United States referred to it as "Seward's Folly".

1867

1869

1869

Literacy Abounds

The Sitka Times, Alaska's first official newspaper, is published

1872

Gold Mining

Gold was discovered near Sitka.

1872

1882

1882

Red Gold

The first Alaska salmon canneries are constructed in central Alaska and commercial fishing for herring begins in the town of Killisnoo.

Map and location of the original Killisnoo cannery

1896

Oil Discovery

Oil was discovered in the Cook Inlet.

1896

1903

1903

Gold Rush

A United States senator W.P. Dillingham arrived in the town of Sitka on the Revenue Cutter McCullouch on a tour of Alaska. The town of Dillingham was later named after him in his honor.

The discovery of gold near a trading post established by E.T. Barnette turned the temporary stop into a permanent residency. The gold findings caused an influx in population and in 1903 those living in the area voted to incorporate the City of Fairbanks.

1912

Territory Of Alaska

Passage of the 1899 Criminal Code which, among other things, included a tax on liquor, led to increased calls for Alaskan representation in Congress,[2] and the debate finally ended on August 24, 1912, when the Alaska District became an organized, incorporated territory of the United States.

The Second Organic Act of 1912, renamed the District the Territory of Alaska.

1912

1925

1925

Serum Run-Dogs Sled

In 1925 a diphtheria epidemic cripples Nome, Alaska. Weather conditions prohibit the life-saving serum from being shipped by plane, so 20 dog-sled teams race the medicine 674 miles (1,085 km) from Nenana to Nome in just over five days in record cold and hurricane-force winds. Dogs like Togo and Balto are commemorated for their heroic work as lead dogs.

1926

Benny Benson

Thirteen year old Benny Benson won the contest for the design of the Alaskan flag in Seward. The same year, a statue of Balto the famous sled dog is erected in Central Park in New York City.

John Ben "Benny" Benson was an Aleut boy who designed the flag of Alaska in 1927. The Alaska territory soon became an official state in 1959. His design then became the official state flag. John was born in Chignik, Alaska, to a swedish father and an Aleut-Russian mother. He was three years old when his mother died. Unable to care for Benny and his brother, his father was forced to send the brothers to an orphanage. Benny grew up in Unalaska and later at the Jesse Lee home in Seward.

After graduating from high school in 1932, Benny left the Jesse Lee home. He returned to the Aleutian islands to work from his father at a fox farm on Ugaiushak Island. After the price of furs dropped, Benny moved to Seattle in 1936. There he enrolled in Hemphill Diesel Engineering School. Two years later he married Betty Van Hise. The couple had two daughters, but divorced in 1950 where Benny and the girls lived in Kodiak.

1926

1942

1942

WWII Japanese occupation of Kiska

During World War II in 1942, Japan invades the Aleutian Islands of Attu and Kiska. It would be a year before the American military would re-take the islands.

1945

Civil Rights

1945

1959

1959

Statehood

Alaska admitted into Union. On January 3, 1959, President Eisenhower signs a special proclamation admitting the territory of Alaska into the Union as the 49th and largest state.

1964

Alaska's Good Friday Earthquake

On March 27, 1964 at 5:36pm local time (March 28 at 3:36 UTC) an earthquake of magnitude 9.2 occurred in the Prince William Sound region of Alaska.

The earthquake lasted approximately 4.5 minutes and is the most powerful recorded earthquake in U.S. history.

1964

1968

1968

Oil Discovered

Commercial oil exploration began in the Prudhoe Bay area in the 1960s. The field was discovered by Humble Oil, which later became part of Exxon, and Atlantic Richfield Co. (ARCO), on March 12, 1968, with the well Prudhoe Bay State No. 1.

An Alaska newspaper provided the first intelligence on the massive Prudhoe Bay oil discovery.

1971

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA) was a new approach by Congress to federal Indian policy.

Through ANCSA, the federal government transferred 44 million acres – land to be held in corporate ownership by Alaska Native shareholders – to Alaska Native regional and village corporations.

1971