Alaska: A Historical Timeline

PRIOR TO 1741 EARLY SETTLEMENT
Circa 60,000–12,000 BCE	Asiatic groups cross the Bering Land Bridge into what is now known as western Alaska. While the scientific community continues to debate exactly when the migration occurs, it is generally accepted that the area is populated by about 12,000 B.C. (The Land Bridge is thought to have flooded some 12,000 years ago.) The region's first inhabitants include Inupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Eyak, and a number of Northern Athabaskan cultures.
Circa 8,000 BCE	The Aleuts settle the islands of what is now known as the Aleutian chain.
Circa 3,000 BCE	The Eskimo are now present, having evolved from people who probably had migrated to Alaska from Siberia at least 2 to 3 thousand years earlier. Today the two main groups of Eskimos are the Inuit of northern Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, and the Yupik, comprising speakers of four distinct Yupik languages. The term "Eskimo" is still in common use in Alaska today, although in Canada and Greenland it is considered pejorative and has been largely replaced by "Inuit." However, in Alaska this term would not account for the distinction between the state's Inuit and Yupik peoples.
1741–1845 EUROPEAN EXPLORATION AND SETTLEMENT
1741	(June) The St. Peter, captained by Dane Vitus Bering, and theSt. Paul, captained by Russian Alexei Chirikov, set sail from the Kamchatkan port of Petropavlovsk as part of Russia's Second Kamchatka expedition. The expedition's goal is to find and map the eastern reaches of Siberia and the western shores of North America. (July 15) Chirikov sights land, which is likely the west side of Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska. The first Europeans land on the northwest coast of North America. (July 16) Bering and the crew of the St. Peter sight the Alaskan mainland. (November) While on course to return to Russia, the St. Peteris wrecked on land that will become known as Bering Island. Bering falls ill and dies, and his crew is stranded.
1742	(August) Bering's crew builds a boat from the ship's wreckage and sails for Russia, bringing a cache of seal pelts and sparking further desire for Alaskan settlement.
1763	Reacting to trespass of their territory, Unangan/Eastern Aleuts destroy four Russian vessels at Unalaska, Umnak, and Unimak islands. Only 12 survive of the more than 200 men. The Russians retaliate and kill more than 200 Unangan/Aleuts.
1772	Unalaska becomes a Russian trading port for the fur seal industry, establishing the first permanent Russian settlement.
1774	Spanish authorities order Juan Perez and Esteban Martinez to sail north from Mexico along the Pacific Coast. They reach Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska. The Spanish send expeditions to the North Pacific over the next 15 years.
1778	Captain James Cook of Britain maps much of Alaska's southern coast, trading with natives and later selling the pelts in China.
1784	Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov arrives on Kodiak Island with the ships Three Saints and Saint Simon. When the Koniag people exhibit hostility to them, Shelikhov's band retaliates by killing hundreds and seizing hostages. The native population cowed, Shelikhov establishes the second permanent Alaskan settlement on the island's Three Saints Bay.
1788	(August 5) Spain claims Unalaska, renaming it Puerto de Dona Maria Luisa Teresa.
1790	Spanish explorer Salvador Fidalgo leads an expedition that includes visits to the future sites of Cordova and Valdez, claiming the land for Spain.
1799	Shelikhov's son-in-law, Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov, acquires a monopoly on the American fur trade from Czar Paul I and forms the Russian-American Company. Paul I grants the company sole trading rights in North America for 20 years.
1802	(June 20) Tlingit warriors invade and destroy the Russian trading post at Katlianski Bay, massacring all Russians and Aleut workers and looting and burning the barracks.
1804	The Battle of Sitka. Led by Russian-American Company's chief manager Alexander Baranov, Russians and Unangan/Aleuts return to reoccupy Katlianski Bay. After two weeks of fighting, the Tlingit flee the area. They return in 1819 after Baronov's departure.
1819	Spain transfers its Alaskan claims to the United States in the Adams-Onís Treaty.
1824	(April 17) The Russo-American Treaty is signed. The treaty, which gives Americans the right to the fur trade only below 54° 40' north latitude, is widely ignored by merchants. As a result, Russia's hold on Alaska weakens further.
1825	The Anglo-Russian Treaty between Britain and Russia fixes Russia's territorial claims to southernmost boundary of Alaska at the line of 54°—the present southern tip of the Alaska Panhandle—but Russian rights to trade in the area south of that line remain.
1836–39	Outbreaks of smallpox, measles, chicken pox, and whooping cough decimate the Unangan population.
1845–1912 AMERICAN SETTLEMENT AND THE GOLD RUSH
1845	U.S. hunters kill their first bowhead whale in the Bering Strait. Commercial whaling continues along the arctic coasts for the next 70 years, severely endangering the bowhead whale population.
1865	The Western Union International Telegraph project begins. The company attempts to link the U.S. and Europe with a line from Alaska through to Siberia. The first successful transmission is made in 1868.
1867	(April 9) At the behest of U.S. Secretary of State William Henry Seward, the U.S. Senate approves the purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. At the time the unpopular deal is referred to as "Seward's Folly." The Russian-American Company's holdings are liquidated. (October 12) Alaska becomes the U.S. Department of Alaska, and the American flag is raised in the region for the first time. At this time, Alaska is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army.
1881	Canadian miner and prospector Joseph Juneau co-founds the city of Juneau. It becomes the political capital of Alaska in 1906.
1882	After villagers take hostages and demand payment for the accidental death of a Tlingit leader employed by a whaling company, the U.S. Navy shells the southeast Alaska village of Angoon. The federal government settles claims for the destruction 89 years later for $90,000.
1884	The Department of Alaska becomes the District of Alaska.
1886	The use of native languages is outlawed in Alaskan public schools.
1896	The Klondike Gold Rush begins. The discovery of gold in the nearby Yukon Territory leads thousands of miners and settlers to migrate to Alaska in hopes of striking it rich. While gold has yet to be discovered in Alaska, it provides the easiest transportation routes to the Yukon.
1898	(July 8) Known as "Alaska's Outlaw," notorious gangster Jefferson "Soapy" Smith is killed in a gunfight over miner John Douglas Stewart's gambling debts in the gold rush town of Skagway. To this day, his grave and saloon are popular area tourist attractions.
1899	Gold is discovered in Nome, Alaska.
1900	Alaska's copper mining, commercial fishing, and canning industries become popular in the beginning of the 20th century.
1901	The town of Fairbanks is founded. Today it is the second-largest city in Alaska behind Anchorage.
1902	Work begins on the Alaska Railroad, which connects Seaward to Fairbanks by 1914.
1903	The Alaska Boundary Dispute between British-controlled Canada and the U.S. is resolved. The dispute was inherited by the United States as a consequence of the Alaska Purchase and had been ongoing between the Russian and British Empires since 1821.
1912–1959 THE ALASKA TERRITORY
1912	Alaska is granted the status of U.S. territory after Congress passes the Second Organic Act. The Territory of Alaska has no less than 52 federal agencies controlling it.
1913	Four men, including the Athabaskan Walter Harper, make the first successful ascent of Mt. McKinley/Denali's south peak, the highest point on the North American continent.
1914	Anchorage is founded. Today it's the most populous city in Alaska, with more than 35,000 residents.
1915	The Territorial Legislature passes a law recognizing Native people as Alaska citizens. However, the law requires a Native to get endorsements from five white citizens and to have "severed all tribal relationships and adapted the habits of a civilized life" before being granted citizenship.
1922	After Tlingit member Charlie Jones is arrested at Wrangell for voting, a federal court gives Alaska Natives the right to vote in territorial elections, two years before all Native Americans gain the same right. Jones is later acquitted.
1925	Congress creates the Alaska Gaming Commission, establishing hunting seasons and setting limits on the number of animals that can be killed. Natives who have not adopted a "civilized mode of living" are exempt from the need for licenses.
1930	The Great Depression. The prices of fish and copper plummet, severely impacting the state's economy.
1935	Renowned aviator Wiley Post and humorist Will Rogers die when their plane crashes shortly after leaving Barrow.
1942	World War II. Japanese forces occupy the outer Aleutian islands of Attu, Agattu and Kiska, the only part of the continental territory of the U.S. to be occupied by the enemy during the war. Native Attu villagers are taken to Japan as prisoners, where they remain for the war's duration. The U.S. interns Aleuts in southeastern Alaska. From June through August, the tiny island is bombed, and thousands of U.S. troops are wounded or killed. The Japanese ultimately escape via transport ships. The Alaska Highway is completed, connecting the contiguous United States to Alaska through Canada. The route is the first stable transportation link between Alaska and the lower 48 states.
1944	Police arrest Alberta Schenck for sitting in the whites-only section of the Dream Theater in Nome.
1945	The Territorial Legislature passes an anti-discrimination law providing equal accommodations almost 20 years before the passage of the Federal Civil Rights Act. Elizabeth Peratrovich, president of the Alaska Native Sisterhood, testifies in favor of the act. In 1984 Governor Cowper designates February 16 as Elizabeth Peratrovich/Alaska Civil Rights day in her honor.
1957	The first commercial-level oil deposits in Alaska are discovered at Swanson River on the Kenai Peninsula. The event helps spur Alaskan statehood, now that it appears the territory can deeply benefit the U.S. economy.
1959–PRESENT MODERN ALASKA
1959	(January 3) Alaska becomes the 49th state admitted to the Union.
1960	The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is established. At 19,286,482 acres (78,049.62 km2), it is the largest such national refuge in the country.
1964	(March 27) The Good Friday Earthquake (also known as the Great Alaska Earthquake) kills 134 people and levels several villages. At five minutes in length and measuring 9.2 on the Richter Scale, it is the second-strongest earthquake in recorded history.
1968	Massive oil reserves are discovered at Prudhoe Bay, drastically altering the state's economic and political future.
1971	(December 18) President Richard Nixon signs the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The largest land claims settlement in U.S. history, it transfers 148,500,000 acres (601,000 km2) of formerly government-held land to 12 Alaska Native regional corporations and over 200 local village corporations.
1972	The Bilingual-Bicultural Education Act legislates all Alaska school districts with at least eight pupils of limited English capabilities will provide a bilingual-bicultural education program.
1974	Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins. Although environmental, legal, and political arguments against the project are made, the Oil Crisis of 1973 makes it economically desirable. An influx of tens of thousands of workers turns Valdez, Anchorage, and Fairbanks into boomtowns.
1976	Governor Jay Hammond helps establish the Alaska Permanent Fund, which sets aside at least 25 percent of oil revenues for the benefit of current and future generations of Alaskans.
1977	The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System is completed. Its total length is 800.302 miles (1,287.961 km) with a maximum output of 2.136 million barrels per day. The completion of the pipeline immediately raises concerns among some that the protected ANWR region will become subject to drilling. Despite much proposed legislation to do so in the coming decades, the area currently remains protected.
1980	Congress passes the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. The act designates 79.53 million acres (124,281 square miles; 321,900 km²) as public lands, a third of which is set aside as wilderness area.
1989	(March 24) The oil tanker Exxon Valdez hits a reef in Prince William Sound, spilling between 11 and 35 million gallons (42,000 and 130,000 m³) of crude oil over 1,100 miles (1,600 km) of coastline. It is one of the largest oil spills in U.S. history and becomes one of the country's worst environmental disasters.
1994	A jury awards plaintiffs in a lawsuit connected to the Exxon Valdez spill $287 million in compensatory damages and $5 billion in punitive damages.
2001	Governor Tony Knowles issues the Millennium Agreement, an executive order that calls for the State of Alaska to consult with recognized tribal governments regarding state issues.
2006	Sarah Palin becomes the state's first female governor. In 2008 she becomes the Republican nominee for vice-president, the second woman and first Alaskan nominee on a presidential ticket.