Alaska History Timeline

By larobinson
  • Period: to

    First Russian Contact in Alaska

  • Danish explorer Vitus Bering makes first European landing in Alaska

  • Period: to

    Unangan/Aleuts have contact with Europeans and Americans

  • Period: to

    Pacific Eskimos have contact with Europeans and Americans

  • Steller’s sea cow became extinct

  • Captain James Cook reaches Cook Inlet

  • Period: to

    Yupiit have contact with Europeans and Americans

  • Period: to

    Tlingit and Haida have contact with Europeans and Americans

  • Russians began colonizing Koniag Alutiiq

  • Russian Orthodox priests arrived in Kodiak to minister to residents

  • Russian Alexander Baranov establishes post in Sitka Bay

  • Period: to

    Athabascans have contact with Europeans and Americans

  • Sea otters hunted to near extinction

  • Russian missionary Ivan Veniaminov teaches skills to Natives, prepares Aleut dictionary

  • Anglo-Russian treaty establishing AK’s borders

  • American & French ships sail for Alaska in search of whales

  • First mission school for Eskimos at Nushagak

  • New Archangel Seminary opened by John Veniaminov

  • Period: to

    Inupiat have contact with Europeans and Americans

  • Right whale population reaches near extinction

  • Alaska purchased from Russia by U.S.

  • Period: to

    Sheldon Jackson establishes missionary schools

  • Girls’ School opened in Fort Wrangell

  • First salmon canneries built in Alaska at Klawock and Sitka

  • John Muir explores Glacier Bay

  • First major strike of gold at Gold Creek (Juneau)

  • Cruises bring tourists to Glacier Bay

  • The First Organic Act- civil government brought to Alaska (provide education for children of all races)

  • Sitka Industrial Training School established

  • Reindeer introduced to Alaska

  • Congress allows whites to obtain title to lands

  • Klondike gold strike

  • Homestead Act extended to Alaska

  • White Pass & Yukon Railroad built during Klondike Gold rush

  • Alaska introduced a liquor licensing system

  • Copper discovered in Alaska

  • Capital established in Juneau

  • Adjudication of Alaska-Canada border in southeast Alaska

  • Nelson Act- segregated schooling

  • Alaskan Indians and Eskimos granted homesteads

  • Tongass & Chugach National Forests established

  • Copper River and Northwestern Railway completed

  • Alaska Native Brotherhood founded to achieve citizenship for Natives

  • Alaska becomes U.S. territory with an elected legislature

  • Mr. Katmai erupts

  • Alaskan women can vote

  • City of Anchorage is born

  • Territorial Board of Education created

  • Mount McKinley (Denali) National Park established

  • Agricultural College and School of Mines in Fairbanks (now U of A) established

  • United States enters World War, salmon industry booms

  • Alaska introduced to aviation

  • Alaska Railroad from Seward to Fairbanks completed

  • All Native Americans were granted U.S. citizenship

  • Alaskan literacy law designed to limit Native voting

  • Court case resolves the right of Native children to attend public school.

  • Bureau of Education transferred to Bureau of Indian Affairs

  • Indian Reorganization Act (IRA)

  • Great Depression spurs colonization of farmers in Matanuska Valley

  • Alaska Reorganization Act- IRA extended to Alaska

  • Period: to

    World War II

  • Japanese attack Dutch Harbor

  • Construction of Alaska Canada Military Highway (Alcan)

  • Two Tlingit Indians brought into office to serve in legislature

  • Equal rights bill passed- abolishing legal segregation in AK

  • Alcan Highway opened to public, binding Alaska to rest of the nation

  • Community colleges established

  • Constitution of Alaska written and approved

  • Alaska Statehood Act gives state right to select 108 million acres

  • Alaska becomes 49th state in America

  • Alaska Methodist University (APU) opened

  • Tundra Times established to represent Native views

  • Great Alaskan Earthquake

  • Alaska Federation of Natives formed to pursue land claims with federal government

  • Prudhoe Bay oil strike

  • Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act

  • Alaska puts restrictions on commercial salmon fishing

  • Congress adopted Magnuson Act

  • Alaska Permanent Fund Established

  • Molly Hootch case settled- government agrees to build schools for local education

  • Trans-Alaskan Pipeline completed

  • Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act

  • Wrangell-St. Elias National Park created

  • Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound

  • Alaska Inter-Tribal Council established

  • Congressional legislation approved the Bureau of Indian Affairs listing of Alaska Native villages with corporations as tribes

  • U.S. government began managing fish and wildlife on federal lands

  • Alaska Native Heritage Center Opened in Anchorage

  • Alutiiq Museum opened in Kodiak

  • Millennium Agreement

  • Sarah Palin takes office as Alaska’s first woman governor

  • British Petroleum oil spill at Prudhoe Bay

  • 50th Anniversary of Alaska Statehood

  • New leases for oil exploration to be granted in non-protected areas of Alaska