Alaska History -- created by J.S. Yeo for Alaska Alive

By Canerican
  • 10,000 BCE

    LAND

    40,000-10,000 BCish -- people cross the Bering Land Bridge?

  • PEOPLE -- Vitus Bering 1

    1728 -- Vitus Bering (Danish) finds Bering Strait

  • PEOPLE -- Vitus Bering 2

    1741 -- Vitus Bering lands on what is now Kayak Island and ‘discovers’ Alaska

  • PEOPLE -- Captain Cook

    1778 -- Captain Cook finds Cook Inlet

  • PEOPLE -- Russian Settlement

    1784 -- first Russian settlement in Alaska, on Kodiak Island

  • RESOURCES -- Coal

    1857 -- coal mining at Coal Harbor

  • LAND -- Alaska Purchase

    1867 -- Alaska Purchase/Seward’s Folly

  • EDUCATION -- 1870's

    Provisions finally made for education in Alaska -- school opens in Sitka

  • RESOURCES -- Gold 1

    1872 -- gold found near Sitka

  • RESOURCES -- Gold Rush Era

    1880’s-1890’s -- Gold Rush era -- Juneau, Klondike, etc.

  • EDUCATION -- 1884 Organic Act

    1884 -- Organic Act -- education to be provided to children in Alaska regardless of race -- later provisions would effectively nullify this and segregate schools or force rural and native students to boarding schools, sometimes out of state entirely

  • RESOURCES -- Oil

    1896 -- oil found in Cook Inlet

  • LAND -- Capital Moved

    1900 -- capital moved from Sitka to Juneau

  • LAND -- Territory

    1912 -- Alaska named a territory

  • LAND -- 1915 -- Anchorage

    1915 -- Great Anchorage Lot Sale -- sets up the city -- name is picked (Alaska City, but federal government chooses to remain Anchorage)

  • EDUCATION -- 1931 -- Bureau of Indian Affairs

    1931 -- Bureau of Indian Affairs takes over operation of rural schools

  • PEOPLE -- WWII

    WWII prompts building of the Alcan -- militarizes Alaska very quickly

  • LAND -- Statehood

    1959 -- Alaska becomes a state

  • RESOURCES -- Oil in Prudhoe Bay

    1960’s-70’s -- oil found in Prudhoe Bay -- building of alaska pipeline

  • LAND -- 1964 Earthquake

    1964 -- 9.2 earthquake -- largest in North America and second largest in the world

  • EDUCATION -- 1972 -- Molly Hootch Case

    1972 -- Molly Hootch case -- Alaska Legal Services sued the state, stating that boarding schools and correspondence did not provide the same opportunity as schooling within home community -- this resulted in more schools in rural communities and tripled the HS graduation rate of rural alaskans

  • RESOURCES -- Alaska PFD

    1976 -- Alaska Permanent Fund!

  • PEOPLE -- North Slope Borough Case

    1988 -- North Slope Borough trial -- Dischner and Mathisen stand trial after over a billion dollars is spent on 'projects' in a relatively small (5000-pop.) area of the state.

  • RESOURCES -- Exxon Oil Spill

    1989 -- Exxon oil spill -- over 10 million gallons on the shoreline. Cleanup takes several years.