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Alaska

state of the United States of America

18 dated entries naming Alaska, drawn from 16 separate years between 1732 CE and 2001 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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18th century

  • 1732August 21 – Mikhail Gvozdev in the Sviatoi Gavriil makes the first known crossing of the Bering Strait, from Cape Dezhnev to Cape Prince of Wales in Alaska, marking the first time that Europeans have reached the northwest coast of North America.source
  • 1733Vitus Bering's second expedition, with George Wilhelm Steller aboard, the first naturalist to visit Alaska.source
  • 1741Vitus Bering, in service of Russia, reaches Alaska; Russians soon trade with natives for sea otter pelts.source
  • 1741May 4 – Vitus Bering sets out from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to map the coasts of Siberia and Alaska.source
  • 1741July 15 – Alexei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska, and sends some men aboard his ship ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska.source
  • 1778March 29 – April 26 British Captain James Cook explores Alaskan coast, seeking Northwest Passage back to the Atlantic. On the last of three voyages to the west coast, he travels as far north as the Bering Strait and claims Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island for the British. While there, he trades for sea otter pelts. On the way back to England his crew almost mutinied, desperately wanting to go back to the Pacific Northwest, after stopping in China and discovering how much sea otter pelts were worth.source

19th century

  • 1806Russian-American Company Company collects otter pelts from Alaska to Spanish California.source
  • 1866September 24 – Western Union Telegraph Expedition to Alaska begins its second season, the first after the death of Robert Kennicottsource
  • 1871Whaling disaster of 1871: 1,219 people abandon 33 whaling ships caught in the ice pack off the northern coast of Alaska.source

20th century

  • 1908March 26 – The US Thomas Flyer car sails for Alaska at the head of a motor race from New York to Paris.source
  • 1912June 6 – The Novarupta volcano is formed in Alaska by a VEI 6 eruption, the world's largest (in terms of matter emitted) in the 20th century.source
  • 1925September 1–30 – In the first year for which statewide data are reliable, this month with a statewide average water equivalent of 7.54 in remains Alaska's wettest calendar month on record.source
  • 1959January 3 – Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.source
  • 1964March 27 – Several towns in coastal British Columbia, including Prince Rupert, Tofino, Port Alberni and Zeballos, suffer damage from tsunamis associated with the Good Friday earthquake in Alaska. Overall damage is estimated at $10 million.source
  • 1969October 2 – A 1.2 megaton thermonuclear device is tested at Amchitka Island, Alaska. This test is code-named Project Milrow, the 11th test of the Operation Mandrel 1969–1970 underground nuclear test series. This test is known as a "calibration shot" to test if the island is fit for larger underground nuclear detonations.source
  • 1989March 24 – Exxon Valdez oil spill: In Alaska's Prince William Sound, the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels of oil after running aground.source
  • 1991March 13 – The U.S. Department of Justice announces that Exxon has agreed to pay $1 billion for the clean-up of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.source

21st century

  • 2001April – Malaysia Airlines becomes the first airline in the world to pilot a twin-engine commercial jet through the newly opened polar routes, passing through the inhospitable regions of Russia and North Alaska.source

Named in the same entries