Timeline Alaska
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Alaska Hist. & Archeology: http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/parks/oha_web/index.htm
IPIH: http://ipih.org/state/ak.html
Alaska has 226 Indian tribes.
(SFEC, 7/18/99, Par p.7)
Athabaska Indians are native to Alaska.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.A5)
The Yup’ic are native to southwestern Alaska.
(AM, 7/97, p.72)
The city of Nome was named for a misspelling of a nearby cape on a map,
which was referred to as "no name." Nome was founded as a result of a
gold strike on nearby Seward Peninsula.
(HN, 9/17/01)
State Motto: "North to the Future."
State flower: the Forget-Me-Not.
State bird: Willow Ptarmigan
State fossil: Wooly Mammoth
State mineral: Gold
State gem: Jade.
State tree: Sitka Spruce
State sport: Dog Mushing
100Mil BC Land
masses collided about this time and created Alaska.
(SFC, 4/27/99, p.A2)
70Mil BC In 2005 a Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks student
found a track from a three-toed dinosaur believed to be about 70
million years old in Denali National Park, the first evidence that the
animals roamed there.
(AP, 7/6/05)
20000BC Some scientists believe that ancient people
from Siberia crossed the Bering land bridge to Alaska about this time
and began their southward migration into the Americas. In 2001 skull
measurements indicated that members of the Jomon-Ainu of Japan made the
first crossings.
(SFC, 5/23/98, p.A13)(SFC, 7/31/01, p.A4)
16000BC The west coast of North America deglaciated
by this time allowing people, who had crossed the Bering Strait land
bridge, to move south.
(SFC, 4/4/08, p.A4)
12000BC The last ice age ended about this time
flooding the land bridge between Alaska and Siberia.
(SFC, 4/4/08, p.A4)
c12000BC The Broken Mammoth settlement in central
Alaska dated to this time.
(SFC, 7/25/03, p.A1)
1728 Vitus Bering (47), Danish
explorer, discovered the Bering Strait between Asia and North America.
(PCh, 1992, p.286)
1741 Jul 15, George Steller, an
observer with Vitus Bering (1680-1741), claimed to see the American
mainland (Alaska). Bering, a Danish-born mariner, was on an exploratory
mission on behalf of Russia.
(WSJ, 9/12/00, p.A24)(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T5)(ON, 2/06,
p.2)
1741 Jul 16, Vitus Bering
(1680-1741) first sighted Mt. St. Elias, the second highest peak in
Alaska at 18,008 feet.
(AAM, 3/96, p.84)(WUD, 1994 p.140)
1741 Dec 8, Vitus Bering,
Danish-born explorer and commander in the Russian navy, died on an
island off the Kamchatka Peninsula, later named Bering Island.
(ON, 2/06, p.4)
1778 Aug 9, Captain Cook reached
Cape Prince of Wales in the Bering straits.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1778 Oct 3, Capt. Cook anchored
off Alaska.
(MC, 10/3/01)
1780 A Japanese whaling ship ran
aground near the western end of the Aleutian Islands. Rats from the
ship reached the nearest island giving it the name Rat Island. The
incident introduced the non-native Norway rat, also known as the brown
rat, to Alaska. The rats terrorized all but the largest birds on the
island. In the Fall of 2008 poison was dropped onto the island from
helicopter-hoisted buckets for a week and a half. By mid 2009 there
were no signs of living rats and some birds had returned.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.43)(Reuters, 6/12/09)
1784 Aug 14, The 1st Russian
settlement in Alaska was established on Kodiak Island. Grigori
Shelekhov, a Russian fur trader, founded Three Saints Bay.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1799 Sitka, Alaska, was founded by
Alexander Baranof of the Russian American Company.
(AH, 6/07,
p.69)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitka,_Alaska)
1807 Aug 11, The Eclipse, a Yankee
fur trading vessel, sank in the Shumagin Islands, south of the Alaska
Peninsula. It is the oldest known American shipwreck in Alaska and as
of 2007 had not been found.
(AP, 10/8/07)
1820 Sep 4, Czar Alexander
declared that Russian influence in North America extended as far south
as Oregon and closed Alaskan waters to foreigners.
(HN, 9/4/98)
1825 Feb 22, Russia and Britain
established the Alaska/Canada boundary.
(HN, 2/22/98)
1844 The Cathedral of St. Michael
the Archangel was built in Sitka, Alaska. It was destroyed by fire in
1966 and painstakingly rebuilt.
(AH, 6/07, p.69)
1856 In Alaska the Russian
occupants of the Batzulnetas outpost were massacred by natives.
(AH, 6/07, p.69)
1864 Herbert Liebes opened a fur
salon which grew to become H. Liebes & Company. Liebes ran sailing
schooners from Alaska to SF with cargoes of furs.
(SFC, 6/29/04, p.B6)
1865 US Coast Guard services began
in Alaska when the cutter Shubrick led a 6 vessel expedition coastwise
to Bering Straits.
(www.ak-prepared.com/vetaffairs/byerslake)
1867 Mar 29, The United States
purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million dollars. [see Mar 30]
(HN, 3/29/99)
1867 Mar 30, U.S. Secretary of
State William H. Seward reached agreement with Russia’s Baron
Stoeckl to purchase the territory of Alaska for $7.2 million, two cents
an acre, a deal roundly ridiculed as "Seward's Folly," "Seward's
icebox," and President Andrew Johnson's "polar bear garden." The treaty
was signed the next day.
(AP, 3/30/97)(HN, 3/30/01)(MC, 3/30/02)
1867 Apr 9, The treaty authorizing
the purchase was ratified. Alaska became a state in 1959.The per-acre
purchase price for Alaska paid by the U.S. to Russia in 1867 was two
cents. Through the negotiations of Secretary of State William H. Seward
the purchase of the 591,000 square miles (more than 375 million acres)
of Russian America territory cost $7.2 million.
(HNQ, 9//98)
1867 Jun 20, Pres. Andrew Johnson
announced the purchase of Alaska.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1867 Aug 12, The 1st US official,
a coast guardsmen, arrived in Sitka, Alaska.
(www.ak-prepared.com/vetaffairs/byerslake)
1867 Oct 9, The Russians formally
transferred Alaska to the US. The U.S. had bought Alaska for $7.2
million in gold.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1867 Oct 18, The United States
took formal possession of Alaska from Russia.
(AP, 10/18/97)
1867 Massachusetts Senator Charles
Sumner popularized the name Alaska for the territory that had been
known as Russian America in a famous Senate speech supporting the
treaty to purchase Russian America.
(HNQ, 9/28/98)
1868 Jul 15, The Torrent sank in
Alaska’s Cook Inlet after tidal currents, among the world's most
powerful, rammed it into a reef south of the Kenai Peninsula. About 130
Army soldiers had come north on the Torrent to build the first US
military fort in south-central Alaska. About 20 sailors and 15 of the
soldiers wives and children were also on board. All 155 people on board
survived. Remnants of the wreckage were found in 2007.
(AP,
10/8/07)(www.adn.com/life/story/9364436p-9278126c.html)
1868 Riggs National Bank supplied
the $7.2 million in gold bullion for the purchase of Alaska.
(WSJ, 4/7/04, p.A1)
1869 Gustave Niebaum and others in
San Francisco incorporated the Alaska Commercial Company with offices
at Sansome and Halleck. Its plan was to consolidate Alaskan fur-trading
and natural resources operations under a single umbrella.
(SFEM, 10/31/99, p.26)
1870 The US government granted
exclusive rights for fur-trading and natural resource operations in
Alaska to the Alaska Commercial Company in SF.
(SFEM, 10/31/99, p.26)
1871 A whaling fleet of 32 ships
was abandoned off Icy Cape in the Chukchi Sea. Seven other vessels
escaped with all the crew members saved. In 1998 an attempt was made to
locate the shipwreck site.
(SFC, 7/24/98, p.A3)
1880 Juneau was born when
prospectors hit a mother lode on Gastineau Channel. Juneau was settled
soon after a gold strike nearby by Richard Harris and Joe Juneau.
(SFEC, 2/6/00, p.T10)(HNQ, 2/6/00)
1880 A US census found 435
non-native residents in Alaska.
(Econ, 8/26/06, p.27)
1884 May 17, Alaska became a US
territory. US Congress did not provide for an Alaskan government until
this year. Administration of the territory was done in succession by
the War Department, the Treasury and the Navy.
(SFEM, 10/31/99, p.26)(MC, 5/17/02)
1887 In Alaska William Moore, a
former steamboat captain, homesteaded 160 acres with his son in a
settlement he called Mooresville, where the Taiya River meets the
Skagway. He anticipated a gold rush that arrived in 1897. His
settlement was overrun and became Skagway.
(SSFC, 9/18/05, p.E13)
1890 Israel C. Russell, sponsored
by the National Geographic Society, returned from an expedition to Mt.
St. Elias with fossil bearing rocks.
(NG, 12/97, p.1)
1892 A Marine Corp. barracks was
established in Sitka, Alaska.
(www.ak-prepared.com/vetaffairs/byerslake.htm)
1894 The Cape Fox Tlingit Indians
moved to Saxman after smallpox reduced their population from some 1000
to 200.
(WSJ, 8/31/01, p.W13)
1895 Captain Michael A. Healy
(b.1839) was stripped of his command in the US Revenue Cutter Service
and his position with the Arctic Patrol, in which he served for 21
years. During his service he ferried reindeer across the Bering Strait
to Alaska provide a food source for the Inuit.
(SFC, 4/15/05, p.E15)
1896 Aug, 16, A white man from
California named George Carmack, a fellow not employed at anything in
particular, was hiking around northwest Canada’s Yukon River area with
his two Indian brothers-in-law "Skookum Jim" Mason and "Tagish
Charley." The three found gold on Rabbit Creek, a stream that feeds the
Yukon River near Dawson, Alaska.
(CFA, '96, p.88)(HN,
8/19/01)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klondike_Gold_Rush)
1897 Jul 15, The gold-laden ship
Excelsior from Alaska landed in San Francisco. Seattle mayor W.D. Wood
was visiting and immediately resigned his job, hired a ship, and
organized an expedition from SF to the Yukon territory.
(WSJ, 7/17/97, p.A20)
1897 Jul 17, The Steamer Portland
arrived into Seattle from Alaska with 68 prospectors carrying more than
a ton of gold. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer announced that men with
gold from Alaska were landing. This unleashed the Klondike gold rush
and tens of thousands headed for the Yukon. The Klondike gold rush gave
America and Canada a psychological boost in getting the economy moving
again after suffering through the terrible depression that followed the
1893 crash.
(CFA, ‘96, p.88)(Hem., 7/95, p.79)(CFA, ‘96,
p.89)(WSJ, 5/1/97, p.A16)(WSJ, 7/17/97, p.A20)
1897 Sep, Eight whaling ships with
273 men became trapped in ice off Point Barrow in an early freeze. Lt.
David Henry Jarvis of the Revenue Cutter Service, the forerunner of the
US Coast Guard, led a 1500-mile expedition overland from Nelson Island
Point Barrow with a herd of reindeer to the stranded men.
(ON, 1/01, p.1)
1897-1902 The Jesup North Pacific Expedition was made
to study the biological and cultural connections between peoples on
each side of the Bering Strait. It was one of the first instances where
a camera was used in such a study.
(WSJ, 12/30/97, p.A8)
1898 Mar 26, Lt. David Henry
Jarvis of the Revenue Cutter Service reached Point Franklin, after a
1500-hundred mile trek, with a herd of reindeer to rescue 273 iced-in
whalers stranded here and at Point Barrow.
(ON, 1/01, p.1)
1898 May, Construction began on
the White Pass & Yukon railroad. It was led by Big Mike Heney, a
Canadian Railway contractor, and Sir Thomas Tancred, who represented
the British financiers.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T3)
1898 The Klondike gold rush was in
full swing. Gold was found on the Naotuk River in what later became the
Gates of the Arctic National Park.
(SFEC,11/16/97, p.T5)(SFEC, 2/6/00, p.T6)
1899 The White Pass & Yukon
railroad, which led to the goldfields, was completed.
(SFEC, 2/7/99, p.T4)
1899 Edward H. Harriman, chairman
of the Union Pacific RR, led a survey expedition along the Alaska coast
with 126 passengers aboard a luxury steamer. The 2-month, 9,000 mile
journey from Seattle to Siberia included a stop at Cape Fox where the
visitors gathered up a items from what looked like an abandoned Tlingit
Indian settlement. Much of the plunder was returned in 2001.
(WSJ, 8/31/01, p.W13)
1900 The 110-mile White Pass &
Yukon narrow-gauge railroad from Skagway to Whitehorse, the
Alaska-British Columbia border, was completed.
(SFEC,11/16/97, p.T5)(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T3)
1900 Clarence Warner and
"Tarantula Jack" Smith staked a claim for copper. They later sold it to
Stephen Birch, who found financial backing for a company that
eventually became Kennecott Copper.
(AH, 10/01, HT p.30)
1901 E.T. Barnette opened a
trading post on the Chena River. A town formed that came to be called
Chenoa City and was later renamed Fairbanks.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T7)
1902 Felix Pedro, an Italian
miner, discovered gold northeast of Chenoa City. Miners surged in from
the Fortymile and Klondike goldfields.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T7)
1903 Jan 24, U.S. Secretary of
State John Hay and British Ambassador Herbert created a joint
commission to establish the Alaskan border.
(HN, 1/24/99)
1903 Oct 20, A joint commission
ruled in favor of the United States in a boundary dispute between the
District of Alaska and Canada.
(AP, 10/20/97)
1906 Sep 7-1906 Sep 19, Dr.
Frederick Cook (1865-1940) and Ed Barrill explored the foothills of Mt.
McKinley, Alaska. Cook soon claimed to have taken a picture of his
companion, Edward Barrill, from the summit of Mt. McKinley. In 1909 his
book “To the Top of the Continent” was published. In 1923 Cook was
convicted of mail fraud for selling worthless oil stocks to
unsuspecting investors. In 1998 it was reported that the photo was a
fake, and that the 2 men never reached the summit.
(SFC, 11/27/98, p.A3)(ON, 3/06, p.6)
1906 The capital was moved from
Sitka to Juneau.
(SFEC, 11/7/99, Z1 p.2)
1906 The Alaska Packers Assoc.
bought the square-rigged Balclutha ship and renamed it Star of Alaska.
It carried workers to the Chignick Cannery and transported them back
after the salmon season.
(SFEC,11/23/97, p.D3)
1906 A fire burned down most of
downtown Fairbanks.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T7)
1907 Sep 10, Alaska’s Tongass
National Forest, the largest US National Forest, was established as
part of the National Forest System in a presidential proclamation made
by Theodore Roosevelt. In 1908 it was joined with the Alexander
Archipelago Forest Reserve, established in 1902.
(SFEC, 8/29/99, Z1
p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongass_National_Forest)
1910 Apr 3, Alaska's Mt. McKinley,
the highest mountain in North America, was climbed.
(HN, 4/3/98)
1911 Jun 4, Gold was discovered in
Alaska's Indian Creek.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1912 Aug 24, By an act of
Congress, Alaska was given a territorial legislature of two houses.
(HN, 8/24/98)
1913 Jun, Rev. Hudson Stuck led a
team in the 1st ascent to the summit of Mt. McKinley, Alaska.
(ON, 3/06,
p.8)(www.themilepost.com/major_attractions/mt_mckinley.shtml)
1915 Jun 27, In Fort Yukon,
Alaska, a state record 100° F (38° C) was recorded.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1916 Fairbanks, Alaska, caught
fire. The town's bacon supply was burned as fuel to keep the steam
powered water pump running. The event was later covered by Margaret
Murie (d.2003) in her 1962 autobiography "Two in the Far North."
(SFC, 10/24/03, p.A16)
1917 In Alaska the territorial
Legislature created the Univ. of Alaska in Fairbanks and specified that
it include a museum. In 1978 the state Legislature paid for a
building designed to hold exhibits. In 1980 a 39,000-square-foot
space opened as the Univ. of Alaska Museum of the North.
(SSFC, 5/6/07, p.G7)
1917 Denali National Park in
Alaska was established. It covered 9,300 square miles. Denali was the
native name for Mt. McKinley.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.T6)(SSFC, 3/28/04, p.D9)
1918 Oct 25, The Canadian
steamship Princess Sophia foundered off the coast of Alaska; some
350 people perished.
(AP, 10/25/08)
1918 The flu epidemic began at
Fort Riley, Kansas, in March where 48 men died. 72 of 80 residents at
Brevig Mission, Alaska died from the flu in a 5 day period. In 1997 Dr.
Johan Hultin recovered tissue in Brevig Mission with frozen virus and
submitted it for gene sequencing.
(WSJ, 2/9/98, p.A16)(HNPD, 7/21/98)(SFC, 2/26/01,
p.A9)(WSJ, 9/7/01, p.A1)(SFCM, 2/17/02, p.8)
1920s In 1989 Tooru Joe Kanazawa
(d.2002 at 95) authored "Sushi and Sourdough," a glimpse into the world
of Japanese immigrants in Alaska’s salmon canneries in the 1920s.
(SFC, 10/22/02, p.A16)
1922 Feb 6, The Washington
Disarmament Conference came to an end with signature of final treaty
forbidding fortification of the Aleutian Islands for 14 years.
(HN, 2/6/99)
1923 Jul 15, President Warren G.
Harding tapped the golden spike of the $60 million Alaskan Railway at
Nenana.
(SSFC, 2/3/02, p.C9)
1923 Aug 2, President Warren G.
Harding died suddenly of an embolism in San Francisco on August 2,
1923, during a return trip form Alaska. Born November 2, 1865, in
Corsica, Ohio, Harding was elected the 29th U.S. president in 1920.
(HNQ, 12/7/98)
1923 The US established a
22-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
(Econ, 12/11/04, p.28)(SFC, 1/22/05, p.A5)
1924 Margaret Murie (b.1902)
became the 1st woman to graduate from the Univ. of Alaska.
(SFC, 10/24/03, p.A16)
c1924 The railroad made it to
Fairbanks.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T7)
1925 Jan 27, Anchorage, Alaska,
delivered a diphtheria antitoxin to Nenana. Dr. Curtis Welch in Nome
had begun diagnosing cases of diphtheria. An emergency delivery of
serum against the disease was arranged by dogsled. 20 mushers rushed
the serum 674 miles from Nenana to Nome in 5 days. The last leg of the
journey was run by Gunnar Kaasen (1882-1964) and his lead dog Balto
(d.1933). An animated film on Balto was made in 1995 by Stephen
Spielberg. The longest segment of the journey, 260 miles, was run by
Leonhard Seppala and his lead dog Togo. The events were later described
by Bill Sherwonit in his book: "Iditarod: the Great Race to Nome."
(SFC, 3/16/98, p.A3)(ON, 11/06, p.1)
1925 Feb 27, Glacier Bay National
Monument was dedicated in Alaska.
(HN, 2/27/98)
c1935 Palmer, Alaska, was founded
during the Great Depression, when 203 Midwestern farm families were
relocated here and given 40-acre tracts as part of the Matanuska Colony
Project.
(LAT, 7/2/05)
1935 Aug 15, Humorist Will Rogers
(55), American comedian and "cowboy philosopher," and aviation pioneer
Wiley Post (36) were killed when their airplane crashed near Point
Barrow, Alaska. Rogers once said: "Even if you're on the right track,
you'll get run over if you just sit there."
(AP, 8/15/97)(HN, 8/15/98)(MC, 8/15/02)
1936 Mar 26, Mary Joyce ended a
1,000 mile trip by dog in Alaska.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1939 Augie Hiebert went to Alaska
to help build the first radio station in Fairbanks.
(WSJ, 9/22/07, p.A8)
1941 The Alaska Territorial Guard
was formed.
(www.ak-prepared.com/vetaffairs/byerslake.htm)
1942 Mar 9, Construction of the
Alaska Highway began.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1942 Jun 6, Japanese troops landed
on Kiska, Aleutians.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1942 Jun 7, The Japanese invaded
Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands.
(HN, 6/7/98)
1942 Sep 16, The Japanese base at
Kiska in the Aleutian Islands was raided by American bombers.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1942 Oct 29, The Alaska highway
was completed. [see Nov 21]
(MC, 10/29/01)
1942 Nov 21, The Alaska-Canadian
Highway across Canada was formally opened.
(HFA, '96, p.42)(AP, 11/21/97)
1943 May 11, During World War II,
American forces landed on Japanese-held Attu island in the Aleutians;
the Americans took the island 19 days later.
(AP, 5/11/02)
1943 Aug 15, Allies landed on
Kiska in the Aleutians.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1946 Apr 1, Two large earthquakes
shook the Scotch Cap Lighthouse on Unimak Island, Alaska. A resulting
tsunami washed away the lighthouse. The Aleutian Islands earthquake
also triggered a Pacific-wide tsunami that killed 165 people and caused
over $26 million in damages. Tidal waves struck the Hawaiian islands,
resulting in more than 170 deaths. 91 people were killed in Hilo.
(AP, 4/1/98)(Ind, 6/8/02, 5A)(SSFC, 8/25/02,
p.C14)(SFC, 4/1/09, p.D8)
1946 Universal Services was formed
in 1946 to provide catering and other support services for the civilian
workforce rebuilding defense bases in Alaska. Extensive work was then
developed with the oil industry that was expanding its exploration
activity in Alaska. As the search for energy moved to other parts of
the world, Universal followed. Operations were established in the Gulf
of Mexico (1955), South America (1957), North Sea (1964), Africa
(1960s), Middle East and Far East. Additional work was developed with
the mining and construction industries.
(WWW, 12/19/98)
1948 Mar 12, In Alaska 24 merchant
marines and six crewmen were flying from China to New York City, when
their DC-4 slammed into Mount Sanford killing all 30. Pilots Kevin
McGregor and Marc Millican discovered some mummified remains in 1999
while recovering artifacts to identify the wreckage they had found two
years earlier.
(AP, 8/17/08)
1949 The Alaska travel guide “The
Milepost” was 1st published as a 72-page guide named after the Alaska
Highway mile markers. The 2005 edition was nearly 800 pages and
included coverage of Canada’s Yukon and western Northwest Territories.
(SSFC, 4/3/05, p.E4)
1950s-1960s The Fort Greely base was used for
biological and chemical weapons testing. The site also housed a nuclear
reactor later entombed in a sarcophagus.
(SFC, 11/3/01, p.C3)
1952 Sep 7, The 369-foot passenger
liner Princess Kathleen, launched in 1924, ran aground and sank near
Juneau, Alaska. There was no loss of life.
(SFC, 2/22/10,
p.A6)(www.greatships.net/princesskathleen.html)
1953 Augie Hiebert (1916-2007)
opened Alaska’s first television station in Anchorage.
(WSJ, 9/22/07, p.A8)
1954 Feb 5, A US Air Force C-47
enroute from Fairbanks to Anchorage crashed on Kesugi Ridge near Byers
Lake in Alaska. 10 people were killed and 6 survived.
(www.ak-prepared.com/vetaffairs/byerslake.htm)
1954 The Alaska town of North Pole
began Operation Santa, a volunteer program to respond to children’s
letters sent to Santa Claus. The US Postal Service dropped the program
in 2009.
(SFC, 11/20/09, p.A9)
1955 Jun 24, Soviet MIG’s down a
lightly armed US Navy patrol plane over the Bering Strait. Russia’s
foreign minister V.M. Molotov expressed his country’s regrets the next
day.
(HN, 6/24/98)(SFC, 6/24/05, p.F7)
1957 Mar 9, An 8.1 earthquake
shook the Andreanof Islands, Alaska.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1958 Jun 30, Congress passed a law
authorizing the admission of Alaska as the 49th state in the Union, the
first new state since 1912. The Senate passed the Alaska statehood bill
by a vote of 64-20.
(HN, 6/30/98)(AP, 6/30/08)
1958 Jul 7, President Dwight D.
Eisenhower signed the Alaska statehood bill. Alaska became the 49th
state in January 1959.
(AP, 7/7/07)
1958 Jul 10, A largest tsunami on
record was caused by the fall of 90 million tons of rock and ice into
Lituya Bay, Alaska, following a local earthquake. The wave washed 500
meters up a mountain on the opposite shore.
(CW, Spring ‘99, p.30)
1958 Aug 26, Alaskans went to the
polls to overwhelmingly vote in favor of statehood.
(AP, 8/26/08)
1958 Bill Egan became Alaska’s 1st
governor.
(AH, 10/04, p.42)
1959 Jan 3, President Eisenhower
signed a proclamation admitting Alaska to the Union as the 49th state.
Its area is 586,412 sq. mls. Capital: Juneau; bird: willow ptarmigan;
flower: forget-me-not; nickname: The Last Frontier.
(TMC, 1994, p.1959)(THM, 4/27/97, p.L5)(AP,
1/3/98)(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1959 Jul 4, A 49-star flag was
raised for the first time at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., in honor
of Alaska which had become the 49th state in the Union on July 7, 1958.
(IB, Internet, 12/7/98)
1960 The Eisenhower administration
created the Arctic National Wildlife Range on 9 million acres of
Alaska’s coastal plain and mountains adjacent to Canada.
(SSFC, 8/28/05, p.A13)
1960 Sen. John F. Kennedy was
presented with a giant cabbage in Palmer, Alaska.
(LAT, 7/2/05)
1964 Feb 11, Sarah Palin, later
governor of Alaska, was born in Sandpoint, Idaho. After 3 months her
family moved to Alaska. In 2008 Sen. John McCain named her as his
vice-presidential running mate.
(SFC, 8/30/08, p.A6)
1964 Mar 27-1964 Mar 28, Good
Friday, Valdez, Alaska, in Prince William Sound was rocked by an 8.6
[8.4] earthquake, the largest ever recorded in North America. In 1977
seismologists pegged the quake at 9.2. It lasted 4 minutes and was
followed by tsunamis and fires and 131 people were killed. Survivors
moved 4 miles west to solid bedrock and rebuilt the town. Much of
Crescent City, Ca., was demolished by a resulting tsunami.
(AP, 3/27/97)(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T5)(SFEC, 4/5/98, Z1
p.8)(SFEC, 10/17/99, p.A3)(SFC, 11/26/99, p.C21)(WSJ, 9/13/01,
p.B11)(SFC, 2/15/02, p.G8)
1966 Walter Hickel became governor
of Alaska. In 1969 he was named secretary of the interior under Pres.
Nixon.
(AH, 10/04, p.42)
1967 Feb 28, Art Davidson, Ray
Genet and Dave Johnston completed the first winter ascent of Alaska’s
Mount McKinley. On their descent they became trapped by a storm for 6
days at 18,500 feet in an ice-cave. In 1969 Art Davidson authored
“Minus 148°.”
(WSJ, 4/28/07,
p.P8)(www.summitpost.org/parent/150199/mount-mckinley-denali.html)
1967 Jul 15, In Alaska a major
blizzard caught 7 climbers high on Mount McKinley (Denali). Five of 12
climbers managed to reach safety, but 7 were caught and froze to death.
In 2007 James M. Tabor’s: “Forever on the Mountain: The Truth Behind
One of Mountaineering's Most Controversial and Mysterious Disasters,”
was published.
(WSJ, 1/17/07, p.D6)
1967 Dec 26, Atlantic Richfield
oil workers struck oil on Alaska’s North Slope at Prudhoe Bay.
(AH, 10/04, p.42)
1968 Mar 13, Atlantic Richfield
Company (ARCO) and Humble Oil and Refining Company (now Exxon Company,
U.S.A.) announced the discovery of oil on Alaska’s North Slope (Prudhoe
Bay). The oil companies soon began efforts to construct a pipeline, but
work was suspended due to environmental concerns.
(AH, 2/05,
p.14)(www.alyeska-pipe.com/Pipelinefacts/Chronology.html)
1968 May 15, A tornado at
Jonesboro, Arkansas, killed 34 people. Another near Anchorage, Alaska,
killed one person.
(SFC, 5/15/09, p.D8)
1968 The Anchorage Museum of
History and Art opened.
(WSJ, 7/17/97, p.A20)
1968 Ted Stevens began
representing Alaska in the US Senate.
(SFC, 12/20/05, p.A1)
1969 Ben Metcalfe (d.2003 at 83)
coordinated the initial campaigns of the Winnipeg-based Don't
Make a Wave Committee (later Greenpeace) against planned nuclear tests
in the Aleutian Islands.
(SSFC, 10/19/03, p.A31)
1970 Feb 12, Dean Arthur
Schwartzmiller (28) was convicted in Juneau, Alaska, of 2 charges of
lewd conduct after being accused of molesting 2 boys. Over the next 35
years he was arrested in 6 more states on molestation charges. In 2005
police in San Jose found notebooks at his home that documented over
36,000 sex acts with young boys. In 2006 a jury in Santa Clara, Ca.,
convicted Schwartzmiller (64) of molesting 2 San Jose boys.
(SFC, 6/17/05, p.A1)(SFC, 9/19/06, p.A1)
1971 Sep 4, An Alaska Airlines jet
crashed near Juneau, killing 111 people.
(AP, 9/4/97)
1971 Sep 15, A group of activists
set sail on the Phyllis Cormack for Alaska from Vancouver, Canada, to
stop a US nuclear weapons test in the Aleutian Islands. Panels reading
Green and Peace dangled from the bridge. Bob Hunter (d.2005), one of
the activists, became the 1st president of Greenpeace (1973-1977).
(HFA, '96, p.38)(GQ, summer ‘96, p.18)(SFC, 4/30/97,
p.A9)(Econ, 5/14/05, p.89)
1971 Nov 6, The US Atomic Energy
Commission exploded a 5-megaton bomb beneath Amchitka Island, Alaska,
just 87 miles from the Petropavlovsk Russian naval base. It registered
as a magnitude-7 earthquake.
(SFC, 12/17/01, p.A4)
1971 Dec 18, Pres. Nixon signed
into law the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). It gave large
portions of prime bear habitat to the Alutiiq people, who had hunted
and fished on the island for 7,000 years. 10% of the state, 44 million
acres of land, was ceded to native tribes.
(http://tinyurl.com/3xjb8w)(SFC, 2/2/00, p.A7)(AH,
10/04, p.42)
1972 Sep 26, Richard M. Nixon met
with Emperor Hirohito in Anchorage, Alaska, the first-ever meeting of a
U.S. President and a Japanese Monarch.
(HN, 9/26/99)
1972 Oct 16, A light plane
carrying House Democratic leader Hale Boggs (b.1914) of Louisiana and
three other men were reported missing in Alaska. Nick Begich, Alaska
congressman, his aide, Russell Brown, and the pilot, Don Jonz were also
on the plane and later presumed dead. The plane was never found.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Begich)(Econ,
9/6/08, p.35)
1972 The Alaska Continental
Development Corp. merged with the financially troubled Alaska Airlines.
The airline soon became profitable in part due to the Alaska oil
pipeline.
(WSJ, 1/7/07, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/6obvr7)
1973 Nov 16, President Nixon
signed the Trans Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law. Oil
companies formed a consortium that gave British Petroleum 50.1% control
of the pipeline.
(www.alyeska-pipe.com/Pipelinefacts/Chronology.html)(AH, 10/04, p.43)
1973 The Alaskan 1,159 mile
Iditarod dog-sled race was first run in commemoration of the 1925
dog-sled relay for diphtheria vaccine to Nome.
(Nat. Hist., 3/96, p.34,41)(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.D3)
1974 Apr 29, Work officially began
on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. Prudhoe Bay to Yukon River road
construction began.
(AH, 10/04,
p.40)(www.alyeska-pipe.com/Pipelinefacts/Chronology.html)
1975 Mar 27, The 1st pipe of the
Alaska oil pipeline was laid at Tonsina River.
(www.alyeska-pipe.com/Pipelinefacts/Chronology.html)
1976 The Alaska Permanent Fund was
created after oil was discovered on the North Slope. Residents of over
a year received an annual dividend from the fund.
(SFC, 9/27/02, p.A7)
1977 May 31, The trans-Alaska oil
pipeline was completed after three years of work.
(AP, 5/31/97)
1977 Jun 20, The 1st oil of the
Alaska pipeline began to flow south 799 miles from Prudhoe Bay to the
port of Valdez. It reached Valdez on Jul 28.
(www.alyeska-pipe.com/pipelinefacts.html)
1977 Jun 28, The 1st Prudhoe Bay
oil of the Alaska pipeline reached the port of Valdez as construction
of the Trans-Alaskan pipeline was completed.
(www.alyeska-pipe.com/pipelinefacts.html)
1978 Vandals blew up a section of
the Alaska pipeline, opened in 1977, spilling 700,000 gallons of oil.
No one was arrested.
(SFC, 3/11/06, p.A4)
1980 Oct 4, Some 520 people were
forced to abandon the cruise ship “Prisendam” in the Gulf of Alaska
after the Dutch luxury liner caught fire—no deaths or serious injury
resulted. The ship capsized and sank a week later.
(AP, 10/4/08)
1980 Dec 2, Pres. Carter signed
the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act and protected 104
million acres of wilderness. The size of Denali National Park was
tripled to 6.2 million acres. Motorized access to the land was given
for traditional activities such as hunting, fishing and camping. Peggy
Wayburn’s book: "Alaska the Great Land" was credited with helping
persuade Congress. The law directed the Interior Dept. to assess oil
potential in 1.5 million acres of the coastal plain. A ban was put on
drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In 2002 Pres. Bush
pushed to overturn the ban. Estimates on oil there ranged from 3.2 to
at least 5.7 billion barrels.
(WSJ, 5/13/99, p.B1)(SFC, 3/28/02,
p.A24)(http://alaska.fws.gov/asm/anilca/intro.html)(SFC, 9/30/06,
p.B6)(Econ, 12/20/03, p.38)(SSFC, 2/24/02, p.A9)(SSFC, 8/28/05, p.A13)
1982 Alaska began issuing oil
royalty annual checks to all residents.
(SFC, 9/22/00, p.A10)
1982 The White Pass & Yukon
railroad closed after a highway opened between Skagway and Whitehorse,
and a slump in metal prices shut down mines.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T3)
1983 The Alaska Veterans Memorial
at Byers Lake was erected. It was dedicated by Gov. Bill Sheffield in
1984.
(www.ak-prepared.com/vetaffairs/byerslake)
1985 Mar 20, Libby Riddles of
Teller, Alaska, became the first woman to win the Iditarod Trail Dog
Sled Race.
(AP, 3/20/05)
1986 Mar 12, Susan Butcher won the
1,158 mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska.
(www.newmorningtv.tv/dailyalmanac_031204.jsp)
1986 The Tatitlek tribe sold
timber rights on Prince William Sound and heavy logging resulted.
(WSJ, 9/3/99, p.A1)
1987 Aug 7, Lynne Cox became the
1st to swim from US to Russia across the Bering Strait.
(http://tinyurl.com/lal2h)
1988 Oct 16, Rescue workers near
Point Barrow, Alaska, continued their efforts to save three California
gray whales trapped in Arctic Ocean ice [see Oct 26].
(AP, 10/16/98)
1988 Oct 26, US-Soviet effort
freed 2 gray whales from frozen Arctic near Barrow, Alaska [see Oct 16].
(www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1988/102688j.htm)
1988 The White Pass & Yukon
railroad opened for tourists visiting the state from cruise ships and
the new road to Skagway.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T3)
1989 Mar 24, Good Friday. The
nation's worst oil spill occurred as the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran
aground on a reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound and began leaking 11
million gallons of crude. The Exxon Valdez struck ground in Alaska’s
Prince William Sound and spilled 10.6 million gallons of oil. It was
later renamed the Mediterranean and operated between Europe and the
Middle East. Exxon then spent some $2.5 billion to clean up the spill
and filed suit against Lloyd’s of London for reimbursement under a $210
million insurance policy. In 1996 a jury in Houston voted that Lloyd’s
and some 250 other underwriters should compensate Exxon $250 million.
The Exxon Valdez oil spill fouled approximately 1,000 miles of Alaska
shoreline. The oil tanker ran aground in Prince William Sound, spilling
some 11 million gallons of crude oil. An estimated 250,000 seabirds
were killed. The Exxon Valdez spilled 240,000 barrels of oil in
Alaska's Prince William Sound.
(AP, 3/23/97)(TMC, 1994, p.1989)(SFC, 5/5/96,
p.A-11)(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A10)(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T5)(HNQ, 8/14/99)
1989 Mar 25, In the wake of the
Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska's chief
environmental officer, Dennis Kelso, criticized cleanup efforts as too
slow.
(AP, 3/25/99)
1989 Mar 28, President Bush sent
three high-ranking officials to Alaska to "take a hard look" at the
Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound. '
(AP, 3/28/99)
1989 Mar 30, The Anchorage Daily
News won the public service award for its reports on alcoholism and
suicide among native Alaskans.
(AP, 3/30/99)
1989 Mar 31, The FBI announced it
would conduct a criminal investigation into the massive oil spill in
Alaska's Prince William Sound.
(AP, 3/31/99)
1989 Apr 1, Alaska Gov. Steve
Cowper announced that a "strike force" of state officials and local
fishermen were taking over some of the cleanup operations following the
massive Exxon Valdez oil spill.
(AP, 4/1/99)
1989 Dec 13, In Alaska Mt. Redoubt
began erupting. Nearly every one of the volcanic events during the
1989-90 eruption of Redoubt Volcano generated lahars in the Drift River
Valley.
(http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/About/What/Monitor/Hydrologic/AFMRedoubt.html)
1989 Dec 15, Mt. Redoubt erupted
in Alaska and sent baseball-sized pieces of pumice over 20 miles from
the volcano. A 747 jet flew into its ash cloud, lost all four engines
and dropped 4,000 feet before it recovered. No one was hurt but the
plane sustained $80 million in damage.
(AAM, 3/96, p.84)(PacDisc. Spring/’96, p.31)
1990 Jan 2, A lahar from the Mt.
Redoubt volcano in Alaska flooded part of the oil terminal in Cook
Inlet.
(http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/About/What/Monitor/Hydrologic/AFMRedoubt.html)
1990 Jan 29, Former Exxon Valdez
skipper Joseph Hazelwood went on trial in Anchorage, Alaska, on charges
stemming from the nation's worst oil spill. Hazelwood was acquitted of
major charges and convicted of a misdemeanor.
(AP, 1/29/98)
1990 Feb 27, Exxon Corp and Exxon
Shipping were indicted on 5 criminal counts for the oil spill at
Valdez, Alaska.
(www.epa.gov/history/topics/valdez/02.htm)
1990 Mar 22, A jury in Anchorage,
Alaska, found former tanker captain Joseph Hazelwood innocent of three
major charges in connection with the Exxon Valdez oil spill, but
convicted him of a minor charge of negligent discharge of oil.
(HN, 3/22/97)(AP, 3/22/00)
1990 Mar 23, Former Exxon Valdez
Captain Joseph Hazelwood was sentenced by a judge in Anchorage, Alaska,
to help clean up Prince William Sound and pay $50,000 in restitution
for his role in the 1989 oil spill.
(AP, 3/23/00)
1990 Jan, Mt. Redoubt again
erupted in Alaska and sent baseball-sized pieces of pumice more than 20
miles from the volcano.
(AAM, 3/96, p.84)
1991 Mar 13, Exxon pleaded guilty
to criminal charges and agreed to pay $100 million fine in a $1.1
billion settlement of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
(www.epa.gov/history/topics/valdez/02.htm)(HN,
3/13/98)
1991 Jun, Alaska Airlines began
the 1st regularly scheduled service from the US to the Soviet Far East.
(WSJ, 1/7/07, p.A4)
1991 Oct 8, A federal judge in
Anchorage, Alaska, approved a five-billion-dollar settlement against
Exxon for the Valdez oil spill.
(www.explorenorth.com/library/weekly/aa032499.htm)
1992 Christopher McCandless, a
former student from Harvard, starved to death in the wilderness of
Alaska. His story was later told by Jon Krakauer in the book “Into the
Wild.” In 2007 Sean Penn directed a film of the same name based on the
book.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.102)
1994 Aug 11, A US federal jury
awarded $286.8 million to some 10,000 commercial fishermen for losses
as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
(AP, 8/11/99)
1994 Sep 16, A federal jury
ordered Exxon Corp. to pay $5.3 billion in punitive damages to
commercial fishermen and others harmed in the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill
in Alaska. A US Court of Appeals threw out the punitive damages in 2001.
(AP, 9/16/99)(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A7)(SFC, 11/8/01,
p.A17)
1994-2002 Tony Knowles served as governor of Alaska.
(Econ, 8/26/06, p.27)
1995 Sep 22, An AWACS plane
carrying US and Canadian military personnel crashed on takeoff from
Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage, Alaska, killing all 24 people
aboard.
(AP, 9/22/00)
1995 Alaska’s halibut fisherman
decided to privatize their fishery by dividing up their annual quota
into “catch shares,” that were owned in perpetuity by each fisherman.
(Econ, 9/20/08, p.24)
1996 Sarah Palin (b.1964) was
elected mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, and served for 2 terms until 2002
when term limits forced her from office.
(SFC, 8/30/08, p.A6)
1996-2006 In Alaska per-capita federal spending rose
from 38% above the national average to 71% above. Much of this was
later attributed to Sen. Ted Stevens, who had begun representing Alaska
in 1968.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.34)
1997 Feb 19, In southwestern
Alaska Evan Ramsey (16) opened fire with a 12-gauge shotgun as students
assembled in a high school lobby, killing a principal and 16-year-old
classmate in Bethel, a town of 6,000. Ramsey was sentenced to a
198-year prison term.
(AP,
4/25/06)(www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/weird/kids1/index_1.html)
1997 Nov 9, A family of 7 and the
pilot of a commuter plane died in a crash in Barrow.
(SFEC,11/10/97, p.A4)
1997 Nov 26, In the Aleutian
Islands 800 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska, the freighter,
Kuroshima, ran aground off Dutch Harbor in heavy winds. Two crewmen
were reported dead and 10,000 gallons of oil was reported to have
leaked. As much as 240,000 gallons was reported on board. Emergency
workers removed 57,000 gallons on Dec 5 and 30,000 gallons still
remained.
(SFC,11/28/97, p.B9)(SFC, 12/1/97, p.A3)(SFC,12/897,
p.A12)
1997 Dr. Johan Hultin (72) of San
Francisco found remnants of the 1918 Spanish flu in the lungs of a
corpse buried in the permafrost of a cemetery in Alaska. An earlier
effort at Brevig Mission in 1951 had failed.
(SFC, 10/6/05, p.A14)
1998 Mar 17, In Alaska Jeff King
battled through blowing snow and poor visibility to earn his third
victory in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
(AP, 3/17/08)
1998 Bob Kaufman, SF venture
capitalist, met with Richard Goldman to ask for money to buy 10,539
acres of wilderness for public trust. The Goldman fund provided some $5
million over the next 3 years.
(SSFC, 7/29/01, p.A6)
1998 John V.R. Evans of Alaska’s
Matanuska Valley set a Guinness world record by growing an 18-pound, 13
ounce carrot.
(SFC, 7/6/05, p.A2)
1999 Feb, The snowmobile was
banned from all but 7,000 of the 2 million acres of Denali National
Park designated as the Denali National Wilderness.
(WSJ, 5/13/99, p.B1)
1999 Mar 21, In Alaska an
avalanche killed at least 4 snowmobilers at the Turnagain Pass in
Chugach National Forest.
(WSJ, 3/23/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 10, A sightseeing
helicopter crashed near Herbert Glacier and all seven people onboard
were killed.
(SFC, 6/10/99, p.A3)
1999 Aug, Alfred Reumayr of
British Columbia was arrested in a joint operation by the US Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police. In 2008 he pleaded guilty to plotting to blow up the
Trans-Alaskan oil pipeline on New Year's Day 2000. He had planned to
buy energy securities at low prices before the attack, and hoped to
profit by selling them at a higher price amid market turmoil afterward.
(AP, 3/14/08)
2000 Jan 20, The 2000 US census
began in Unalakleet, Alaska.
(SFC, 1/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 31, Alaska Airlines
Flight 261, an MD-83 jet with 88 people bound for Seattle from Puerto
Vallarta, Mexico, crashed about 2.7 miles north of Anacapa Island, Ca.
There were no survivors. A stop had been scheduled in SF.
(SFC, 2/1/00,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Airlines_Flight_261)
2000 Mar 14, Defending champion
Doug Swingley drove his dog team to victory in the Iditarod Trail Sled
Dog Race.
(AP, 3/14/01)
2000 Sep 2, In Alaska Joshua Alan
Wade killed Della Brown (33), a native Alaskan, by smashing her head
with a rock in Anchorage. Wade was acquitted in 2003 in her killing,
but was convicted of tampering with her body and served several years
in prison. In 2010 Wade acknowledged her murder.
(SFC, 2/17/10,
p.A6)(http://www.ktva.com/iteam/ci_14413092)
2000 Oct, The annual oil royalty
checks from the Alaska Permanent Fund totaled nearly $2000 per resident.
(SFC, 9/22/00, p.A10)
2000 In Haines, Alaska, Dave Pahl
created his Hammer Museum, a tribute to the oldest human tool. In 2007
he struggled to retain the name as the Armand Hammer Museum of Art
changed its name to the Hammer Museum of Art and applied for a
trademark to the name.
(WSJ, 10/5/07, p.A1)
2001 Jan, A rare tundra blaze
burned across 15,000 acres in the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge.
(SFC, 1/6/01, p.D8)
2001 Mar 14, Doug Swingley won the
Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska for the third straight year.
(AP, 3/14/02)
2001 May 7, Four Anchorage school
children were stabbed by Jason Pritchard (33). Pritchard was shot with
rubber bullets and taken into custody.
(WSJ, 5/8/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/8/01, p.A2)
2001 Jul 30, A sightseeing plane
crashed near Glacier Bay National Park and all 6 people aboard were
killed.
(WSJ, 8/1/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 5, In Alaska Daniel
Carson Lewis (37) was arrested for shooting a hole into the oil
pipeline, which cause the leakage of up to 280,000 of gallons. Some
285,600 gallons spewed out for 3 days until the leak was plugged Oct 6.
The cleanup cost was $7 million.
(SFC, 10/6/01, p.A11)(SSFC, 10/7/01, p.A17)
2001 Oct 10, A small plane crashed
following takeoff from Dillingham. 10 people were killed in the Cessna
208 Caravan.
(SFC, 10/11/01, p.A21)
2002 Jan 24, In Juneau, Alaska,
Joseph Frederick (18) displayed a banner reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” as
the Olympic torch passed by. The head teacher at his high school
suspended him and Frederick sued in return. The case moved up to the US
Supreme Court. In 2007 the US Supreme Court ruled 5-3 that schools may
punish youths for statements that might promote drug use.
(Econ, 3/24/07, p.35)(SFC, 6/26/07, p.A8)
2002 Feb 16, Pres. Bush departed
on a 6-day Asia trip. Enroute to a three-nation tour of Asia, Bush
stopped off at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska, where he told
hundreds of cheering US soldiers that "America will not blink" in the
fight against terrorism and Osama bin Laden.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A3)(AP, 2/16/07)
2002 Mar 12, Martin Buser captured
his fourth victory in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2002 Apr 8, California
mountaineers, Aaron Martin (32) and Reid Sanders (30), died on Mount
St. Elias while trying to reach the summit in order to ski down.
(SFC, 4/18/02, p.A2)
2002 May 24, Japan led a
successful move to deny Alaska and Siberian native peoples a renewal of
permission to hunt whales after a failed bid to end a 20-year
moratorium on commercial whaling.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A17)
2002 Jul 1, A Canadian climber who
had scaled Alaska's Mount McKinley alone died after he fell about 1,000
feet (300 meters) while descending from the peak's upper reaches.
(Reuters, 7/1/02)
2002 Sep 25, The annual Alaska oil
dividend was announced to be $1,540.76.
(SFC, 9/27/02, p.A7)
2002 Nov 3, A 7.9 earthquake hit
Alaska 90 miles south of Fairbanks.
(SFC, 11/4/02, p.A2)
2002 Nov, Frank Murkowski, former
Republican senator, was elected governor of Alaska.
(Econ, 3/13/04, p.32)
2003 Mar 13, In Alaska Robert
Sorlie of Norway won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race in nine days, 15
hours, 47 minutes.
(AP, 3/13/04)
2003 Oct 6, Timothy Treadwell (46)
and Amie Huguenard (37) were found fatally mauled by a bear near Kaflia
Bay in Katmai National Park, Alaska.
(SFC, 10/8/03, p.A3)
2003 Dec 23, The Bush
administration reversed a 2001 Clinton policy and opened some 300,000
acres of Alaska's Tongass National Forest to possible logging or other
development. The plan affirmed a Clinton plan from 1997.
(SFC, 12/24/03, p.A4)
2003 Alaska resumed limited aerial
wolf hunting. In 1996 and 2000 Alaska voters turned down proposals to
resume aerial predation control.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.36)
2004 Jan 20, Alaska Gov. Frank
Murkowski called for a constitutional amendment to limit future
spending growth.
(ADN, 1/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 16, Mitch Seavey won the
Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in nine days, 12 hours, 20 minutes and 22
seconds.
(AP, 3/16/05)
2004 Nov 3, In Alaska Lisa
Murkowski won the US Senate seat she inherited from her father.
(Econ, 11/6/04, p.30)
2004 The federal government owned
two-thirds of Alaska.
(Econ, 10/23/04, p.30)
2005 Jan 21, The US Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) posted a decision to open thousands of acres on
Alaska’s North Slope for exploratory oil drilling.
(SFC, 1/22/05, p.A5)
2005 Feb 5, Gregg Renkes, Alaska’s
attorney general, resigned after months of battling criticism for
alleged ethics breaches while shaping an int’l. trade deal.
(SSFC, 2/6/05, p.A3)
2005 Mar 16, The US Senate voted
51-49 to drill for oil in Alaska.
(WSJ, 3/17/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 7, A Univ. of Alaska
Fairbanks student found a track from a three-toed dinosaur believed to
be about 70 million years old in Denali National Park, the first
evidence that the animals roamed there.
(AP, 7/6/05)
2005 Jul 25, In Virginia 4 adult
Scout leaders from Alaska were killed on the opening day of their
Jamboree when a tent pole apparently struck a power line.
(AP, 7/26/05)
2005 Oct 20, Sen. Ted Stevens,
R-Alaska, vowed to resign from the Senate if his fellow lawmakers
followed through on threats to cancel spending on a $230 million
"bridge to nowhere" in Alaska that was stuck into a pork-filled highway
bill earlier this year. On Nov 16. lawmakers scuttled plans for the
bridge from Ketchikan to Gravina Island.
(KRN, 10/20/05)(SFC, 11/17/05, p.A7)
2005 Oct 28, The Alaska Supreme
Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to bar benefits to the same-sex
partners of public employees.
(SFC, 10/29/05, p.A3)
2005 Dec 21, The US Senate stopped
a bid by Ted Stevens, Alaska’s Republican Sen., on a measure for oil
drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the US military
spending bill. Senators also forced through a 5-month extension of key
provisions of the Patriot Act. The move effectively killed a compromise
that would have made permanent 14 of 16 provisions. The next day
Senators cut the extension to 5 weeks.
(SFC, 12/21/05, p.A1)(SFC, 12/22/05, p.A5)(SFC,
12/23/05, p.A1)
2005 In Alaska the Chiginagak
Volcano in the early summer discharged acidic ash and water into the
King Salmon River killing all the fish there.
(SFC, 9/17/05, p.B8)
2006 Jan 11, The US Interior Dept.
agreed to open some 400,000 acres on Alaska’s North Slope for
exploratory oil drilling.
(SFC, 1/12/06, p.A6)
2006 Mar 2, An oil spill in Alaska
curtailed Prudhoe Bay production. At least 265,000 gallons spilled onto
the tundra from a British Petroleum (BP) line handling 100,000 barrels
per day. The spill of 5,000 barrels was the largest in the field’s
29-year history.
(WSJ, 3/3/06, p.A1)(SFC, 3/11/06, p.A4)(SSFC,
8/13/06, p.A18)
2006 Mar 10, In Alaska another oil
leak was detected on a 2nd North Slope transmission pipeline. This
followed the recently plugged leak discovered on Mar 2.
(SFC, 3/11/06, p.A4)
2006 Mar 15, Veteran musher Jeff
King drove his dog team into the Bering Sea town of Nome, Alaska, to
capture the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the world's
premier dog-sled event, for the fourth time.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Apr 22, In Alaska 6
seventh-graders were arrested in North Pole, just outside of Fairbanks,
for conspiracy to commit murder during an assault on their school.
Authorities found weapons in their homes.
(AP, 4/25/06)
2006 Apr 23, In Alaska 2 small
planes collided midair and crashed about 20 miles north of Anchorage,
killing five people.
(AP, 4/24/06)
2006 Jul 6, A US federal rule was
published designating some 36,750 square miles in the Bering Sea and
Gulf of Alaska as critical habitat for right whales. The rule takes
effect Aug. 7.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 23, The 654-foot
Singapore-flagged Cougar Ace, a cargo ship carrying 4,813 cars from
Japan to Canada, began tilting to its port side late at night hundreds
of miles off Alaska's Aleutian Islands. 23 crew members were rescued
the next day. The ship was owned by Tokyo-based Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and
listed on its side for several weeks before being righted. 4,703 of the
cars were new Mazdas valued at about $100 million. After a year of
planning Mazda scheduled all the cars for complete reduction to scrap
in Portland, Ore.
(AP, 7/25/06)(SFC, 7/25/06, p.A2)(WSJ, 4/29/08, p.A9)
2006 Jul 24, Rescuers from the US
Coast Guard and Alaska Air National Guard saved 23 crew members from a
cargo ship taking on water south of the Aleutian Islands.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2006 Aug 5, Susan Butcher (51),
four-time Iditarod champion, died in Seattle, Wa. In 1986 she became
the Alaska race's second female winner and brought increased national
attention to its grueling competition.
(AP, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 6, Oil giant BP announced
an indefinite shutdown of the biggest oilfield in the US, at Prudhoe
Bay in Alaska, after finding a pipeline leak. BP was able to maintain
partial operations.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2006 Aug 7, Oil company BP
scrambled to assess pipeline corrosion in Alaska that will shut
shipments from the nation's biggest oil field, removing about 8% of
daily US crude production and driving oil and gasoline prices sharply
higher. BP said it would have to replace 16 miles of pipeline at the
Prudhoe Bay field.
(AP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/7/07)
2006 Aug 11, BP PLC announced it
would keep one side of the Prudhoe Bay oil field open as it replaced
corroded pipes, averting a larger crimp in the nation's oil supply.
(AP, 8/11/07)
2006 Aug 23, In Alaska Republican
Gov. Frank Murkowski finished last in a 3-day primary election. Sarah
Palin, a former Wasilla mayor, won with over 50% of the vote.
(SFC, 8/24/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 7, BP America, the US arm
of British energy giant BP, said it will spend more than 550 million
dollars (432 million euros) over the next two years on improvements to
its Alaskan oil fields, including pipeline repairs.
(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 21, In NYC Venezuela’s
Pres. Chavez visited the Mount Olive Baptist Church in Harlem and
promised to double the amount of discounted heating oil his country is
shipping to needy Americans. His offer included 100 gallons of heating
oil for each of 12,000 households in rural Alaska.
(SFC, 9/22/06, p.A3)(SSFC, 10/8/06, p.A27)
2006 The population of Alaska
reached 665,000.
(Econ, 8/26/06, p.27)
2007 Jan 9, Pres. Bush lifted a
ban on oil and gas drilling in Alaska’s Bristol area.
(SFC, 1/10/07, p.A5)
2007 Jan 17, Alaska’s newly
elected Gov. Sarah Palin (42) delivered her 1st state speech.
(http://community.adn.com/?q=adn/node/104605)
2007 Mar 13, In Alaska Lance
Mackey won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, in nine days, five hours,
eight minutes.
(AP, 3/13/08)
2007 Apr 24, At a conference in
Moscow titled “Megaprojects of Russia’s East,” supporters proposed a
68-mile tunnel under the Bering Strait. The tunnel linking Alaska and
Siberia would cost $65 billion and take some 20 years to build.
(SFC, 4/25/07, p.A6)
2007 May 4, An Alaska lawmaker and
two of his former colleagues were arrested for allegedly soliciting and
accepting bribes from VECO Corp., a private oil services company, to
pass a new oil-tax system.
(Reuters, 5/4/07)
2007 May 28, In Alaska officials
from 75 nations began talks critical to whale conservation amid
pressure, notably from Japan, to lift a 20-year ban on commercial whale
hunting.
(AFP, 5/28/07)
2007 Jun 28, Bruce Kennedy
(b.1938), former CEO of Alaska Airlines (1979-1991), was killed when
his Cessna 182 crashed in Cashmere, Wash.
(WSJ, 1/7/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 9, Alaska’s former state
Rep. Tom Anderson was convicted of taking thousands of dollars from a
corrections company consultant in exchange for his help in the
Legislature.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 25, In Alaska a
sightseeing plane crashed leaving a pilot and 2 couples from a visiting
cruise ship dead.
(WSJ, 1/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 31, A US government
watchdog group called for the removal of GOP Sen. Ted Stevens from his
Senate committees, less than 24 hours after the FBI and IRS raided the
senator’s Alaska home in connection with a public corruption probe
centered in the state.
(www.cqpolitics.com/2007/07/ethics_flaps_could_stir_compet.html)
2007 Aug 3, In Alaska Mindy
Schloss (52), a nurse practitioner, was last seen alive in Anchorage.
Her body was found on Sep 13 near Wasilla. In 2010 Joshua Alan Wade
(29) acknowledged that he had shot and killed Schloss, who lived next
door to him.
(SFC, 2/17/10,
p.A6)(www.amw.com/missing_persons/recovered.cfm?id=47985)
2007 Sep 13, Bill Allen (70),
former head of VECO Corp., testified in a federal corruption trial in
Anchorage, that he had bribed 3 Alaska legislators, including the son
of US Sen. Ted Stevens.
(SFC, 9/14/07, p.A9)
2007 Nov 1, A federal jury
convicted Vic Kohring, a former Alaska lawmaker, of corruption charges
involving tax protections sought by oil companies as part of plans for
a multibillion-dollar natural gas pipeline.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 18, The Jesuit order of
the Roman Catholic Church agreed to pay $50 million to 110 Eskimos to
settle claims of sexual abuse in Alaska.
(SFC, 11/19/07, p.A3)(Reuters, 11/19/07)
2007 Dec 7, Former Alaska House
Speaker Pete Kott was sentenced to six years in a federal prison for
accepting $9,000 in bribes from the founder of an oil field services
company.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2008 Jan 5, In Alaska a small
plane crashed at the end of a runway off Kodiak Island killing 6 people
enroute to celebrate Eastern Orthodox Christmas.
(SFC, 1/7/08, p.A3)
2008 Jan 21, Marie Smith (89), a
resident of southeastern Alaska, died. She was the last speaker of her
native Eyak language.
(Econ, 2/9/08, p.92)
2008 Mar 12, In Alaska Lance
Mackey won his second consecutive Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race,
completing the 1,100-mile journey in just under 9 1/2 days.
(AP, 3/12/08)
2008 Mar 23, The Alaska Ranger, a
189-foot fishing vessel, sank off the Aleutian Islands, killing the
captain and 4 crew members. 42 crew members were rescued. State
environmental regulators were notified that the ship was carrying
145,000 gallons of diesel when it sank in deep seas.
(AP, 3/24/08)(SFC, 10/1/09,
p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FV_Alaska_Ranger)
2008 Jun 25, The US Supreme Court
overturned the $2.5 billion in punitive damages that Exxon Mobil Corp
had been ordered to pay for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska.
(AP, 6/25/08)
2008 Jul 9, A grand jury in
Anchorage indicted Sen. John Cowdery, an Alaska legislator, on bribery
and conspiracy counts in a federal investigation of corruption that
already has led to convictions against three former state lawmakers.
Federal prosecutors allege that Cowdery conspired with executives of
oil field services company VECO Corp. to bribe another unnamed state
senator for votes to support oil and gas legislation.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 29, Alaska Senator Ted
Stevens (84), the longest-serving Republican in the US Senate, was
indicted for making false statements concerning gifts he received from
an oil-services firm.
(AFP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul, In Alaska Gov. Palin’s
chief of staff told Walter Monegan, the state public safety
commissioner, that he was being fired because the governor wanted “to
go in a different direction.” Monegan, hired by Palin shortly after she
took office in 2006, said his firing was connected to his failure to
remove Mike Wooten, Palin’s former brother-in-law, from the state
police force.
(SFC, 9/1/08, p.A7)
2008 Aug 4, Alaska sued the US
government saying its listing of polar bears as a threatened species
will hurt oil exploration and tourism.
(WSJ, 8/6/08,
p.A1)(www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49694/story.htm)
2008 Aug 29, John McCain, on his
72nd birthday, tapped little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (44) to be
his vice presidential running mate.
(AP, 8/29/08)(SFC, 8/30/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 1, The GOP convention
opened at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., in an abbreviated
session due to Hurricane Gustav. Alaska’s Gov. Palin, GOP candidate for
the vice-presidency, disclosed that her daughter, Bristol (17), is 5
months pregnant. Over 250 demonstrators were arrested as splinter
groups smashed department store and police car windows. On March 11,
2009, Levi Johnson (19) announced he and Bristol Palin had decided to
end their relationship.
(SFC, 9/2/08, p.A1,5)(WSJ, 9/2/08, p.A4)(SFC,
3/12/09, p.A6)
2008 Oct 2, US vice presidential
candidates held their only debate prior to elections. Alaska’s Gov.
Sarah Palin often spoke in generalities. Delaware Sen. Joe Biden was
generally focused and forceful, and seemed to take painstaking care not
to appear disrespectful in the least.
(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 10, Alaska released a
report in which a legislative investigator found that Gov. Palin had
violated state ethics laws and abused her power by trying to have her
former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 17, The Bush
administration named the beluga whale in Alaska’s Cook Inlet an
endangered species, despite opposition from Gov. Palin. Only 375 beluga
whales remained there as opposed to some 1,300 in the 1970s.
(SFC, 10/18/08, p.A3)
2008 Oct 22, The fishing vessel
Katmai sank off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. 4 crew members were rescued
after spending some 15 hours in a life raft. 5 bodies were recovered
with 2 men missing.
(SFC, 10/24/08, p.A10)
2008 Oct 27, A Washington DC jury
found Alaska’s Sen. Stevens guilty on seven counts of trying to hide
more than $250,000 in free home renovations and other gifts from a
wealthy oil contractor. Stevens, who first entered the Senate in 1968,
faced Alaska's voters in upcoming elections as a convicted felon. On
April 1, 2009, the US Justice Dept. dropped charges against Stevens,
saying prosecutors’ mistakes forced the move.
(AP, 10/28/08)(WSJ, 4/2/09, p.A1)
2008 Nov 4, In Alaska voters
ousted Republican Sen. Ted Stevens. Democrat Mark Begich claimed a
narrow victory on Nov 18, after a tally of remaining ballots showed him
holding a 3,724-vote edge.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2008 Dec 16, NASA said satellite
data indicated that more than 2 trillion tons of land ice in Alaska,
Antarctica and Greenland since 2003 among the latest signs of global
warming.
(SFC, 12/17/08, p.A20)
2009 Mar 18, In Alaska lance
Mackey won his 3rd consecutive Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
(WSJ, 3/19/09, p.A6)
2009 Mar 23, Alaska's Mount
Redoubt volcano erupted five times overnight, sending an ash plume more
than 9 miles into the air in the volcano's first emissions in nearly 20
years.
(AP, 3/23/09)
2009 May 21, Alaska’s Gov. Sarah
Palin became the only governor to turn down federal stimulus money for
energy efficiency, a move that legislators called "disappointing" for a
state with some of the country's highest energy costs.
(AP, 5/22/09)
2009 Jun 18, The US Supreme Court
ruled 5-4 that William Osborne, a prisoner convicted in Alaska in 1994,
has no constitutional right to DNA testing to prove his innocence. In
April 2008, a three-judge panel of US Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit had held that Osborne should be allowed to obtain new DNA
tests. The court said that it is up to the states and Congress to
decide such rights.
(SFC, 6/19/09, p.A7)(Econ, 8/1/09,
p.25)(http://tinyurl.com/mkmte2)
2009 Jun 22, The US Supreme Court
ruled 6-3 to allow a mining company to dump waste from an Alaskan gold
mine into a nearby 23-acre lake, although the material will kill all of
the lake's fish. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called the decision "great
news for Alaska" and said it "is a green light for responsible resource
development." The Kensington gold mine 45 miles north of Juneau will
produce as many as 370 jobs when it begins operation.
(AP, 6/22/09)
2009 Jul 3, Alaska Gov. Sarah
Palin announced her decision to leave office more than a year early,
effective July 26. The announcement left open the possibility of a
presidential run.
(AP, 7/4/09)
2009 Jul 15, In Alaska Anthony
Rollins, a 13-year decorated Anchorage police officer, was arrested
after being indicted for assaulting multiple women while on duty.
(SFC, 7/16/09, p.A6)
2009 Oct 21, Federal court
documents linked Alaska Rep. Don Young to a wide-ranging investigation
of corruption in Alaska. It was alleged that the 19-term Republican had
received gifts totaling nearly $200,000 over 13 years from Veco Corp.,
a defunct oil field services company run by former Alaska Sen. Ted
Stevens.
(SFC, 10/24/09, p.A10)
2009 Oct 22, The Obama
administration said it is designating over 200,000 square miles in
Alaska and off its coast as critical habitat for polar bears.
(SFC, 10/22/09, p.A7)
2009 Oct 28, In Anchorage Bill
Allen, an oil services executive at the heart of a federal
investigation of corruption in Alaska, was sentenced to 3 years in
prison and fine $750,000.
(SFC, 10/29/09, p.A6)
2009 Nov 24, In Alaska the
Catholic diocese of Fairbanks and representatives of almost 300 alleged
victims of sex abuse by clergy agreed on a settlement of almost $10
million.
(SFC, 11/25/09, p.A4)
2009 Dec 21, In Alaska an oil
spill was discovered coming from a 6-inch pipeline in the Prudhoe Bay
oil field.
(SFC, 12/23/09, p.A8)
2009 Dec 23, In Alaska a 123-foot
tug boat hit Bligh Reef, the same reef that damaged the Exxon Valdez in
1989. Over the next few days 49,000 gallons of diesel fuel were
salvaged from the tug. It was unknown ho much fuel was spilled.
(SSFC, 12/27/09, p.A10)
2009 Sarah Palin, former governor
of Alaska (2007-2009), authored “Going Rogue: An American Life.”
(SFC, 9/29/09, p.A6)
2010 Jan 11, Fox News announced
that Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential
candidate, would become a regular commentator on its cable channel.
(SFC, 1/12/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 18, It was reported that
Alaska corporations and a multinational firm are planning to build the
first fiber optic cable between Asia and Europe through the Arctic. The
project estimated at $1 billion, involved laying 10,000 miles of
undersea fiber optic cable from Tokyo, along the Alaska coast, through
the Northwest Passage, past Greenland to London.
(SFC, 1/18/10, p.D3)
2010 Feb 9, Phil Harris (53), the
fishing boat captain whose adventures off the Alaska coast were
captured on the television show "Deadliest Catch", died in Anchorage
following a massive stroke on Jan 29.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Alaska an
avalanche near Seward buried Jim Bowles, head of Conoco Phillips Alaska
and Alan Gage, part of the company’s capital projects team. They were
among a party of 12 snowmobilers.
(SFC, 2/15/10, p.A6)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Alaska
End of file.