History of Alaska: A Comprehensive Timeline for Curious Minds.
Alaska’s history began when foraging tribes crossed the Bering Land Bridge into what is now western Alaska during the Upper Paleolithic era, some 14,000 BC. Alaska Native tribes inhabited the region when Russian explorers first arrived in Europe.
The word “mainland” (literally, “the object toward which the action of the sea is directed”) that is Aleut for “Alaxsxaq” (also spelled “Alyeska”) is the source of the name “Alaska”. In 1867, the United States acquired Alaska from Russia. Thousands of miners and settlers arrived in Alaska during the 1890s as a result of gold rushes in the state and the neighboring Yukon Territory.
The United States of America granted Alaska territorial status in 1912. Attu and Kiska, two outer Aleutian Islands that the Japanese controlled in 1942 during World War II, were reclaimed by the United States and became a source of national pride. Certain Alaskan cities saw an increase in population as a result of the establishment of military bases.
Alaska became a state of the United States on January 3, 1959. The enormous “Good Friday earthquake” of 1964 destroyed numerous settlements and claimed 131 lives. An oil boom resulted from the 1968 discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay and the 1977 construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
Over a distance of 1,100 miles (1,800 km), the Exxon Valdez spilled between 11 and 34 million US gallons (42,000 and 129,000 m3) of crude oil after striking a reef in Prince William Sound in 1989. In the heated discussion around oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge today, the conflicting ideologies of development and conservation are on display.