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Free Traveling Guides » States » Alaska History of Alaska
The Asiatic groups crossed the Bering Land Bridge into the present-day western Alaska in 12,000 BC, at the end of the Upper Paleolithic Period. Before the arrival of the Russian explorers, the area was inhabited by the Alaska Native groups. Vitus Bering was the first European to make contact with Alaska in 1741. However, the first permanent European settlement was established in Alaska in 1784. During the early to mid-1800s, an expanded colonization program was carried out by the Russian-American Company. The Alaskan Purchase was finally engineered by William H. Seward, the U.S. Secretary of State, in 1867 for $7.2 million. A major event in the history of the state was the gold rush in Alaska and the nearby Yukon Territory in the 1890s. These gold rushes led to the migration of thousands of miners and settlers to Alaska. The territorial status was granted to Alaska in 1912. During the World War II, only three Aleutian Islands-Attu, Kiska, and Agattu-were occupied by the enemy. This battle was, in fact, the first foreign military campaign on the U. S. land since the War of 1812. On January 3, 1959, Alaska was admitted to the Union as one of the U. S. States. Other important events in Alaskan history include the massive Good Friday Earthquake of 1964; discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay in 1968; and the completion of the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline in 1977. In 1989, a reef in Price William Sound was hit by the Exxon Valdez, spilling 11-35 million US gallons (42,000-130,000 cubic meters) of crude oil over 1100 miles (1600 km) of coastline. |
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