1350-1870 The "Little Ice Age" is causing glaciers and ice caps to become larger.

1728-Vitus Bering sails through the Bering Strait.

1776-Captain James Cook sets off in search of the Northwest Passage.

1778-Captain Cook finds King Island, Norton Sound, Unalaska.

1784-Grigorii Shelikov starts the first "white" settlement at Three Saints Bay, Kodiak.

1797-The first Russian Orthodox Church formed in Kodiak.

1824-Exploration of the mainland finds the Nushagak, Kuskokwim, Yukon, and Koyokuk Rivers.

1847-The creation of Fort Yukon.

1865-Preparation begins to put a telegraph line across Alaska and Siberia by Western Union Telegraph.

1867- U.S. purchases Alaska from Russia.

1890-Dr. Sheldon Jackson explores the Arctic Coast and starts the reindeer herding in Alaska.

1891-Oil claims staked in the area of Cook Inlet.

1892- Alaskan Forest Service System starts with the establishment of the Afognak Reserve.

1897-1900-Klondike gold rush.

1898-Nome gold rush.

1902-Settlement of miners name themselves Fairbanks.

1904-Cables are laid from Seattle to Sitka, by submarine, linking Alaska to the "Outside".

1914-City of Anchorage starts as a construction campsite.

1923-The last spike for the Alaska Railroad is driven in by President Warren G. Harding.

1932-Juneau, Ketchikan and Nome get radio telephone communications.

1940-Fort Richardson established; building begins on the Elmendorf Air Force Base.

1942-Japan bombs Dutch Harbor and invades the Aleutian Islands.

1946-Mt. Edgecombe boarding high school for Natives opens.

1953-The first Alaskan pulp mill opens at Ketchikan and first Alaskan T.V. broadcast by KENI, Anchorage.

1959-Alaska becomes the 49th state.

1964-Good Friday earthquake hits Alaska.

1966-Organization of the Alaska Federation of Natives.

1968-Oil pumped from a well at Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope.

1971-Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act is signed into law.

1976-Constitutional amendment starts the Alaska Permanent Fund.

1977-From Prudhoe Bay to Valdez the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in completed.

1980-Alaska Legislature increases the oil revenue share from 25% to 50% for the Permanent Fund and repeals the Alaska personal income tax.

1982-The first Permanent Fund dividends are distributed.

1983-Alaska Standard Time is established.

1988-Whale rescue efforts become international for two whales caught by ice off Barrow. The state's economy does so poorly that 30,000 people leave Anchorage.

1989-The Exxon Valdez, oil tanker, grounds on Bligh Reef causing an oil spill of 11 million gallons that goes into Prince William Sound.

1992-Spurr Volcano erupts three times; Hillary Lindh, Juneau, wins Olympic silver medal in downhill skiing.

1994-Federal trial concludes in a $5 billion dollar verdict in the Exxon Valdez case. Tommy Moe, Alaska, wins Olympic gold in downhill skiing.