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Circumpolar Chronology:
1500 - 1799
- 1648
- - A party of Russian fur hunters led by Semen Dezhnev sail around the Chukotskii Peninsula, proving that Russia and America were not joined by land.
- 1728
- - August: Vitus Jonassen Bering sails through what was later named Bering Strait, separating Asia and North America. St. Lawrence Island becomes the first part of Alaska to be sighted and named by whites.
- 1732
- - August 21: A Russian expedition under surveyor Mikhail Gvozdev sights the Alaska mainland at Cape Prince of Wales.
- 1741
- - July 16: Vitus Bering, on St.Elias Day, sights the Alaskan mainland. In honour of the saint, the most prominent peak was named; this was the first point on the northwest coast named by Europeans.
- - December 8: Vitus Bering dies after his ship was wrecked on an island off the Alaskan coast.
- 1745
- - September 25: A Russian fur hunter, Mikhail Nevodchikov, reaches Attu in his search for sea otters.
- 1774
- - July 18-21: Captain Juan Perez discovers Forrester Island and touches the southern coast of Alaska in his search for Russian fur traders who were regarded as intruders on Spanish territory.
- 1775
- - Francisco Bodega y Quadra and Francisco Mourelle discover Bucareli Bay and reach the latitude of today's Juneau before returning to Mexico.
- 1778
- - May 12: Captain James Cook enters Prince William Sound. Fourteen days later, he discovered Cook Inlet, near the site of present-day Anchorage. On August 25, he turned back south, having reached Lat. 71 North, Long. 197 West.
- 1784
- - Grigori Shelikhov establishes a village on Kodiak Island, and claims the adjoining coast for Russia.
- 1794
- - The first church in Alaska is built on Kodiak Island by missionaries from the Valaam Monastery of the Russian Orthodox Church.
- 1799
- - July 8: The Russian American Company is formed by Royal Charter; they were given a 20-year monopoly on trading on the coast from 55 degrees north.
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