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Circumpolar Chronology:
1800 - 1899
- 1802
- New Archangel, the Russian settlement at present-day Sitka is sacked by Tlingit Indians, and most of the inhabitants killed.
- 1812
- - March: The Russian American Company establishes a post at Fort Ross, California to grow crops for their Alaska operations.
- 1816
- Georg Anton Schäffer obtains fishing rights, livestock, and a land grant to establish a post on Oahu for the Russian American Company.
- 1825
- - Great Britain and Russia agree that the 141st meridian shall be the boundary between the interior sections of their territories. This agreement was honoured when Alaska and the Yukon were formed, although the dispute regarding interpretation of the boundary along the coast was not settled until 1903.
- 1826
- - Sir John Franklin and his crew become the first white men to see Herschel Island, off the north coast (the only coast) of the Yukon.
- 1839
- - The Hudson's Bay Company signs an agreement with the Russian American Company to supply Sitka with provisions. Three years later, the Russian operation at Fort Ross was sold.
- 1846
- - The Hudson's Bay Company builds Lapierre House on the Bell River, their first post west of the Richardson Mountains.
- 1848
- - The first American whaling ship, the barque Superior, enters the Bering Sea and discovers the huge population of bowhead and other whales. A maritime "gold rush" followed in 1849, with 154 ships joining the hunt.
- - September: The Hudson's Bay Company builds Fort Selkirk, at the confluence of the Pelly and Yukon Rivers.
- 1865
- - Works starts on Perry McDonough Collins' dream, an Overland Telegraph line joining the United States to Europe, via Siberia. The project collapsed with the completion of a trans-Atlantic telegraph cable in July 1866.
- 1867
- - March 30: The United States buys Alaska from Russia, for $7.2 million.
- - July 23: Alaska's first post office is authorized, to be opened at Sitka.
- - October 18: Official transfer ceremonies at Sitka.
- 1868
- - July 27: The Customs Act is amended to include Alaska.
- The first salmon saltery in Alaska is built at Klawock, on Prince of Wales Island. The first canneries opened at Klawock and Sitka in 1878.
- 1871
- - September: Of the 41 whaling ships hunting in the Bering Sea, 32 are trapped by early ice; all of the 1,200 people on the ships escaped, but 31 of the ships were destroyed the following spring.
- 1873
- - As gold prospectors continue to head further and further north, a discovery is made near Dease Lake, in northern British Columbia. The Cassiar gold rush, though erratic, brought several hundred prospectors to the edge of the Yukon and Alaska.
- 1876
- - August: Twelve whaling ships are trapped by ice near Point Barrow; 50 men die attempting to reach safety.
- 1880
- - The first major discovery of gold in Alaska is made by Joe Juneau and Richard Harris, near what would become the city of Juneau.
- 1882
- - The first Alaskan tourist cruises are offered; in 1883, the first cruise into Glacier Bay attracted attention from around the world.
- 1883
- - Lieutenant Frederick A. Schwatka conducts the first survey of the entire length of the Yukon River.
- 1884
- - The first " Organic Act" is passed by Congress, giving the District of Alaska a Governor, and a legal system using the laws of Oregon.
- 1885
- - Rocky Mountain Park (later renamed Banff) is created as Canada's first national park.
- 1888
- - Fridtjof Nansen and a 6-man team become the first Europeans to cross the Greenland ice cap.
- 1893
- - From June 1893 until August 1897, Nansen and his crew on the Fram drifted in the pack ice, returning with ground-breaking new information on the Arctic seas.
- 1895
- - Hunting and trapping in US national parks is banned by the Park Protection Act
- - October 2, 1895: The North-west Territories is divided into the Districts of Franklin, Mackenzie, Ungava and Yukon.
- 1896
- - The first oil is discovered in Alaska, at the mouth of the Copper River. The field went into production in 1902.
- - August 16: Gold is discovered on Rabbit Creek by a party consisting of George Carmack, his wife Kate, Skookum Jim, Tagish Charlie and Patsy Henderson.
- - August 17: Carmack et al stake their claims, renaming Rabbit Creek Bonanza Creek.
- 1898
- - The Klondike Gold Rush turns Dawson into the largest city north of San Francisco and west of Winnipeg.
- - June 13: Creation of the Yukon Territory.
- - September: Gold is discovered near the future site of Nome, triggering a stampede.
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