The flag of Alaska emerged from a flag competition in 1926. It was unofficially introduced on 2nd of May in 1927. Alaska also adopted this flag for official use in 1959. The blue symbolises the sky, the sea, the mountain lakes and Alaska's wildflowers. Seven golden stars represent the constellation of the Big Dipper, also known as the Big Bear or Big Carriage. The eighth star in the outer upper corner is the North Star. It stands for Alaska, the northernmost state in the USA, but it is also the fixed star that provides orientation. The colours are defined in the "Alaska Statutes of the Alaska State Legislature", also as HEX values, Navy Blue = #0F204B, Gold = #FFB612. Pantone colour values can be derived from this: Blue = pt 655 c, Yellow = pt 1235 c.
ca. 14.000 B.C. · colonization by ancestors of the Indians
1648 · the Russian sailor Deshnyov sees the Bering Strait
1725 · Vitus Bering, Danish cartographer and explorer in Russian service, explores the Arctic coast of Siberia and parts of the North American coast, mapping the Aleutian Islands
1741 · Captain Alexei Ilyich Chirikov, a participant in the Bering expedition, reaches Alaska near present-day Sitka
1759 · Russian navigator, explorer and fur trapper Stepan Glotov lands in the area of present-day Unalaska on the Aleutian Islands
1768 · Unalaska becomes a Russian trading port
1774, 1791 · Spanish expeditions, Spain claims Alaska for several years
1775 · Russian Empress Catherine II. (Catherine the Great, 1729–1796) commissions Siberian merchant and fur trader Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov (1747–1795) to organise a series of exploratory voyages to the Kuril Islands and the Aleutian Islands
1778 · British research expedition led by James Cook
1784 · Shelikhov establishes the first permanent Russian settlement in Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island in Alaska
1784 · Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov and Ivan Larionovich Golikov found the "Shelikhov-Golikov Company"
1791–1795 · British research expedition led by George Vancouver
1792 · Alexander Baranov of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company moves the Russian settlement from Three Saints Bay to Pavlovsk (today: Kodiak City)
1797 · founding of the United American Company
1799 · the United American Company is merged with the Shelikov-Golikov Company and the Lebedev-Lastochkin Company to form the Russian-American Company (RAK) under Alexander Baranov; the Russian tsar cedes Alaska to the RAK for twenty years
1799 · Baranov founds Novo-Arkhangelsk (today: Sitka) on the coast of the American mainland and establishes his administrative headquarters there
1802–1804 · Baranov orders military punitive expeditions against indigenous peoples (Tlingit) who violently resist the presence of foreign traders
1806 · Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov (1764–1807) establishes first trade relations between Spanish California and Russian America, he reaches San Francisco by ship. Rezanov promotes the advance of the Russian-American Company into the territories north of Spanish California
1808 · Novo-Arkhangelsk (today: Sitka) becomes the capital of Russian America
1812 · Alexander Baranov and Ivan Kuskov found Fort Ross in Bodega Bay, California, as a trading post to supply Russian America with food
1818 · Russia takes over the administration of Russian America
1824, 1825 · Border treaties between Russian America and United Kingdom and the USA
1839 · Johann August Sutter, a Mexican citizen of Swiss descent, founds the colony of New Helvetia northeast of San Francisco, in the area of present-day Sacramento
1841 · After Fort Ross is no longer able to supply the colonies in Russian America with food, the base is sold to Johann August Sutter
Autumn 1848 · Sutter loses New Helvetia in the wake of the California Gold Rush
1865 · Sutter finally abandons the New Helvetia project
30th of March in 1867 · Russia sells Russian America (Alaska) to the United States for 7.2 million dollars
18th of October 1867 · Russia's reign ends, Alaska becomes handed over to the USA as "Department of Alaska", initially managed by the army
1877 · the Ministry of Finance of the United States takes over the management of Alaska
1879 · the Navy of the United States takes over the management of Alaska
1884 · the "Department of Alaska" becomes "District of Alaska" with limited autonomy
1912 · the "District of Alaska" becomes "Territory of Alaska", autonomy
3rd of January 1959 · Alaska becomes the 49th State of the USA
1990 · election victory of the Alaskan Independence Party (governor until 1994)
The name "Alaska" has its roots the Aleut word "Alakshak" what means translated: "land which is not an island". According to another tradition, the translation means: "land on which the ocean flows". The Russians formed it to "Alieska", and the US-Americans to "Alaska".
