POLAR REGIONS

Polar Regions Timeline

Dorset Culture develops in Alaska.

c.2500 bce

St Brendan sails to Iceland. The Vikings reach Iceland.

c.500 ce

860 986

Erik the Red lands on Greenland with settlers.

English merchants trade with Iceland.

c.1400

Muscovy Company sends three ships to find the Northeast Passage.

1553 1607 1725 1740 1819 1831 1847 1895 1908 1909 1920 1926 1948 1959 1969 1971 1977 1979

Henry Hudson leaves on his first Arctic voyage. Vitus Bering starts on his first trans-Russia expedition.

Bering’s second expedition.

John Franklin leads his first Arctic expedition. James Clark Ross discovers the North Magnetic Pole. Franklin dies searching for the Northwest Passage. Fridtjof Nansen sledges to 86°N during Fram voyage. Cook claims to have reached the North Pole. Peary claims to have reached the North Pole. Byrd claims to have flown over the North Pole. Soviet airplane lands on sea ice at the North Pole. Arctic countries claim slices of the Arctic Ocean. US nuclear-powered submarine surfaces at the North Pole. Wally Herbert makes first crossing of the Arctic Ocean. Spitzbergen Treaty is signed.

c.1950

Alaskan Inuit Land Claims settlement.

The Alaska Pipeline, shipping oil south to ports, begins operation.

Greenland is granted home rule by Denmark.

1989 The Exxon Valdez oil tanker grounds off the coast of Alaska, creating one of the worst oil spills ever in the region. 1990 International Arctic Science Committee is formed. 1999 Successful Canadian Inuit land claim results in Nunavet Territory. 2007 Arctic icepack has shrunk so much that ships without icebreakers can now traverse the entire Northwest Passage. 2013 British explorer Felicity Ashton is the first woman to ski alone across the continent of Antarctica. It takes her 59 days. 2013 Russia arrests (and detains for months) 30 Greenpeace activitists protesting near Arctic oil drilling sites. 2014 An international effort to create marine reserves around Antarctica fails, blocked by Russian and Chinese interests. 2014 A Russian ship with scientists and tourists becomes blocked in sea ice in Antarctica and must be rescued by U.S. Coast Guard vessel and Chinese helicopter. 2014 Scientists announced that annual ice loss from Greenland has doubled in rate since 2009. 2014 NASA announces that one of the largest ice sheets in Antarctica will disappear by 2020. 2015 The New York Times reports that China now has the fastest-growing operations in the Antarctic. 2015 While visiting Alaska to discuss climate change, President Obama becomes the first sitting president to travel north of the Arctic Circle.

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