Arctic: Russian claim of territorial rights - timeline
Searching more than 75 years of world history
Timeline
- August 2007. Spurred by a Russian expedition, Denmark and the USA act to assert claims to Arctic territory
- August 2007. Extent of Arctic sea ice shrinks to a record low, concludes survey of polar region conducted by US researchers.
- April 2007. UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports on the deterioration of the Arctic ice cap.
- February 2007. IPCC report says that evidence for global warming is “unequivocal” and explains how the shrinkage of polar ice caps will expedite it.
- December 2006. US researchers suggest that the Arctic Ocean could lose all its summer ice by 2040.
- November 2006. Energy consultant study determines that the Arctic holds great potential for oil and gas companies
- September 2006. Two separate studies by NASA find a massive surge in loss of polar ice.
- March 2006 Petroleum company BP’s environmental reputation is harmed by a pipeline leak at its Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska.
- October 2005. A European Space Agency (ESA) Arctic study satellite crashes into the ocean.
- March 2005. The Republican-controlled US Senate (the upper house of Congress, the federal legislature) approves drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Reserve in Alaska in a 49 to 51 vote.
- November 2004. The Arctic Council, a group of eight countries with Arctic territory, reports that the Arctic is “experiencing some of the most rapid and severe climate change on Earth”.
- April 2002. Democrats in the US Senate remove provision for drilling in Arctic reserve from energy legislation.
- August 2001. US President George .W. Bush proposes to open 8 per cent of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northern Alaska to exploratory drilling for oil.
- April 2000. A new survey shows that the loss of ozone in some areas over the Arctic exceeded 60 per cent during the winter, the worst loss ever recorded.
- April 1999. Canada officially declares self-rule for Inuits in the Arctic regions of Canada’s Northwest Territories.
- March 1999. The journal Science on March 4 publishes the first precise evidence of the shrinking of the Arctic ice cap in Greenland.
- November 1998. The fourth conference of the parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) debates ways to implement cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases.
- September 1996. Eight countries bordering the Arctic Ocean (Canada, Denmark (Greenland), Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Russia, the USA, and Finland), agree to form the Arctic Council to find solutions to environmental and cultural issues.
- November 1992. A referendum is held amongst the Inuit people in northern Canada on the proposed establishment of Nunavut, a semi-autonomous Inuit territory.
- January 1992. The Canadian Human Rights Commission issues a report on the forcible relocation of Inuits to Arctic regions in the 1950s in a bid to strengthen Canada Arctic territorial claims.
- April 1989. The tanker Exxon Valdez runs aground, discharging an estimated 11 million gallons of crude oil in Prince William Sound, Alaska, one of the largest oil spills in US history.
- March 1989. An International conference to prevent the destruction of the atmospheric ozone above the Arctic and Antarctic bans chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the propellant held responsible for the damage.
- November 1985. The US coast guard sends an icebreaker through the Arctic Ocean to investigate the Northwest Passage. Inuit people criticise the action, expressing fears that any development of the passage for commercial shipping could harm the marine environment.
- December 1982. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) proclaiming 200-mile economic zones around coastal countries is signed by representatives of 119 countries, but the USA, the UK, and Germany are notable exceptions.
- December 1982. The UN Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) proposes 12-mile territorial waters limits and 200-mile exclusive economic zones.
- October 1977. An Alaskan oil pipeline begins pumping oil from Prudhoe Bay, the most expensive privately financed construction project in history.
- February 1976. Norway and Russia negotiate delimitation of the Barents Sea.
- September 1974. A US-Canadian consortium of companies start work on a pipeline to bring natural gas from the Arctic to the USA and Canada.
- March 1974. The US legislature approves a bill authorising the interior ministry to construct an Alaskan oil pipeline.
- December 1971. The US government undertakes nuclear testing in the Arctic despite the objections of environmentalists.
- August 1970. The Canadian prime minister proposes legislation to extend the country's territorial waters in the Arctic.
- May 1970. Canadian External Affairs Minister Mitchell Sharp proclaims Canada’s “sovereignty over our Arctic waters in clear unmistakable terms”.
- November 1969. First surface crossing of the Arctic is accomplished by a UK trans-Arctic expedition.
- September 1969. Leases of land on the north coast of Alaska are sold by the USA to a number of oil companies, following the discovery of new oilfields in the area.
- September 1961. The Soviet Union carries out nuclear tests in Arctic.
- November 1960. The US defence department launches radar surveillance in northern Greenland to warn of long-range ballistic missile attacks.
- May 1958. Before the UN Security Council, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko alleges that US planes carrying A-bombs and H-bombs had “repeatedly flown across the Arctic areas in the direction of the frontiers of the USSR”.
- August 1957. The US Air Force announces that the Distant Early Warning Line, a 3,000-mile radar chain across the Arctic fringe of North America, is fully operational.
- September 1954. Canada and the USA announce an agreement on the construction of a new radar detection network “across the most northerly practicable part of North America”.
- November 1952. The first commercial airline flight over the Arctic takes place.
- February 1947. The Soviet Union asks Norway to renegotiate the Spitzbergen Treaty of 1920 whereby the Spitzbergen archipelago was placed under Norwegian sovereignty.
- 1941-1945. The Western powers send supplies to the Soviet Union by sea through Arctic waters.
- March 1942. Soviet submarines sink German ships in Arctic Ocean.
- March 1938. Soviet explorers push into the Arctic, engaging in an intensive effort to develop coal deposits.
- September 1935. A Soviet expedition, engaged on a search for a warm water passage through the Arctic, finds a new island.
- August 1934. Air travel opens up the Canadian Arctic.
- December 1933. Important archaeological discoveries are made on the northern coast of Siberia.
- September 1932. A new chain of islands in the Arctic is discovered by a Soviet expedition.
