Famous People from Alaska

Alaska Biographies, Famous People from Alaska

Alexander McGillivray

Aleksandr Andreyevich Baranov (1746 - 1819) A fur trader from Russia who became the first governor of Russian America and founded present-day Sitka.
E. L. Bob Bartlett (1904 - 1968) Congressman for Alaska that fought for Alaskan statehood; grew up in Fairbanks.
Benny Benson, designed state flag at age 13.
Vitus Jonassen Bering (1681 - 1741) Navigator that explored Alaska for Russia and discovered that Siberia and North America were separate continents.
Susan Butcher (1956 - ) 4-time winner of Iditarod Trail race (1986-88,90); lives near Eureka.
William Allen Egan (1914 - 1984) He was the first governor of Alaska; born in Valdez.
Jewel (1974 - ) Singer and musician
Carl Ben Eielson (1897 - 1929) This pilot made the first Alaska airmail flight in 1924.
Elizabeth Wanamaker Peratrovich (1911 - 1958) A Native Alaskan who fought for Native rights in Alaska. She gave a speech in 1945 to the state legislature that led to a law banning discrimination against Natives; born in Petersburg.
Libby Riddles (1956 - ) The first woman to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in 1985.
Leonhard Seppala (1877 - 1966) Dogsled racer who rushed medicine to Nome in 1925 and helped to prevent a diphtheria epidemic.

More Famous People of Alaska

Margaret Elizabeth Bell author
Benny Benson designed state flag at age 13, Chignik
Charles E. Bunnell educator
Henry E. Gruennig political leader
B. Frank Heintzleman territorial governor
Walter J. Hickel former governor
Sheldon Jackson educator and missionary, Minaville, NY
Joe Juneau prospector
Austin Lathrop industrialist
Sydney Lawrence painter
John Griffith (Jack) London author, San Francisco, CA
Ray Mala actor
John Muir naturalist, explorer, Scotland
Virgil F. Partch cartoonist
Joe Redington, Sr. sled-dog musher and promoter

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