Spitsbergen Timeline of Events

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Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...

Timeline of Events

1897

7.11.1897

Salomon August Andrée leaves Spitsbergen to attempt to reach the North pole by balloon. He later crashes and dies.

1996

8.29.1996

Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801, a Vnukovo Airlines Tupolev Tu-154, crashes into a mountain on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, killing all 141 aboard.

2006

6.19.2006

Prime ministers of several northern European nations participate in a ceremonial "laying of the first stone" at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Spitsbergen, Norway.