Saturday 16 August 2025Before the Wire, which starts 26 October 2026History sectionBack to the front page
30 entries in 7 eras.
This week in history, 12 November
1942
On 12 November 1942 a lifeboat from the British steamer Chulmleigh, wrecked on a reef off Sørkapp, was thrown ashore at Kapp Linné, at the mouth of Isfjorden; nine of its men were found alive there by a Norwegian patrol on 2 January 1943. On 14 November a lifeboat from the Soviet steamer Dekabrist landed on Hopen, where four of its crew lived through the winter.
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1596 to 1850
3 entries.
1596
The Dutchman Willem Barentsz discovered Spitsbergen in 1596. He named the land after the sharp, jagged peaks he saw. The name Svalbard is older and appears in Icelandic annals for 1194.
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1607
Only when the Englishman Henry Hudson came to Svalbard in 1607 did people notice the hunting possibilities. English, Dutch, German, French, Danish and Norwegian vessels joined in, and there were several armed clashes between ships from different countries.
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1610
The English whaler Jonas Poole found coal deposits in the Ny-Ålesund area in 1610. Mining there did not begin until 1916.
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1715 to 1926
4 entries.
1715
Russian fur trappers overwintered on Svalbard from the early eighteenth century: Store norske leksikon gives 1704 in one article and 1715 in another. Their hunting faded out around 1850, while Norwegian sealing vessels and wintering expeditions carried on.
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1795
The first Norwegian wintering hunting expedition to Svalbard is held to have taken place in 1795 and 1796. Hunting only got properly under way about twenty-five years later.
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1827
The geologist B. M. Keilhau carried out the first Norwegian scientific expedition to Svalbard in 1827.
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1926
In the 1920s Ny-Ålesund was at the centre of international attention because of expeditions towards the North Pole. The Amundsen, Ellsworth and Nobile flight with the airship Norge started from there in 1926. The mast built for the airship expedition still stands and is counted among the settlement's important cultural monuments.
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1905 to 1989
6 entries.
1905
Longyearbyen was laid out in 1905 by the American company Arctic Coal Co. It was first called Longyear City, after the company founder John Munro Longyear.
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1916
Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani was founded in 1916 and took over the properties of the American Arctic Coal Company at Adventfjorden and Sassenfjorden. In 1934 it also took over Swedish property at Van Mijenfjorden, including Sveagruva.
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1920
A large accident in Mine 1 on 3 January 1920 was marked a hundred years later, in 2020.
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1962
On 5 November 1962 an explosion in the coal mine at Ny-Ålesund, on the south side of Kongsfjorden on Spitsbergen, killed the whole shift of 21 men. Mining at Ny-Ålesund stopped for good the following year, and criticism of conditions at the state-owned company brought down the Gerhardsen government.
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1973
On 15 November 1973 Norway, Denmark, Canada and the United States signed the international agreement on the conservation of polar bears in Oslo, at the end of a three-day conference of the five Arctic states; the Soviet Union signed later. Under the agreement polar bear hunting on Svalbard became unlawful.
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1989
For a long time Longyearbyen was a company town, where the mining company ran most of the activity and the infrastructure. In 1989 the typical community services were split off into their own companies.
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1920 to 1935
4 entries.
1920
The Svalbard Treaty was concluded on 9 February 1920. Negotiations had begun in Paris in 1919 on Norwegian initiative, as part of the peace settlement after the First World War. Before that, Svalbard had been no man's land.
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1925
Norway formally took over sovereignty on 14 August 1925. Of 74 reported property claims, 40 were approved, spread over 17 companies and private persons, covering 4223 square kilometres.
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1932
The Dutch owners sold Barentsburg to the Soviet state company Arktikugol in 1932. That autumn the steamer Tawaritsch Stalin, bringing workers and machinery for the Soviet mine, ran aground at the mouth of Isfjorden and was pulled off by a Soviet ship and British trawlers.
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1935
The Soviet government said in 1924 that it had no objection to Norwegian sovereignty, and the Soviet Union formally joined the treaty in 1935. Citizens of all member countries are guaranteed equal treatment in economic activity on the islands.
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1941 to 1946
4 entries.
1941
The Norwegian and Soviet mines were put out of operation in the summer of 1941 and the population was evacuated, the Russians to Arkhangelsk and the Norwegians to Scotland. The Germans kept a small force in Longyearbyen until it was evacuated in July 1942.
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1942
On 12 November 1942 a lifeboat from the British steamer Chulmleigh, wrecked on a reef off Sørkapp, was thrown ashore at Kapp Linné, at the mouth of Isfjorden; nine of its men were found alive there by a Norwegian patrol on 2 January 1943. On 14 November a lifeboat from the Soviet steamer Dekabrist landed on Hopen, where four of its crew lived through the winter.
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1943
In September 1943 the Germans carried out a large raid on Svalbard with a fleet led by the battleships Tirpitz and Scharnhorst. Barentsburg, Longyearbyen and Grumantbyen were nearly completely razed.
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1946
After the war everything was rebuilt and production resumed in 1946.
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1975 to 2002
3 entries.
1975
Before 1975 Svalbard and Longyearbyen were linked to the mainland by boat for up to seven months of the year. Svalbard Airport opened in 1975 at Hotellneset, west of the town.
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1993
University studies on Svalbard, UNIS, were established in 1993. It is the world's northernmost institution for education and research.
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2002
Longyearbyen lokalstyre was established on 1 January 2002. By then many of the tasks the coal company once handled had passed to other bodies.
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2015 to 2025
6 entries.
2015
On 19 December 2015 a large avalanche from Sukkertoppen hit ten houses in Longyearbyen and killed two people.
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2019
After avalanches in December 2015 and February 2017 it was clear that housing low in Longyeardalen is exposed. Building of a new housing area in Gruvedalen began in 2018, and in December 2019 the demolition of 140 homes in the exposed area started.
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2020
The last mine at Sveagruva, Svea Nord, was closed on 4 March 2020. A large clean-up has since returned Sveagruva to a near natural state.
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2023
From mid October 2023 the local power plant in Longyearbyen changed from coal to diesel, as a temporary measure until a greener energy source is decided. In the same month the local newspaper, published weekly since 1948, became a monthly paper with a web edition.
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2025
Mine 7 near Longyearbyen, the last Norwegian coal mine, was closed on 30 June 2025. Store Norske then turned to property, logistics and energy.
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2017
On 26 October 2017 a Russian helicopter crashed in Isfjorden on its way in to Kapp Heer, and all eight on board died. The town of Barentsburg was deeply marked by it.
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Svalbard 
