Blackwell Reference Online

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On 24 February 1836, President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's 5,500 Mexicans began artillery bombardment of Colonel James Bowie and Lieutenant Colonel William Travis's garrison of 183 Texans at San Antonio's Alamo mission. On 6 March 1,100 attackers took the fortifications by storm. Texas losses: 175 killed, 8 captured (of whom 7 were murdered after surrendering and 1 Hispanic survived by claiming he had been a prisoner). Mexican losses: 1,600 killed, 500 wounded. Alaska In 1741 Vitus Bering mapped the Aleutian Islands and nearby Alaskan coastline. On 22 September 1784, Russia founded its first permanent settlement at Three Saints Bay, Kodiak Island, and first occupied the Alaska panhandle near Sitka in 1799. The Russians used Alaska primarily as a source of sea otters and other furs, which were obtained by subjecting E skimos and Aleuts to a brutal system of labor exploitation. The T lingit I ndians kept up a fierce resistance against Russian efforts to control them through the 1760s. Wishing to escape the cost of defending the colony from Tlingits and avoid its possible annexation to Canada, the Czar sold S eward's F olly to the US on 18 October 1867 for $7,200,000. Washington did not appoint a governor until 1884, when Alaska contained about 33,000 natives and 430 whites, and did not make Alaska a territory until 24 August 1912. Commercial fishing and canning then became ... log in or subscribe to read full text