January 3 in American History
Nearly a century after "Seward's Folly" bought it from Russia, Alaska joined the Union as the 49th state — vast, wild, and strategically vital, sitting a few miles from Russia across the Bering Strait. The frozen "waste" everyone had mocked became one of the country's richest and most important states.
In 1959: Alaska becomes the 49th state. Nearly a century after "Seward's Folly" bought it from Russia, Alaska joined the Union as the 49th state — vast, wild, and strategically vital, sitting a few miles from Russia across the Bering Strait.
Nearly a century after "Seward's Folly" bought it from Russia, Alaska joined the Union as the 49th state — vast, wild, and strategically vital, sitting a few miles from Russia across the Bering Strait. The frozen "waste" everyone had mocked became one of the country's richest and most important states.
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