CLEP US History II

Answer: B - Alaska was admitted as the 49th state on January 3, 1959. The Alaska Territory was acquired from Russia for two cents an acre in 1867 in an event that became known as “Seward’s Folly,” so named for Secretary of State William Seward, who orchestrated the purchase. Appreciation for the area increased immensely in 1897, when gold was discovered in the Yukon, inspiring the Klondike Gold Rush. The United States reached its present complement of fifty states later in 1959, when Hawaii was admitted to the nation.