Alaska trivia

Dana did it with New Jersey..my turn. ;) Haha

# Outsiders first discovered Alaska in 1741 when Danish explorer Vitus Jonassen Bering sighted it on a voyage from Siberia.
# Russian whalers and fur traders on Kodiak Island established the first settlement in Alaska in 1784.
# In 1867 United States Secretary of State William H. Seward offered Russia $7,200,000, or two cents per acre, for Alaska.
# On October 18, 1867 Alaska officially became the property of the United States. Many Americans called the purchase "Seward's Folly."
# Joe Juneau's 1880 discovery of gold ushered in the gold rush era.
# In 1943 Japan invaded the Aleutian Islands, which started the One Thousand Mile War, the first battle fought on American soil since the Civil War.
# Alaska officially became the 49th state on January 3, 1959.
# Alaska's most important revenue source is the oil and natural gas industry.
# Alaska accounts for 25% of the oil produced in the United States.
# The state of Rhode Island could fit into Alaska 425 times.
# Prudhoe Bay, on the northern Alaskan coast, is North America's largest oil field.
# The Trans-Alaska Pipeline moves up to 88,000 barrels of oil per hour on its 800 mile journey to Valdez.
# The fishing and seafood industry is the state's largest private industry employer.
# Most of America's salmon, crab, halibut, and herring come from Alaska.
# The term Alaska native refers to Alaska's original inhabitants including Aleut, Eskimo and Indian groups.
# The wild forget-me-not is the official state flower. The Territorial Legislature adopted it in 1917.
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Borough: The state's unit of regional government, similar to a county but said to be better, for reasons that aren't too clear