Alaska cost the United States about 2 cents an acre: $7.2 million for some 1.5 million km². Critics of the deal called it 'Seward's Folly' and 'Seward's Icebox'.

1867

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The event

• Alaska Purchase1867 · Sitka (New Archangel). On 30 March 1867 Russia signed a treaty selling Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million. The territory was formally transferred on 18 October 1867 at Sitka (New Archangel).

19th century

More amazing facts

• 1865 The US paid a Civil War pension until 2020.
• 1865 Under an 1865 British law, a man with a red flag had to walk 60 yards ahead of any road locomotive.
• 1866 · 1900 The founding work of genetics went unnoticed for 34 years.
• 1867 In 1867 the map of North America changed twice: in March Russia sold Alaska to the United States, and on 1 July Canada came into being next door.
• 1868 · 1905 Only 37 years after the Meiji Restoration, when Japan was just leaving its samurai order behind, it defeated Russia in the war of 1904–1905.
• 1868 · 1964 In 1868 Japan was still ruled by a shogun and samurai carried swords.

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