Also on this day

1939:

Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President Kennedy, is born.

1963:

Felicette, a stray cat, right, becomes the first feline in space.

ambassador entered into negotiations with US Secretary of State William Seward.

Seward had already had his eye on Alaska for a long time, appreciating it would increase the size of the US be nearly 20 per cent. He managed to convince the Senate and a treaty was signed in the early hours of March 30, 1867. But although the new land was twice the size of Texas, the deal was met with some scorn. Alaska was described as Seward’s Folly, Seward’s Icebox and Walrussia.

Towards the end of the century, however, gold was discovered in Canada’s Yukon. Alaska’s coast on the far west of America became the easiest path for prospectors to reach the new fields.

As the 20th century progressed, its strategic value became even more obvious. Big Diomede Island, in the Bering Strait, is the easternmost point of Russia. It is just 2.4 miles from America’s Little Diomede Island – and during winter, an ice bridge often joins the two, making it theoretically possible, although inadvisable, to walk from America to Russia.

Alaska became a Territory in 1912, and the 49th state, the largest of them all, in 1959.

Fewer than 10 years later, oil was discovered in Prudhoe Bay in the far north of the state, making Seward’s Folly appear better value than ever.