Alaska is the 49^th state in the USA; it became a state on January 3, 1959.

The word Alaska is from the Aleut Indian word "alaxsxaq" or "agunalaksh" that mean the mainland or shore.

Alaska is a large state, reaching so far to the west that the International Date Line had to be bent to keep the state all in the same day.

 It's also the only U.S. state extending into the Eastern Hemisphere. Alaska has 3 million lakes. There are more than 100,000 glaciers.

Alaska has 33,000 miles of coastline. It is the only state to have coastline on 3 different seas -- the Arctic Ocean, Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea.