Explore the Answers to This History of Alaska Quiz

Pearl Harbor may be the best-known World War II battle involving the U.S., but only one fight actually took place on U.S. soil. In 1942, Japanese forces attacked Alaska's Aleutian Islands over the course of four days. Nearly a year later, 12,500 soldiers landed to take back the islands in what is known as the Battle of Attu. The skirmish lasted just 18 days but was one of the deadliest in the Pacific.

Located entirely above the Arctic Circle, Gates of the Arctic isn’t like any other national park. As it has no roads or trails, visitors need to fly or hike into the park, which features just a small visitor’s center signaling your arrival. Nature writer Bob Marshall's descriptions of the area inspired the National Park Service to establish the park in 1980.

For more than 60 years, Alaska has played host to its own Olympics — one that celebrates traditional games that have been played for generations by the region’s Indigenous peoples. The event was founded after two commercial pilots witnessed ad hoc competitions and offered to fly participants to gather for a more formal competition. Today, it consists of nearly two dozen events.

He might be best known for painting “happy trees,” but Bob Ross saw his share of wintry landscapes after serving the better part of two decades in the United States Air Force just outside Anchorage, Alaska. It was actually Ross’ time in the Air Force that led to his painting career. He attended a free class at the USO and quickly fell in love with the art form, often painting the natural landscapes around him.

The 1964 Good Friday earthquake in Alaska was the largest earthquake ever recorded in the U.S. and the second-largest recorded globally. The quake hit 9.2 on the Richter scale and lasted 4.5 minutes. This seismic shift also led to multiple tsunamis that battered coastal towns such as Valdez and Kodiak, as well as landslides that impacted the city of Anchorage.

Most U.S. territories didn't have their own flags until they became states, but Alaska was an exception. In 1926, the territory sponsored a competition to create its flag. The winning design was submitted by a 13-year-old boy named Benny Benson. It featured a dark blue backdrop to represent the Alaskan sky, as well as Ursa Major, or the Great Bear, a constellation featuring the North Star.

One hundred years after Alaska was purchased from Russia, and less than a decade after joining the U.S., Alaska adopted a state motto: “North to the Future.” The tagline, coined by a Juneau journalist, was meant to represent the bright future and promise of Alaska after a century of being under American domain.

When U.S. Secretary of State William Seward bought Alaska from a financially struggling Russia in 1867, the decision was dubbed “Seward’s Folly,” or “Seward’s Icebox.” Many derided the move, thinking Alaska was nothing but a frozen wasteland — an assumption proven false when vast reserves of gold and oil were discovered within the following century.

Despite being an area associated with snow and ice, Alaska also has the most volcanoes of any U.S. state — an impressive 141 (next to California's 18). Most of these volcanoes are located far from inhabited areas, but they still have an impact. The largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century took place in June 1912 at Novarupta. It lasted three days and created the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes in Katmai National Park.

Alaska became the 49th U.S. state in 1959, with President Dwight D. Eisenhower's signature. Eisenhower had supported Alaskan statehood early in his administration, but given the tensions of the Cold War, had concerns about Alaska's close proximity to Russia (it’s just 55 miles away at the narrowest point). Ultimately, this very proximity became a selling point for making Alaska a state: It was well-positioned if the need to defend the U.S. arose.

Thousands of prospectors flooded Alaska starting in 1898, after gold was found in the town of Nome, and three years later, in Fairbanks. The migration became known as the Klondike Gold Rush, or Yukon Gold Rush. While many stampeders didn't end up making it rich, they did stick around, changing the landscape and population of Alaska forever.

The 1,100-mile husky and musher Iditarod race will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2023, but its roots go back to the early 1900s. The trail largely follows the same dogsled mail route that miners used during the Alaska gold rush at the end of the 19th century. Earlier still, Indigenous peoples in the region used the route for hunting for thousands of years, with dogs at their side then, too.

When the U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, it took over the territory formerly known as “Russian Alaska.” The name “Alaska” stems from the local Unangan people who already lived in the region, adapted from the word “Alyeska,” meaning “great land.” The U.S. government kept the name, but dropped the Russian title of ownership.

It was only in 2016 that the 20,310-foot-high mountain formerly known as Mount McKinley was renamed Denali, after the Koyukon word “deenaalee,” roughly translated as “the tall one.” The mountain was originally nicknamed by gold prospectors after the U.S. President at the time, William McKinley.