Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Alaska Statehood, 1959

On January 3, 1959, the President of the United States signed the following statement, using several pens.

"The procedural requirements imposed by the Congress on the State of Alaska to entitle that state to admission into the Union have been complied with in all respects, and that admission of the State of Alaska into the Union on an equal footing with the other States of the Union is accomplished."

Alaska thus became the 49th state of the United States and a new flag was unveiled, soon to become obsolete when Hawaii became a state a few years a later. This occured on my second birthday. I was born in the territory of Anchorage, Alaska in 1957.

5 comments:

Susan said...

Happy Birthday!

I have a "famous" birth-date too:

my birthday was the day on which it was said,

"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

-Susan

Douglas Groothuis, Ph.D. said...

Suzi: I have been an curmudgeon most of my life--even before I learned the meaning of the term. Another apt word for it (and me) is contrarian. I like the ring of it.

BJS said...

I have the same birth date (April 12th) as David Letterman -- something I have always enjoyed. And 1979 was a great year, Becky -- a truly great year.

Ted M. Gossard said...

I work at RBC ministries, home of the "Our Daily Bread". So I figure I can have a kind of "Our Daily Bread" tombstone, since I was born the same month and year, April 56, of the first ODB.

Happy Birthday.

Ted

Unknown said...

Hawaii was admitted to the Union the same year as Alaska, not a few years later.