Chat with our AI personalities
Seward's Icebox was a derisive term used in reference to Secretary of State William Seward's purchase of the Alaska Territory.
Thomas Elkins was an African American inventor from Albany, New York. It is not clear when he died but he was born in the 1800s.
Holland (New York, named after the Duke of York was originally named New Amsterdam after Amsterdam, Holland) Spain - laid claim to parts of what is now California & Florida Great Brittain - The original 13 colonies were all Brittish Germany - large parts of what is now Pennsylvania If you're talking about "North America" you can add France, whose influence in Quebec, Canada is obvious. Russia originally owned Alaska, until they sold it to the U.S. (It was a deal consummated by the secretary of state whose name was Seward and it was called Sewards Folly because everyone thought it was worthless, until not only Gold but Oil was discovered there.)
He didn't sale anything to the US, he made a purchase, which at the time was called 'Sewards Folly'. Seward was a Presidential hopeful before the US Civil War, and became Lincoln's secretary of state, for the duration of the war. He as well as Linclon, the Vice President, Andrew Johnson (who succeeded Lincoln, and was later impeached), were also targets of John Wilkes Boothe's & C.'s assassination plot in which Lincoln was shot at Ford's theatre 14 April 1865. Seward served as secretary of state for Johnson, and in 1867 purchased the entire geographic region, which was to become the 49th state of the union, Alaska, from Russia for $7.2 million ($119 million in 2014 $'s)