If you were to pick a U.S. state you think people generally know little to nothing about, which one comes to mind?  If you're like me, Alaska, which became the 49th state in 1959, is a sure contender. Alaska is derived from the Aleut word "alyeska," which stands for "great land." On this day in 1867, the United States formally took possession of what became the largest state in the country after buying the territory from Russia for $7.2 million. Most people assume Texas is the largest U.S. state, but Alaska is roughly twice the size of the Lone Star State in area and about one-fifth the size of the contiguous 48 states combined. So why would Russia want to sell its Alaska territory in the first place? For starters, it was remote, sparsely populated, and hard to defend. Russia preferred selling it to the United States than risk losing it in battle with a rival like Great Britain. Negotiations between secretary of state William Seward and the Russian m...

If you were a collector of any item -- be it coins, paintings, or china -- how much would you be willing to fork over for one at auction? What about if you were a very wealthy collector? Dozens of rare documents from periods spanning 200 years of American history just went up for auction, with historical artifacts and original manuscripts fetching millions of dollars each. Among them were original copies of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment -- marking the first time the pair have been sold at the same time. The Emancipation Proclamation sold for a whopping $2.17 million and the 13th Amendment sold for a massive  $2.41 million . They are each among a handful of original copies that still exist and are being held in private hands. What's more, they each bear the original signatures of Abraham Lincoln, Secretary of State William Seward, and other prominent men of the day. Lincoln originally issued the order abolishing slavery in 1863, but the copy just...