Spanning over 1.7 million square kilometres, Alaska is by area (around 20% of the total) the largest state of the United States of America as well as the most northerly and the most westerly.
Parts of Alaska are also geographically the most easterly regions of the US, as the Rat and Near lslands belonging to the Aleutian Islands lie between 170°E and 180°E. The US acquired Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867; on 3 January 1959, Alaska became the 49th state of the USA.