United States officially takes possession of Alaska 1867

Russia had established a presence in Alaska during the first half of the 18th century and had skirmishes with the indigenous Tlingit people already there.  So I guess that gave them the right to sell it?  Czar Alexander II sought to unload the territory for some quick cash and found a buyer in US Secretary of State William Seward.  Czar Alex also considered Alaska to be difficult to defend in case the United Kingdom attacked.  

A price was agreed upon on March 30, 1867 at a price of $7.2M.  The treaty became effective October 18, 1867.  Alaska became a state in 1959. 

Marie Curie, 2 x Nobel prize winner, born 1867

Marie Curie, born November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland, is still the first woman to win a Nobel prize, the first person (and only woman) to win TWO Nobel prizes and the ONLY person to win a Nobel prize in two different categories!

Although she studied and worked in France, she remained loyal to her home country of Poland and named the first chemical element she discovered 'polonium' after it.

She shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband Pierre for their work in radiation research. 

Her husband died in a tragic road accident in 1906, which devastated her, but the University of Paris where Pierre taught decided to offer his chair to Marie.  She accepted and became the first woman to teach at the university.

In 1911, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work in discovering and isolating the elements polonium and radium.

Due to her long exposure to radiation, Marie Curie contracted leukemia and passed away in 1934.