Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th and 50th states of the USA only after world war two. What was their sovereign status before that? ALASKA was a Russian colony from 1744 until the USA bought it in 1867 for $7,200,000. It was made a state in 1959. Hawaii was a kingdom until 1893 and became a republic in 1894. It then ceded itself to the USA in 1898 and became a state in 1959. Kyra Ings, Devizes, Wiltshire (dmi@praxis.co.uk) IMMEDIATELY before Hawaii achieved statehood in 1959, it was a Territory of the US.