ICR co-founder Mr. Joseph Henri emceed a luncheon in celebration of the 60th anniversary of Alaska’s statehood. The January 3rd event at the 49th State Brewing Company in Anchorage was co-hosted by the InterContinental Railway, the Alaska World Affairs Council, Alaska Village Initiatives, and Commonwealth North.
Featured guest Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer praised Alaska’s achievements thus far: “Alaska has been blessed during the last 60 years because of our resources,” he declared, citing many examples of the state’s successes in the oil, gas, mining and fishing industries. “Our next sixty years as a state will be whatever we want as long as we visualise, dream, insist and demand on moving forward as a state and prospering as a state, together we will do that.”
Then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Alaska Statehood Act in July 1958, and the state officially entered the Union on January 3, 1959. Governor Mike Dunleavy signed a statehood proclamation in celebration of the diamond anniversary.
The Alaska flag designed by 13-year-old Benny Benson of Seward, Alaska was adopted on July 9, 1927. It was selected from roughly 700 entries in a 1927 competition of Alaskan schoolchildren.