The United States purchases Alaska for $7.2 million or less than 2 cents an acre from Russia

As the United States was trying to recover and rebuild after the Civil War, Russia offered to sell the Alaskan territory to the US.  Since America already had an abundance of underpopulated land, this was extremely unpopular until gold was discovered in the Klondike.  Even though the treaty was negotiated  in March, 1967 it took a year for the House of Representatives to authorize the funding.  The Treaty of Cession was signed by the Tsar and President.