Alaska You About It Later
A state fact that has nothing to do with geography.
Howdy! Joey here, back for more Fun Fact Friyay. We’re heading up to the U.S.’s northernmost state for this fact, but you can enjoy it from the comfort of your computer.
Alaska is the only U.S. state where all the letters are in the same row on a keyboard.
I’m a big fan of U.S. trivia where a particular state is the only one with a particular attribute. We’ve covered how Maine is the lone U.S. state with one syllable. Now we’re heading across the entire continent.
Surely you’ve typed the names of at least some states on your keyboard — perhaps all of them if you’ve played this Sporcle quiz. But maybe your fingers were on autopilot, and you didn’t realize this quirk.
To be clear, this fact is true for QWERTY keyboards. If you have a super weird keyboard, then you may experience a different result. And if you do have a super weird keyboard, please let me know. I’m curious how they feel.
Beyond the keyboard chaos, Alaska has several unique attributes. Here are a few standouts:
The largest earthquake in North American history occurred in Alaska on March 27, 1964. It registered a 9.2 magnitude and lasted for about 4.5 minutes, or roughly the length of the album version of Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own.”
With 33,904 miles of shoreline, Alaska has more than a third of the entire country’s shoreline mileage.
Alaska somehow has a hold on the northernmost (Point Barrow), easternmost (Pochnoi Point), and westernmost (Amatignak Island) points in the United States.
The next time you need to tickle the keys to type up Alaska, give a little nod of appreciation that you don’t have to strain your wrists nearly as much as you do with every other state.