Step 1 : Introduction to the question "Who was the first U.S. president to preside over all 50 states?"
On this day in 1959, President Eisenhower signed an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union. Before the Second World War, the United States was a 48 state nation with some territories including Alaska and Hawaii. The United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 while Hawaii was a republic which ceded itself to the United States. Both of these territories attained statehood in 1959 (with Hawaii being the last to gain statehood) thus making Dwight Eisenhower the first American President to preside over the fifty states.
