The Department of Alaska was the designation for the government of Alaska from its purchase by the United States of America in 1867 until its organization as the District of Alaska in 1884. Alaska celebrates the purchase each year on the last Monday of March, which is known as Seward's Day. In 1865, Western Union decided to lay a telegraph line across Alaska to Bering Strait where it would connect with an Asian line. That same year, 1866, workers finally succeeded in laying an Atlantic undersea telegraph cable.