. >> it was actually a 13-year-old orphan named benny benson who submitted the winning design.s a territory-wide flag contest -- alaska wasn't even a state yet -- and they got all sorts of wonderful entries with polar bears and everything else you'd relate to alaska -- eskimo images, those sorts of things. but he simply went with the big dipper, which is a part of ursa, the great bear, because he saw strength in the people in alaska. and then he also included the north star because whether it was his foresight, his hope, whatever it might be, he saw that someday, alaska would be, or he hoped it would be, the northernmost of the united states. >> his hope became a reality in 1959, when alaska became our 49th state. today, alaska remains our nation's largest state, geographically, but our smallest in terms of population. with "flag facts," i'm brandon. >> is your radio collecting dust in a corner? does your mp3 player recycle the same boring songs over and over? then you'll definitely want to listen to this week's "click this." pandora.com is an online radio station that takes yo