paragraph_text: The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah, the 45th state.

paragraph_text: The Ottawa Islands (Inuit: "Arviliit") are a group of uninhabited islands situated in the eastern edge of Canada's Hudson Bay. The group comprises 24 small islands, located at approximately 60N 80W. The main islands include Booth Island, Bronson Island, Eddy Island, Gilmour Island, J. Gordon Island, Pattee Island, and Perley Island. The highest point is on Gilmour Island, which rises to over . Located a short distance off the northwest coast of Quebec's Ungava Peninsula, they, like the other coastal islands in Hudson Bay, were historically part of the Northwest Territories, and became part of the territory of Nunavut upon its creation in 1999.

paragraph_text: Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions directly overseen by the United States Federal Government. Unlike U.S. states and Native American tribes which exercise limited sovereignty alongside the federal government, territories are without sovereignty. The territories are classified by whether they are incorporated and whether they have an ``organized ''government through an Organic Act passed by the U.S. Congress.

paragraph_text: Alvin and the Chipmunks, originally David Seville and the Chipmunks or simply The Chipmunks, is an American animated music group created by Ross Bagdasarian Sr. for a novelty record in 1958. The group consists of three singing animated anthropomorphic chipmunks: Alvin, the mischievous troublemaker, who quickly became the star of the group; Simon, the tall, bespectacled intellectual; and Theodore (Jessica), the chubby, impressionable one. The trio is managed by their human adoptive father, David (Dave) Seville. In reality, ``David Seville ''was Bagdasarian's stage name, and the Chipmunks themselves are named after the executives of their original record label. The characters became a success, and the singing Chipmunks and their manager were given life in several animated cartoon productions, using redrawn, anthropomorphic chipmunks, and eventually films.

paragraph_text: "Leavin" is a song by American R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné! It was released on April 12, 1994, as the fourth single from their 1993 album "Sons of Soul". The optimistic, upbeat song features turntable scratches and a sample of A Tribe Called Quest's 1990 song "If the Papes Come". Music critics found the song's style and group member Raphael Wiggins' singing reminiscent of Smokey Robinson.

paragraph_text: The California Gold Rush (1848 -- 1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. The sudden influx of immigration and gold into the money supply reinvigorated the American economy, and California became one of the few American states to go directly to statehood without first being a territory, in the Compromise of 1850. The Gold Rush had severe effects on Native Californians and resulted in a precipitous population decline from disease, genocide and starvation. By the time it ended, California had gone from a thinly populated ex-Mexican territory, to the home state of the first presidential nominee for the new Republican Party, in 1856.

paragraph_text: Stevens Thomson Mason (October 27, 1811January 4, 1843) was an American politician who served as the first Governor of Michigan from 1835 to 1840. Coming to political prominence at an early age, Mason was appointed his territory's acting Territorial Secretary by Andrew Jackson at 19, becoming the acting territorial governor soon thereafter in 1834 at 22. As territorial governor, Mason was instrumental in guiding Michigan to statehood, which was secured in 1837. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected as Michigan's first state governor in 1835, where he served until 1840. Elected at 23 and taking office at 24, Mason was and remains the youngest state governor in American history.

paragraph_text: The Territory of Alabama (sometimes Alabama Territory) was an organized incorporated territory of the United States. The Alabama Territory was carved from the Mississippi Territory on August 15, 1817 and lasted until December 14, 1819, when it was admitted to the Union as the twenty-second state.

paragraph_text: "Sad Lookin' Moon" is a song written by Randy Owen, Teddy Gentry and Greg Fowler, and recorded by American country music group Alabama. It was released in February 1997 as the lead-off single from the album "Dancin' on the Boulevard". It peaked at number 2 in the United States, while it was a number-one hit in Canada.

paragraph_text: Increased interest in modern a cappella (particularly collegiate a cappella) can be seen in the growth of awards such as the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards (overseen by the Contemporary A Cappella Society) and competitions such as the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella for college groups and the Harmony Sweepstakes for all groups. In December 2009, a new television competition series called The Sing-Off aired on NBC. The show featured eight a cappella groups from the United States and Puerto Rico vying for the prize of $100,000 and a recording contract with Epic Records/Sony Music. The show was judged by Ben Folds, Shawn Stockman, and Nicole Scherzinger and was won by an all-male group from Puerto Rico called Nota. The show returned for a second and third season, won by Committed and Pentatonix, respectively.

paragraph_text: The Softones are an American male singing group from the city of Baltimore, Maryland, best known for their 'sweet' soul recordings of the 1970s.

paragraph_text: The Territory of New Mexico was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed (with varying boundaries) from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912, when the remaining extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of New Mexico, making it the longest - lived organized incorporated territory of the United States, lasting approximately 62 years.

paragraph_text: Alvin and the Chipmunks, originally David Seville and the Chipmunks or simply The Chipmunks, is an American animated music group created by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., for a novelty record in 1958. The group consists of three singing animated anthropomorphic chipmunks: Alvin, the mischievous troublemaker, who quickly became the star of the group; Simon, the tall, bespectacled intellectual; and Theodore, the chubby, impressionable one. The trio is managed by their human adoptive father, David (Dave) Seville. In reality, ``David Seville ''was Bagdasarian's stage name, and the Chipmunks themselves are named after the executives of their original record label. The characters became a success, and the singing Chipmunks and their manager were given life in several animated cartoon productions, using redrawn, anthropomorphic chipmunks, and eventually films.

paragraph_text: In 1762 the region became part of Spanish Louisiana until 1802. The portion of the state east of the Mississippi River became part of the United States at the end of the American Revolutionary War, when the Second Treaty of Paris was signed. Land west of the Mississippi River was acquired with the Louisiana Purchase, although a portion of the Red River Valley was disputed until the Treaty of 1818. By the late 1700s, the North West Company had established the post of Fort Charlotte at the Lake Superior end of the Grand Portage, until moving 50 miles northeast to Fort William in 1803. In 1805, Zebulon Pike bargained with Native Americans to acquire land at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers. The construction of Fort Snelling followed between 1819 and 1825. Its soldiers built a grist mill and a sawmill at Saint Anthony Falls, the first of the water-powered industries around which the city of Minneapolis later grew. Meanwhile, squatters, government officials, and tourists had settled near the fort. In 1839, the army forced them to move downriver and they settled in the area that became St. Paul. Minnesota Territory was formed on March 3, 1849. The first territorial legislature (held September 2, 1849) was dominated by men from New England or of New England ancestry. Thousands of people had come to build farms and cut timber, and Minnesota became the 32nd U.S. state on May 11, 1858. The founding population was so overwhelmingly of New England origins that the state was dubbed "the New England of the West".

paragraph_text: Fruitcakes is the eighteenth studio album by American popular music singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett. This album was released in May 1994, coming off a five-year hiatus from the recording studio since 1989's "Off to See the Lizard".

paragraph_text: Originally populated by the indigenous Taíno people, the island was claimed in 1493 by Christopher Columbus for the Crown of Castile during his second voyage. Later it endured invasion attempts from the French, Dutch, and British. Four centuries of Spanish colonial government transformed the island's ethnic, cultural and physical landscapes primarily with waves of African slaves, Canarian, and Andalusian settlers. In the Spanish imperial imagination, Puerto Rico played a secondary, but strategic role when compared to wealthier colonies like Peru and the mainland parts of New Spain. Spain's distant administrative control continued up to the end of the 19th century, helping to produce a distinctive creole Hispanic culture and language that combined elements from the Native Americans, Africans, and Iberians. In 1898, following the Spanish -- American War, the United States acquired Puerto Rico under the terms of the Treaty of Paris.

paragraph_text: The United States Virgin Islands (USVI; also called the American Virgin Islands), officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, is a group of islands in the Caribbean and an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles.

paragraph_text: The contiguous United States consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states plus Washington, D.C. (federal district), on the continent of North America. The term excludes the non-contiguous states of Alaska and Hawaii and all off - shore United States territories and possessions, which are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

paragraph_text: The Kingdom of Hawai ʻi was sovereign from 1810 until 1893 when the monarchy was overthrown by resident American and European capitalists and landholders. Hawaii was an independent republic from 1894 until August 12, 1898, when it officially became a territory of the United States. Hawaii was admitted as a U.S. state on August 21, 1959.

paragraph_text: The California Gold Rush (1848 -- 1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. The sudden influx of immigration and gold into the money supply reinvigorated the American economy, and California became one of the few American states to go directly to statehood without first being a territory, in the Compromise of 1850. The Gold Rush had severe effects on Native Californians and resulted in a precipitous population decline from disease, genocide and starvation. By the time it ended, California had gone from a thinly populated ex-Mexican territory to the home state of the first nominee for the Republican Party.

Question: When did the country where groups not from the U.S. come from in The Sing-Off become an American territory?
Answer: 1898