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: 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, and 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 along with other Spanish colonies under the terms of the Treaty of Paris.

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: Kentucky (/ kənˈtʌki / (listen), kən - TUCK - ee), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state located in the east south - central region of the United States. Although styled as the ``State of Kentucky ''in the law creating it, Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth (the others being Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts). Originally a part of Virginia, in 1792 Kentucky became the 15th state to join the Union. Kentucky is the 37th most extensive and the 26th most populous of the 50 United States.

paragraph_text: The Contract with America was a document released by the United States Republican Party during the 1994 Congressional election campaign. Written by Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey, and in part using text from former President Ronald Reagan's 1985 State of the Union Address, the Contract detailed the actions the Republicans promised to take if they became the majority party in the United States House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. Many of the Contract's policy ideas originated at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

paragraph_text: The Rummagers League was the final name of a small communist group that existed in the United States from 1919 to 1920.

paragraph_text: The Weepecket Islands are a group of three islands which are part of the Elizabeth Islands of Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. They are located off the north shore of Naushon Island, the largest of the Elizabeth Islands. Together the three Weepeckets have a land area of 0.051 km (0.02 sq mi, or 12.6 acres). The islands were used as practice target for bombs, rockets, and machine guns from 1941 to 1957. There are no signs on the islands anymore due to a bonfire in the summer of 2005.

paragraph_text: Spectacle Island is a privately owned island off Bar Harbor in Maine, United States. It is 4 acre-wide. It is owned by Ashley Longmaid. , it is the world's ninth most expensive island. It is part of the Town of Winter Harbor, in Hancock County.

paragraph_text: On October 1, 2015, the entire first season of Scream became available to stream instantly on Netflix worldwide except in the United States. On May 13, 2016, the first season of Scream became available on Netflix in the United States. The streaming service started to broadcast the second season weekly on May 31, 2016, with a one - day delay with respect to the original United States broadcast. On September 30, 2016, the second season of Scream became available on Netflix in the United States.

paragraph_text: Interracial marriage is a form of marriage outside a specific social group (exogamy) involving spouses who belong to different socially - defined races or racialized ethnicities. In the past, it was outlawed in the United States of America and in South Africa as miscegenation. It became legal in the entire United States in 1967 when the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in the case Loving v. Virginia that race - based restrictions on marriages violated the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution.

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: Millican is a town in Brazos County, Texas, United States. The population was 240 at the 2010 census, up from 108 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Bryan–College Station metropolitan area. Millican is named after Robert Millican, the first white settler of the region that would come to be known as Brazos County.

paragraph_text: Kayjay is an unincorporated community located in Knox County, Kentucky, United States. Its name comes from the initials of the Kentucky-Jellico Coal Company.

paragraph_text: Ivy Mike was the codename given to the first test of a full - scale thermonuclear device, in which part of the explosive yield comes from nuclear fusion. It was detonated on November 1, 1952 by the United States on the island of Elugelab in Enewetak Atoll, in the Pacific Ocean, as part of Operation Ivy. It was the first full test of the Teller -- Ulam design, a staged fusion device.

paragraph_text: The plant is endemic to the Channel Islands of California off the Southern California coast (United States), and to Guadalupe Island off the western coast of Baja California state (Mexico).

paragraph_text: Duncan's Retreat is a ghost town located just off Utah State Route 9 in the eastern part of Washington County, in southwestern Utah, United States. Lying some east of Virgin and just southwest of Zion National Park, Duncan's Retreat was inhabited about 1861–1895.

paragraph_text: Coates Rocks () are a small group of rocks in the northwest part of Evans Neve, at the south side of the Freyberg Mountains, Victoria Land, Antarctica. The group was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from surveys and from U.S. Navy air photos 1960–64, and named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Donald A. Coates, United States Antarctic Research Program geologist at Hallett Station, summer 1964–65, and McMurdo Station, Hut Point Peninsula, Ross Island, 1966–67. These rocks are situated on the Pennell Coast, a portion of Antarctica lying between Cape Williams and Cape Adare.

paragraph_text: The Appointments Clause is part of Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, which empowers the President of the United States to nominate, and with the advice and consent (confirmation) of the United States Senate, appoint public officials. Although the Senate must confirm certain ``principal ''officers (including ambassadors, Cabinet secretaries, and federal judges), Congress may by law delegate the Senate's advice and consent role when it comes to`` inferior'' officers (to the President alone, or the courts of law, or the heads of departments).

paragraph_text: Pomponio State Beach is a state beach of California in the United States. It is located south of Half Moon Bay off California State Route 1.

paragraph_text: Montgomery is a town in Franklin County, Vermont, United States. The population as of the 2010 census was 1,201, up from 992 in 2000. In 1963, part of Avery's Gore in Franklin County became part of Montgomery, with the other section becoming part of Belvidere in Lamoille County.

Question: When did the region, that the groups in The Sing-Off who weren't from the US came from, become a part of the United States?
Answer: 1898