Hawaii Timeline
300-750 AD Polynesians arrived from outrigger canoe.
1200 Polynesians from Tahiti moved to Hawaii. They gained control of the previous settlers.
1500s Spanish, Dutch, and Japanese explorers stopped at the Islands.
18 January 1778 Captain James Cook landed on the Hawaiian Islands. Cook named the Islands the Sandwich Islands.
November 1778 Cook returned to the islands.
1779 Cook was killed in a quarrel between his men and the Hawaiians.
1782 Kamehameha gained control of Hawaii Island in a ten year war, which began this year.
1786 The first trading ships began to come to the islands.
1795 Kamehameha united the other main islands except Kauai and Niihau.
1800s Many Hawaiians died of diseases brought from other parts of the world.
1810 Kauai and Niihau accepted Kamehameha's rule.
1811 Hawaii began shipping great quantities of sandalwood to China.
1819 Liholiho became king. He was called Kamehameha II.
1820 The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions sent a group of Protestant missionaries.
1827 The first Roman Catholic missionaries arrived.
1831 The Hawaiians forced the Roman Catholic priests to leave, because the considered Protestantism to be the official religion. The Hawaiians, who had become Catholic, were imprisoned.
1835 The first permanent sugar cane plantation began operating.
13 May 1835 The first foreign embassy was established in Hawaii.
July 1839 The French frigate, L'Atemise, blockaded Honolulu. Captain C. P. T. Laplace threatened to destroy the town if all the imprisoned Catholics were not freed.
1840 Hawaii adopted its first constitution.
1842 The United States recognized the Kingdom of Hawaii as an independent government.
1848 The Great Mahele, a law, divided the land of Hawaiian rulers and given to the government. The Hawaiian people were allowed to buy homesteads.
1854 People from various countries began immigrating to Hawaii.
1874 Kalakaua came to the throne. He was known as the Merry Monarch. He helped popularize Hawaiian music, the hula, and other old customs.
18 March 1874 Hawaii signed a treaty giving exclusive trading rights with the islands to the United States.
1885 Hawaii began the commercial development of pineapples.
1887 Kalakaua gave the United States exclusive rights to use Pearl Harbor as a naval base.
1891 Queen Liliuokalani became the new monarch when Kalakaua died. She tried to create a new constitution which would increase her power.
1893 Queen Liliuokalani was removed from office during a small revolution.
1894 The Republic of Hawaii was formed. Sanford B. Dole became the president of the republic.
12 August 1898 The United States annexed Hawaii.
30 April 1900 Hawaii was organized as a U.S. territory.
14 June 1900 Hawaiian natives became United States Citizens.
1917 Two Hawaiian National Guard units were called into federal Service during World War I.
1919 The first bill of statehood was introduced to Congress by Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole.
1927 The first airplane flight from the United States to mainland Hawaii took place.
1934 President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U. S. President to visit Hawaii.
7 December 1941 The Japanese bombed the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor causing the United States to enter World War II
1941-1944 Hawaii was under martial law.
1949 The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific was dedicated in Honolulu.
21 August 1959 Hawaii became the 50th state.
1960 Hawaiians voted in their first presidential election.
1960 Congress established the Center for Cultural and Technical Interchange Between East and West at the University of Hawaii.
1962 A jet-craft airport was completed in Honolulu.
1974 George Ariyoshi, the first Asian-American governor, was elected.
1987 John Waihee, the first governor of Hawaiian descent, was elected.
1992 Hurricane Iniki hit Hawaii.
1995 The last sugar plantation on the island of Hawaii closed.
3 December 1996 In Hawaii Judge Kevin Chang ruled that the state had to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples (allow gay marriages), prompting an appeal.
Works Cited
Lyndon Wester and Pauline N. King. "Hawaii." Worldbookonline.com.
Oda P. J. The History of Hawaii. http://www.lava.net/~poda/history.html.
Ratnikas, Algis. Today in History. Online. http://timelines.ws/TODAY.HTML.