Hawaii: A Historical Timeline

Prior to 1600 Pre-European Exploration
300- 900	The first Polynesians arrive by outrigger canoe. The first island inhabitants are the Menehune, who come over 2,000 miles from the Marquesas Islands north of Tahiti.
1100	More Polynesian migration to the Hawaiian Islands from the Society Islands.
1627-1794 Early European Exploration
1627	Spanish sailors visit Hawaii and describe volcanic eruptions in their ship's log.
1778	(January 18) Captain James Cook of the British Navy lands at Waimea Bay on Kauai while attempting to find the Northwest Passage between Alaska and Asia. He names the Hawaiian archipelago the Sandwich Islands in honor of the Earl of Sandwich.
1779	Captain Cook is killed in a dispute with Hawaiians in Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island.
1780-90	European and U.S. trading ships arrive in Hawaii on their way to trade with China. Foreign diseases begin to kill many native Hawaiians.
1789	The first Chinese arrive after jumping off an English trading ship that stops in Kauai.
1794	Hawaii is placed under the protectorate of Great Britain.
1795–1893 Kingdom of Hawaii
1795	Kamehameha becomes king and begins uniting the Hawaiian islands with the help of foreign weapons.
1810	All Hawaiian islands are united under Kamehameha's rule.
1813	The Spanish advisor to King Kamehameha introduces coffee and pineapple to the islands. Both crops will become integral to the Hawaiian agricultural industry.
1815	Russian soldiers fail in their attempt to build Fort Elizabeth on Kauai.
1816	Volcano House, a series of hotels at the edge of the Kīlauea volcano, opens to tourists on the Big Island. At the time, lodging is one dollar per person per night. King Kamehameha commissions the first Hawaiian flag. The design now serves as Hawaii's state flag.
1819	King Kamehameha I dies. His son Liholiho becomes Kamehameha II. King Kamehameha II ends the ancient kapu ("forbidden") system of taboos by eating meals with women.
1820	American traders looking for sandalwood and whales begin arriving in Hawaii. Protestant missionaries arrive from New England and begin converting many Hawaiians to Christianity.
1824	The first coffee is planted in Kona. Kona coffee would develop a reputation making it one of the most expensive and sought-after coffees in the world.
1831	Catholic missionaries that had arrived in the 1820s are forced out under threat of imprisonment.
1835	Ladd & Company founds the first sugar plantation on Kauai. Sugar plantations would become Kauai's most important industry.
1838	Ground is broken to build Honolulu's Kawaiahao Church, the first Christian church in Hawaii. Fourteen thousand coral slabs are quarried by hand from the reefs to build the main structure.
1839	Kamehameha III issues the Hawaiian Declaration of Rights. Catholics receive religious freedom.
1840	Hawaii adopts its first constitution, changing the government from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy.
1842	The First House of Representatives meets. The first classes begin at Punahou School, founded for the children of missionaries. Today it is the largest independent school in the U.S. with nearly 4,000 students.
1843	Lord George Paulet seizes Hawaii for England. However, Paulet's superior, Admiral Richard Thomas, repudiates Paulet's actions and restores the Hawaiian government.
1848	King Kamehameha III signs the Great Mahele, which allows commoners and haoles (non-Hawaiians) to own land.
1849	French admiral Legoarant de Tromelin fails in his attempt to invade Hawaii.
1850	(August 31) King Kamehameha III declares Honolulu a city.
1852	The first steam-propelled ship is used for inter-island service. The first group of indentured Chinese plantation workers arrive. Between 1852 and 1856, several thousand Chinese are brought to the plantations for work. In the 21st century, Chinese-Americans comprise about 5 percent of the Hawaiian population.
1853	A smallpox epidemic kills over 5,000 Hawaiians.
1854	King Kamehameha III dies and Kamehameha IV becomes king.
1860	Building of the Queen's Hospital, Hawaii's first, begins. The king and queen had personally fundraised door-to-door for the hospital, which is now the largest private hospital in Hawaii.
1863	Elizabeth Sinclair purchases Niihau Island from King Kamehameha IV for $10,000. King Kamehameha IV dies and Kamehameha V becomes king.
1865	The first migrant workers arrive in Hawaii from Yokohama, Japan. In the 21st century, Japanese-Americans comprise about 17 percent of the Hawaiian population. Kalaupapa Leper Settlement on the isolated peninsula of Moloka'I is established in an attempt to control the spreading of the disease. It is founded by missionary Father Damien, who eventually succumbs to leprosy himself in 1889.
1872	King Kamehameha V dies. William Lunalilo is confirmed as king after an informal popular vote by the Hawaiian Legislature.
1874	Hawaii signs a treaty with the U.S. granting it exclusive trading rights.
1876	The Reciprocity Treaty allows for duty-free importation of Hawaiian sugar cane and rice into the U.S. This promotes sugar cane plantation and rice agriculture in Hawaii instead of local staples like taro.
1877	King Kalakaua dedicates Kapiolani Park, the oldest and largest public park in Hawaii. It is named after Queen Kapiolani.
1878	Portuguese immigrants arrive on the islands. Between 1878 and 1887, about 17,500 will come to Hawaii.
1881	The first German immigrants arrive on the islands. German-Americans now represent the fourth largest ancestry group on the islands. Macadamia nuts are introduced to the islands. They will eventually become another of Hawaii's major exports.
1887	The 1887 Constitution imposes income and property requirements for voting. Only wealthy Europeans, Americans, and native Hawaiians have full voting rights. King Kalakaua gives the U.S. exclusive use of Pearl Harbor as a naval base to encourage trade between the two nations.
1891	King Kalakaua dies and Queen Liliuokalani is the only ruling queen to ever take control of the Hawaiian Islands.
1894–1959 Republic and Territory of Hawaii
1893	American colonists, controlling Hawaii's economy, overthrow the Hawaiian Kingdom to bring about the Republic of Hawaii.
1894	(July 4) The Republic of Hawaii is established. Sanford B. Dole, the cousin of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company's James Dole, is appointed president of the republic. Dole serves until 1900 and is the republic's only president. He actively lobbies Congress to secure Hawaii's annexation by the United States.
1895	Queen Liliuokalani abdicates her throne.
1900	Hawaii is annexed to the U.S. and becomes a U.S. territory. Okinawans and Puerto Ricans arrive on the islands. The Great Chinatown Fire results from fires set by the Board of Health to burn buildings infected by the bubonic plague of 1899. The fire burns for 17 days and destroys 38 acres of Honolulu. Seven thousand homeless Chinese are moved to detention camps, where they are quarantined until April 30. Critics contend the fires are racially motivated.
1901	The Hawaiian Pineapple Company (now Dole) is established. The first pineapples are planted in the Wahiawa countryside.
1903	The first major group of Korean immigrants arrives on the islands from Inchon. Upon arrival, immigrants are scattered to plantations on Oahu and the Big Island.
1907	Filipinos arrive on the islands. Between 1907 and 1931, nearly 120,000, recruited as plantation laborers, make the journey.
1919	The first large group of Samoans immigrates to the islands
1922	Prince Jonah Kalanianaole Kuhio, the last powerful member of the Hawaiian royal family, dies. James Dole buys the island of Lanai and turns it into the world's largest pineapple plantation.
1923	Dredging of the Ala Wai Canal begins in Honolulu. Its purpose is to drain rice paddies and swamps, eventually clearing the way for the resort area of Waikiki. The project will be completed in 1928.
1924	The Federal Exclusion Act, motivated by increasing hostility towards the Japanese, almost completely halts any further immigration from Japan. Labor riots at Hanapepe, Kauai kill 16 workers and 4 police officers.
1927	(March) John Rodgers Airport opens in March; it's renamed Honolulu Airport in 1947.
1929	Stanley C. Kennedy makes the first inter-island flight in an amphibious plane from Honolulu to Hilo via Maui and Kauai. Later, service is added to Molokai. At the time, passenger fares range from $17-$32 one way.
1935	The first trans-Pacific flight from San Francisco to Honolulu by PanAm airways takes 21.5 hours and inaugurates airmail service from the mainland to Hawaii. Hickam Field is dedicated for the Army Air Corps (although it's not officially activated until 1938). When Japanese forces attack in 1941, they bomb Hickam Field to eliminate air opposition and keep U.S. planes grounded.
1941	(December 7) The bombing of Pearl Harbor and Oahu by Japan results in 189 deaths. President Franklin Roosevelt refers to it as "a day which will live in infamy" in his now-famous address. As a result of the attack, the U.S. declares war on Japan and enters World War II. Martial law is declared in Hawaii and the military assumes control until October 24, 1944.
1945	(September 2) Japan signs an unconditional surrender on the U.S.S. Battleship Missouri. The ship is still docked in Pearl Harbor.
1946	A massive tsunami (tidal wave) hits Hilo on the Big Island, killing over 100 people and resulting in $25 million in damage.
1947	(July 11) The newly united Pineapple Workers Union lead a strike for better wages and working conditions. It lasts five days, ending with favorable terms for the union.
1950	The eruption of the Mauna Loa volcano destroys the village of Ho'okena mauka.
1951	At the height of the "Red Scare," a group who come to be known as the Hawaii 7 is arrested, charged under the Smith Act for conspiring to overthrow the government. They are convicted after a two-year trial, and later released in 1958.
1954	The "Democratic Revolution" uses newly unionized workers and college-educated, postwar veterans to oust the Hawaii Republican Party, which many view as corrupt, from the legislature and replace it with the Democratic Party.
1959–present Modern-Day Hawaii
1959	(August 21) Hawaii becomes the 50th state in the Union.
1972	(March) Hawaii becomes the first state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. It does so unanimously.
1974	Sugar and pineapple plantation workers begin a 39-day strike. The first Asian-American governor, George Ariyoshi, is elected in Hawaii.
1983-93	Basalt lava flows erupt from Kilauea Volcano on the Big Island, destroying nearly 200 houses and severing the coastal highway.
1987	John Waihee, the first governor of Hawaiian descent, is elected.
1992	Hurricane Iniki, the most powerful hurricane to hit Hawaii in recorded history, kills six people and causes nearly $2 billion in damages.
1993	U.S. Congress passes the Public Law 103-150, which corrects misinformation regarding the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and apologizes for the suppression of the "inherent sovereignty of the Native Hawaiian people."
1994	Ben Cayetano becomes the first governor of Filipino descent elected in the U.S.
1995	The last sugar plantation on the Big Island closes.
2000	The U.S. Supreme Court declares that restricting voting in the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to native Hawaiians violates the 15th Amendment.
2006	(March) Six weeks of rain results in major damage from flooding on the islands. (October 15) A 6.7 magnitude earthquake on the Big Island results in property damage, landslides, tsunamis, power outages, and airport delays. The famous Mauna Kea Beach Hotel's entire south end collapses and it is shut down indefinitely. After a $150-million reconstruction, it reopens in December 2008.
2009	The Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2009 (the Akaka Bill) is introduced in Congress for the sixth time. The bill seeks to allow Native Hawaiians to seek a special status similar to that of Native Americans, but the bill fails to pass.