Aloha! Our 50th State Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary Hawaii became a state 50 years ago.

Tune up your ukulele and get out your surfboard. Put on your lei and have a luau! This month, Hawaii celebrates its 50th anniversary as a state. On August 21, 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation that granted statehood to the U.S. territory of Hawaii. On the Fourth of the July the following year, a 50th star was added to the American flag, which created the flag that we fly today.

A Most Unusual State Hawaii, the country's only island state, is actually made up of 132 islands. Of those, there are eight main islands: Hawaii (often called the Big Island), Maui, Kahoolawe, Molokai, Lanai, Oahu, Kauai, and Niihau. The state capital, Honolulu, is on the island of Oahu. Hawaii is the country's westernmost and southernmost state—located in the Pacific Ocean, some 2,000 miles from the mainland United States.

As our 50th state, Hawaii is the newest kid on the block. But the same year it became a state, just seven months earlier on January 3, 1959, Alaska became a state—our northernmost state. The two newcomers have another thing in common. Neither state borders any other state.

In the past year, Hawaii has been in the spotlight as the birthplace of our 44th president, Barack Obama. He was born in Honolulu on August 4, 1961, and is the only president to have been born in that state. At the time of Obama's birth, the state of Hawaii was not even 2 years old!

A Surprise Attack One of the most important moments in Hawaii’s history happened on a Sunday morning on December 7, 1941. At the time, much of the world was at war (World War II) in Europe and Asia, but the United States was staying out of the fighting. On that day, the Japanese Imperial Navy launched a surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, on the island of Oahu. The bombing raid killed 2,402 people and wounded 1,282, sank four battleships, and caused a horrific amount of damage. Shortly after the attack, the United States declared war on Japan and went on to fight until it achieved victory. Today a memorial above the sunken battleship USS Arizona honors the U.S. service members who died in the Pearl Harbor attack. Japan is now a friend to our nation, and many Japanese citizens visit Hawaii as tourists.

Tropical Paradise Hawaii is a state with many nicknames. It has been called the Aloha State, the Pineapple State, the Youngest State, and the Paradise of the Pacific. People usually think of Hawaii as a tropical paradise, full of lush green foliage. But the islands also include a remarkable variety of ecosystems—from deserts to rain forests; powdery beaches to alpine meadows; and big urban centers to crusty black fields of hardened lava. When American writer Mark Twain wrote about Hawaii, he described it as "the loveliest fleet of islands that lies in any ocean."

Hawaii: A History Lesson In 1778, an English explorer named Captain James Cook was the first European to explore the islands. He called them the Sandwich Islands, after his friend the Earl of Sandwich. (Sandwich is a town in England.) The native people of Hawaii had inhabited the islands for many centuries before Cook arrived. They were descended from Polynesian people who had crossed the ocean in long canoe-type boats some 2,000 years ago. For most of the area's history, kings ruled the different islands. Then, in 1810, King Kamehameha I unified all of the islands and called the kingdom Hawaii. That is the Polynesian word for "homeland." The monarchy reigned until it was overthrown by the United States in 1893.

Hawaii became a United States territory in 1898 and went on to achieve statehood, though that did not come easily. People debated for many years about whether Hawaii's islands, located far out in the Pacific Ocean, should become a state. For one thing, some people thought that the islands were too remote.

Today, our 50th state is known as one of the most beautiful places to visit and is a source of important food products, such as coffee, sugar, and pineapples.

Critical thinking What might be some of the benefits and difficulties of living in Hawaii? Would you want to live there? Why or why not?

Vocabulary ukulele—a small guitar with four strings that is commonly used in traditional Hawaiian music
lei—a necklace or a wreath made of flowers
luau—a Hawaiian feast
proclamation—a public or official announcement.
lush—abundant with plant growth
foliage—leaves, flowers, and plants
inhabited—lived in a certain place
debated—discussed or argued
remote—far-off, distant
alpine—pertaining to high mountains or high altitudes

Links

• Listen to Hawaiian words and learn their meaning at
  www.aloha-hawaii.com/hawaii/native+tongue.
• See how to spell your name in Hawaiian
  hawaiiannames.hisurf.com.
• Learn more about the attack on Pearl Harbor at
  www.nps.gov/valr/forkids/index.htm.
• Use an interactive picture dictionary created by fourth-grade students at
  www.kamalii.k12.hi.us/Compute/dictionary.htm.
• For young children: Read "How Pono the Happy Face Spider Found His Smile," an online story about a spider that lives in Hawaii at
  library.thinkquest.org/J002043.
• Find out more about Hawaii and the 50th anniversary of statehood at
  www.hawaii.gov/statehood.
• See photos of active volcanoes in Hawaii at
  www.gohawaii.com/about_hawaii/explore/volcanoes.

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