On this day in 1898 – The United States annexed Hawaii.
Hawaii (also Hawai’i) comprises a group of over twenty islands and was first settled by Polynesians. It was visited by Captain James Cook in 1778 who called them the Sandwich Islands for the English earl of Sandwich. Hawaiian Hawai’i came from Proto-Polynesian hawaiki and a couple of theories exist on the origin of the name. One theory has it that the name comes from a combination of the words Hawa and ii and means a small or new homeland. Another theory is that the name comes from the traditional discoverer of the islands, Hawaii Loa. Hawai’i residents aren’t referred to as “Hawaiian” unless they have aboriginal native blood, which differs from other states.
