Note. On first writing this in January 2001 I said the official name of the state was still Hawaii, without the 'okina. In December 2005 it is plain from the State of Hawai'i website that they now officially use the 'okina, so these write-ups have been moved here. I have also used macrons instead of my original circumflexes, on the assumption that everyone's browsers can show that much Unicode these days.
Hawaiian place names
The Hawaiian language uses the 'okina, an open single-quote (or less precisely a vertical stroke) to indicate a glottal stop, and the kahakō (macron) over long vowels. Both these are commonly omitted, but strictly should not be. With them, the names of the main islands are: Hawai'i, O'ahu, Maui, Kaua'i, Moloka'i, Lāna'i, and Ni'ihau. Hawaiian was restored as an official language of the state in 1978, and in recent years there has been a greater effort to display the correct diacritics for all place names. (Official usage for the adjective is Hawaiian rather than Hawai'ian.)
Kings and Queens of Hawaii
- Kamehameha I 1782-1819
- Liholiho Kamehameha II 1819-1824
- Kauikeaouli Kamehameha III 1825-1854
- Alexander Liholiho Kamehameha IV 1854-1863
- Lot Kamehameha V 1863-1872
- William Charles Lunalilo 1873-1874
- David Kalākaua 1874-1891
- Lydia Lili'uokalani 1891-1893
Kamehameha I became a king in the island of Hawai'i in 1782, united all of the island in 1791, and
annexed all the other islands except Kaua'i by 1795. (Another formative date given in one source is 1810; perhaps that is when Kaua'i was finally taken.) A
constitution was granted in 1840.
Independence was guaranteed by Britain and France in 1844.
Regents
- Kaahumanu 1825-1832
- Kinau 1832-1833
Prime ministers
- Kaahumanu 1819-1832
- Kinau 1832-1839
- Kekaulouhi 1839-1845
- John Young 1845-1853
- Lot Kamehameha 1853
- John Young again 1853-1855
- Victoria Kamamalu 1855-1863
- Kekuanaoa 1863-1864
Queen Lili'uokalani was deposed (she died on 11 November 1917) in favour of a republic controlled by the increasing number of American and European settlers, in a revolution abetted by the US minister there.
President
- Sanford Dole 1894-1900
Sanford Dole became the first
governor on its
annexation by the United States and remained so till 1903. In that year Hawai'i first requested
statehood.