Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1868
The first Japanese contract laborers arrive to work the sugar plantations. The eruption of
Mauna Loa volcano on the Big Island causes a magnitude-8 earthquake, Hawaiʻi's largest ever.
1873
A Belgian Catholic priest, Father Damien, arrives at Molokaʻi's leprosy colony. He stays for 16
years, dying of leprosy (now called Hansen's disease) in 1889. He is sainted in 2009.
1879
King Kalakaua lays the cornerstone for ʻIolani Palace, a lavish, four-story building with an ornate
throne room, running water and electric lights. It costs $350,000 and is completed in 1882.
1882
Macadamia trees are imported from Australia to the Big Island by William Purvis, who plants
them as an ornamental. The nuts aren't grown commercially in Hawaii till the 1920s.
1884
The first pineapple plants are introduced to Hawaiʻi by Captain John Kidwell, but the industry
doesn't take off until James Dole incorporates his Oʻahu pineapple plantation in 1901.
1893
On January 17 the Hawaiian monarchy is overthrown by a group of US businessmen supported
by military troops. Queen Liliʻuokalani acquiesces under protest; not a shot is fired.
1895
Robert Wilcox leads a failed counter-revolution to restore Hawaii's monarchy. The deposed
queen, charged with being a co-conspirator, is placed under house arrest at ʻIolani Palace.
1898
On July 7 President McKinley signs the resolution annexing Hawaii as a US territory; this is
formalized by the 1900 Hawaiian Organic Act establishing a territorial government.
1900
A fire set to control an outbreak of bubonic plague in Honolulu's Chinatown blazes out of con-
trol. Meanwhile, the territory's Hawaiian population drops to its lowest point.
1909
