Today in history - 1950

Voters in the United States Hawaii Territory ratified a state constitution on this date. The event was a major step toward becoming a state. Not until August 21, 1959, however, did Hawaii join the Union as the fiftieth state.

The Crossroads of the Pacific, as this group of volcanic islands are often called, was originally inhabited by Polynesians from the Marquesa Islands. In 1778, British explorer Captain James Cook spotted the tropical lands and named them the Sandwich Islands. In the early 1800s, the Hawaiian Islands were ruled by a monarchy under the control of Kamehameha I. Missionaries from New England arrived soon after leading the way for Western influences which culminated in the United States' annexation of the Hawaiian Territory on June 14, 1900.

At the turn of the century, many Americans traveled to the tropical islands. Samuel Clemens, who wrote under the pen name Mark Twain, recorded his travels in Roughing It, published in 1891. He and his party climbed the volcano Haleakala in Maui and were awed by the experience:

Presently vagrant white clouds came drifting along, high over the sea and the valley; then they came in couples and groups; then in imposing squadrons; gradually joining their forces, they banked themselves solidly together, a thousand feet under us, and totally shut out land and ocean—not a vestige of anything was left in view but just a little of the rim of the crater, circling away from the pinnacle whereon we sat…Thus banked, motion ceased, and silence reigned. Clear to the horizon, league on league, the snowy floor stretched without a break…There was little conversation, for the impressive scene overawed speech. I felt like the Last Man, neglected of the judgment, and left pinnacled in mid-heaven, a forgotten relic of a vanished world.