Hawaii's History in 1959 - Hawaii History

	Overview of time periods in Hawaii's post-contact history

	List all short stories from Hawaii's Timeline

	Sources for Hawai‘i Timeline

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Territorial Legislature holds its last session.

Hawai'i becomes the 50th state. Read More.

Ni'ihau becomes the only one of 240 precincts to reject statehood.

William F. Quinn elected Hawaii's first state governor. Daniel Inouye is the first congressman; Hiram Fong and Oren Long are elected the first senators.

Former governor Samuel Wilder King dies.

Atsushi (Fifi) Hasebe bowls the first 800-plus three game series in history at the Kapiolani Lanes.

The State General Plan, first of its kind in the nation, recommends the creation of a land classification system.

First Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament held in August, promoted by Kona hotel manager Peter Fithian.

Henry Kaiser leases 6,000 acres from Bishop Estate in southeast O'ahu and plans his Hawai`i Kai subdivision.

Commercial jet service begins when Qantas Empire Airways begins a route connecting Sydney, Nadi, Honolulu and San Francisco.

Pan Am brings 707 service between the West Coast and Tokyo via Honolulu and Wake Island.

Ala Moana Shopping Center opens.

Construction begins at Ka'anapali, Hawaii's first master-planned resort destination.

$520,800,000 worth of imports arrive in Hawai'i; exports total $276,000,000.

James Michener publishes Hawai`i.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks at Punahou.

First open-heart surgery performed in the Islands.

Kilauea Iki erupts, providing a spectacular display of fireworks. Only two previous eruptions at the site had been recorded, in 1832 and 1868.

Hurricane Dot hits Kaua'i with winds estimated at 120 to 150 miles an hour.

Don Ho performs at Honey's in Kaneohe; the audience sees a star in the making.

The movie Gidget is a big hit and introduces one version of surf culture to American audiences.

Hawaii-based musician Martin Denny hits No. 1 on the national Billboard Hot 100 chart with his tiki lounge music.

First computer microchip produced.

Fidel Castro leads successful revolution in Cuba.

"Kitchen Debate" between Nikita Khrushchev and Richard Nixon in Moscow.