This Day in History: <br />Hawaii Becomes 50th State.<br />August 21, 1959.<br />U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower <br />signed the proclamation that <br />admitted the series of <br />Pacific islands to the Union.<br />Polynesian explorers are <br />thought to have first settled <br />on the island in the eighth century.<br />The last reigning monarch, <br />Queen Liliuokalani, was <br />deposed by a group of U.S. Marines <br />and American expatriates in 1893.<br />Hawaii was officially <br />annexed by the U.S. in 1898, <br />following the Spanish-American War.<br />A important region strategically <br />and for the sugar industry, the volcanic<br />islands became a territory in 1900.<br />Following the bombing of <br />Pearl Harbor in 1941, Hawaii <br />became firmly established <br />in the American identity
