Honolulu

Honolulu is the capital of Hawaii, a city on the south shore of the island of Oʻahu in the Pacific Ocean. Its Hawaiian name means sheltered bay. Barack Obama, president of the United States, was born in the city and went to school there.

Kamehameha I, who united the islands, moved his court to Honolulu in the early 19th century, drawn by the harbor that British and American ships had begun to use. Sandalwood traders and then whaling ships filled the port, and in 1845 Kamehameha III moved the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii from Lahaina. American missionaries and sugar planters settled in the town, and families from China, Japan, Portugal and the Philippines came to the plantations of the island. Hawaii became a United States territory at the end of the 19th century and a state in 1959.

Honolulu Harbor receives the container ships that bring food and goods to the islands. Matson, based in Honolulu, runs cargo ships between the West Coast and Hawaii. Alexander & Baldwin, a former sugar company also based in the city, owns shopping centers and industrial land in Hawaii.

ʻIolani Palace, built for King Kalākaua in the 1880s, had electric lights before the White House and is the only royal palace in the United States. Waikīkī Beach, once a retreat of Hawaiian royalty, is where Duke Kahanamoku showed modern surfing to the world. Diamond Head, an extinct volcanic crater at the eastern end of the beach, has a trail to its rim. The Bishop Museum, founded by Charles Reed Bishop in memory of his wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, keeps the feather cloaks of Hawaiian chiefs.