From "Hawaii Recalls " by DeSoto Brown
Exotic Hawaii is featured on a postcard holder.
Hawaii for the ages
Economic prosperity and social tension
in the young Territory of Hawaii1920: College of Hawaii reorganized as the University of Hawaii.
Also: Duke Kahanamoku wins 100-meter freestyle at Olympic Games in Antwerp.
Also: Prohibition of liquor sales nationwide goes into effect Jan. 16.1921: Reclamation of Waikiki swamplands begin.
Also: Straub Clinic starts medical service.
Also: Wallace R. Farrington becomes sixth territorial governor. 1922: U.S. Congress enacts the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act on July 9, which provides for homesteading by native Hawaiians.
Also: Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole, delegate to Congress since 1902, dies.
Also: Hawaiian Pineapple Co. buys Lanai to supply fruit for its Honolulu cannery, introduces large-scale planting, canning and shipping.
Also: Hawaii Theatre opens, as does the Federal Building in Honolulu.1923: Territorial Legislature enacts "Hawaii's Bill of Rights" to get the same treatment from Congress given to states; Congress passes it in 1924.
1924: Eight-month Kauai plantation strike results in the deaths of four policemen and 16 strikers.
1925: First flight attempt between Hawaii and the mainland leaves near San Francisco on Aug. 31, but the two-engine Navy seaplane with John Rodgers and four others aboard runs out of fuel 300 miles from the isles; the plane is rescued Sept. 10 off Nawiliwili, Kauai.
1926: Aloha Tower, shown under construction above, is dedicated.
Also: Territorial Gov. Sanford Dole dies.
1927: Royal Hawaiian Hotel, shown above in 1937, opens in Waikiki.
Also: In March, John Rodgers Airport is dedicated; it later becomes the Honolulu International Airport.
Also: In June, Army lieutenants make first successful nonstop flight from mainland to Hawaii in the plane, Bird of Paradise.
Also: In August, 10 die in Dole air derby between Oakland and Hawaii, billed as the "first trans-oceanic flight race in history."
1929: Inter-Island Airways, Ltd., forerunner to Hawaiian Airlines, begins commercial passenger service. At left, Territorial Gov. Lawrence M. Judd at the event flanked by the two Sikorsky S-38 planes, the "Maui" and "Hawaii." Also: Stock market crash starts Great Depression.
1931: Notorious "Massie Case" makes national headlines, in which Thalia Massie claimed rape by five "local boys."
Also: In November, Mutual Telephone Co. starts interisland radio telephone service, followed weeks later by service to the mainland.
1934: Franklin D. Roosevelt, left, is first U.S. president to visit Hawaii.
Also: Joseph B. Poindexter becomes eighth territorial governor.
1935: Amelia Earhart makes the first solo flight between Hawaii and mainland, from Wheeler Field to Oakland. Above, she plants a banyan tree here, watched by Inter-Island Airways head Stanley Kennedy.
Also: First airmail flight between Hawaii and the West Coast made by Pan American Airway's craft, "China Clipper," shown in above photo.
Also: Big Island's Mauna Loa erupts.
Also: First public pay phones.1938: Inter-Island Steamship Co. docks shut down after two years of sporadic strikes; dozens hospitalized in related violence.
1940: General election plebescite favors statehood by 2-1 margin.
1941: Buildup of U.S. military air strength here includes May arrival of 21 Flying Fortresses from California; on Dec. 7, 1941, Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, shown above, plunges United States into World War II.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin is counting down to year 2000 with this special series. Each month through December, we'll chronicle important eras in Hawaii's history, featuring a timeline of that particular period. Next month's installment: September 13. About this Series
Series Archive
Project Editor: Lucy Young-Oda
Chief Photographer: Dean Sensui
