Hawaii became the 50th US state
On this day · 21 August 1959
A chain of Pacific islands 2,400 miles from the mainland completed the United States as we know it.
On August 21, 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the official proclamation admitting Hawaii as the 50th state, formalized as Presidential Proclamation #3309.
The islands sit some 2,400 miles off the U.S. mainland in the North Pacific, making Hawaii the only state outside North America. Admission followed a months-long process: Eisenhower signed the Hawaii Admission Act in March 1959, and that June, residents voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to accept statehood.
Hawaii joined just eight months after Alaska, the 49th state — together ending a six-decade stretch in which the Union had held steady at 48.
The new tally meant the flag needed redesigning; a 50-star version became official on July 4, 1960.
More than a century after the first U.S. ships called at its harbors, the Kingdom-turned-territory finally gained full standing in the nation.
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