The State of Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States of America on August 21, 1959. The archipelagic state is situated in the North Pacific Ocean, 2,300 miles (3,700 km) from the mainland. In the 19th century, Hawaii was also known as the Sandwich Islands.

An archipelago in the mid-Pacific, and thus commonly included in Oceania, it is not part of North America. Hawaii is the southernmost state of the United States; it would be the westernmost, if not for Alaska. It is one of only two states (Alaska is the other) that are outside the contiguous United States, and do not share a border with another U.S. state.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia listing for "Hawaii".