HAWAII

Hawaii stamps available online at Io Collezionista. Hawaii is the most recent state, the fiftieth, to have entered the United States, in 1959. The name, which comes from the Hawaiian word Hawai'i, means homeland; careful linguistic study has found similar words in the neighbouring languages of Polynesia, Maori and Samoan. The archipelago has eight main islands: Kahoolawe, Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Niihau, Kauai, Oahu and Hawaii, the last of which is also called the Big Island so as not to be confused with the name of the state. The arrival of western navigators is dated to 1778, the year the English naval captain James Cook, during his third exploration of the Pacific, landed in the archipelago and explored its main islands.