📅 On this day
21 August
1959 · Hawaii became the fiftieth American state
President Eisenhower signed the proclamation admitting Hawaii to the Union, and the American flag gained its fiftieth star. Alaska had joined earlier the same year, and the design of the flag has not changed since.
It landed in Britain mostly through television — palm trees, surfboards and, a few years later, Hawaii Five-O and that theme tune, which is still in more heads than most national anthems.
Your turn
Which faraway place did you most want to see when you were young?