January 18
SANDWICH ISLANDS DAY
In 1778, on this day, Captain James Cook, of the British Navy, thought he was the first to find a group of islands in the Pacific. He named them the Sandwich Islands in honor of England’s Earl of Sandwich, the first lord of the British Admiralty. Little did he know that the islands already had a name. The people who lived on them called the islands Hawaii (known to us now as the 50th of the United States).
Actually, these islands had been discovered long before this day by the Polynesians. Other explorers before Cook probably stopped at the Hawaiian Islands as early as the 1500s. However, it was Cook who spread the word of the existence of this group of tropical isles to the rest of the world.
Captain Cook got along really well with the Hawaiians at first. It seems that his two major trips to the islands occurred during makahiki (a festival) when one of their gods, Lono would, symbolically, return from his travels to preside over the festivities. Some thought Cook was this god. Unfortunately, on his next trip to his Sandwich Islands, Cook lost the godlike image. He had returned to the islands other than when Lono was to arrive and his humanity was revealed. Cook and his men got into a battle with the Hawaiians and Cook was killed in the melee.
History holds no other mention of any further relationship between Hawaii and the Earl of Sandwich, except that folks who live there like to eat huge... well, you know. Pass the SPAM, please.
Those Were the Days, the Today in History service from 440 International
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