Which territory became the 50th U.S. state in 1959?

Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state in 1959.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Hawaii Admission Act, and Hawaii entered the Union on August 21, 1959. A referendum held in the territory strongly supported statehood.

Hawaii is an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, far from the contiguous United States. Its history includes an independent Hawaiian Kingdom, a U.S.-backed overthrow of the monarchy in 1893, annexation by the United States in 1898, and territorial status beginning in 1900.

Hawaii’s admission followed Alaska’s earlier entry as the forty-ninth state. The two statehood events completed the current fifty-state structure of the United States.