TIME LINE MAUI

2,000,000 BC Maui's first volcano rises from the depths of the ocean and appears above the surface of the waves.

1,000,000 BC Haleakala breaks the surface. Flows from the two volcanoes join to form the island of Maui, they also connect with other volcanoes that later form
the separate islands of Lana`i, Moloka`i and Kahoolawe. Scientists refer to the giant prehistoric landmass, before the break-up, as Maui Nui, Big Maui.

450 AD The first Polynesian explorers from the Marquesas Islands discover Hawaii. Settlement of the islands begins. Recent archaeological evidence is suggesting a much earlier date.

700 Waves of colonists from Tahiti arrive.

1778 Captain James Cook of England discovers Hawaii for the Western world but never sets foot on Maui.

1787 Captain Jean Francois de Galaup de La Perouse becomes the first foreigner to step ashore on Maui, at Makena, in the bay now named after him. (Perouse decided not to claim the island for the King of France, despite his orders.)

1790 Kamehameha the Great defeats King Kahekili and his Maui forces, bringing Maui into the united Hawaiian kingdom.

1802 Kamehameha the Great names Lahaina as the capital of Hawaiian kingdom.

1819 Kamehameha the Great dies. His widow, Queen Kaahumanu, defies the power of the priests, and the people topple the old religion. It is also the year the first whaling ship, the Balena out of New Bedford, Massachusetts arrives in Lahaina.

1823 The first New England missionaries arrive on Maui.

1825 The first of the battles between the whalers and the missionaries erupts in Lahaina.

1828 Maui's first sugar mill begins operations.

1831 The first high school west of the Rocky Mountains, Lahainaluna, is established on Maui.

1831 The Baldwin Mission House, the oldest surviving house on Maui is built.

1850 The capital of the Hawaiian nation is moved from Lahaina to Honolulu.

1852 The first sugar plantation laborers begin to arrive from Kwangtung, China.

1885 Japanese immigration to Maui begins.

1893 The constitutional Hawaiian monarchy is overthrown by American settlers living in Hawaii.

1903 Dwight Baldwin plants the first pineapple on Maui at Haiku.

1916 Haleakala joins the national park system of the U.S.A. In 1961 it becomes a national park in its own right.

1941 Pearl Harbor is bombed by Japan and martial law is declared in Hawaii.

1946 The first resort on Maui, the Hotel Hana-Maui, opens.

1959 Hawaii becomes the 50th state of the United States.

1961 Kaanapali opens as Hawaii's first master-planned resort.

1976 The Hokule'a, replica of an ancient Polynesian voyaging canoe, sets sail from Maui for Tahiti, recreating the ancestral journeys.