Cook Discovers Hawaii and Death at Kealakekua Bay
On 18 January 1778, during his third voyage in search of the Northwest Passage, Cook became the first European to contact the Hawaiian Islands, which he named the Sandwich Islands after the Earl of Sandwich. The islanders initially received him as a deity. After sailing north to map the Alaskan coast (reaching the Bering Strait before pack ice forced him back), Cook returned to Hawaii in January 1779. A series of thefts and confrontations escalated, and on 14 February 1779 Cook was killed on the beach at Kealakekua Bay while attempting to take a chief hostage. He was 50 years old. His death stunned Britain; his three voyages had mapped more of the Pacific than all previous explorers combined.
- Year: 1778 CE
