Aloha! Waikiki, hula, muumuu, Honolulu? You don't know what we are taking about? Check out the top ten of Hawaii by Foreign Service Officer Catherine Muller. Did you know that surfing was invented by native Hawaiians? Or that Hawaii was once a monarchy? Transcript: Aloha! My name is Catherine and I come from the beautiful state of Hawaii. Hawaii was discovered by Polynesians between the 3rd and 7th centuries A.D. It was later explored by British Captain James Cook in 1778. Hawaii became a U.S. territory in 1898, and the 50th state of the U.S. on August 21, 1959. When most people think of Hawaii, they think of Honolulu and our famous Waikiki Beach. We'll get to that in a minute, but did you know that Hawaii actually consists of 137 islands? Most people will only visit a few of the main 8 Hawaiian Islands. They are: O'ahu, Maui, Hawai'i, Kaua'i, Moloka'I, Lana'i, Ni'ihau, and Kaho'olawe. The most populated island is Oahu where the capitol city of Honolulu is located. It also