In our wonderful world of wireless – and connectivity to the internet, etc, we sometimes forget the relative ‘remoteness’ Hawaiʻi has with the rest of civilization. Hawaiʻi is the world’s most-isolated populated-place. While, today, technology keeps us constantly and instantly in touch and aware of world events, the same was not true in the past. Prior to the beginning of the 20th century, you had at least a one-week time lag in receiving “news” (that arrived via ships.)

But without faster worldwide communications to the Islands, Hawaiʻi was deprived of staying current with world events. That changed in 1902, when the first submarine cable across the Pacific was completed (landing in Waikīkī at Sans Souci Beach) linking the US mainland to Hawaiʻi, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji (1902) and Guam to the Philippines in 1903. (The first Atlantic submarine cable, connecting Europe with the USA, was completed in 1866.)