Honolulu,

capital and principal port of Hawaii, U.S., seat of Honolulu  county. A modern city, it extends about 10 miles (16 km) along the southeastern  shore of Oahu Island and 4 miles (6 km) inland across a plain into the Koolau  Mountain foothills. It is the crossroads of trans-Pacific shipping and air  routes, the focus of interisland services, and the commercial and industrial  centre of the state. The city-county (area 597 square miles [1,545 square km])  comprises all of Oahu and some outlying islets, which have an area aggregate of  only 3 square miles (8 square km) but extend for more than 1,300 miles (2,100  km) and constitute the Hawaiian and Pacific Islands National Wildlife Refuge. It  is administered as a single entity and has about 80 percent of the state's  population.

Hawaiian legend indicates a settlement at Honolulu (meaning  "protected bay") in AD 1100. Overlooked by Captain James Cook and other early  explorers, the harbour with its outlet through the reef of Nuuanu Stream and  sheltered by Sand Island was entered by Captain William Brown in 1794. After  1820 Honolulu assumed first importance in the islands and flourished as a base  for sandalwood traders and whalers. A Russian group arrived there in 1816, and  the port was later occupied by the British (1843) and the French (1849) but was  returned to King Kamehameha III, who on Aug. 31, 1850, officially declared  Honolulu a city and the capital of his kingdom (Honolulu had been the de facto  capital since 1845). In December 1941 the city and the adjacent Pearl Harbor  naval-military complex came under Japanese aerial attack. Honolulu became a  prime staging area for the remainder of World War II, a position it retained  during the Korean War and until the end of the Indochina (Vietnam) conflict in  1973. Military expenditure remains an important source of income.

The port serves numerous manufacturing plants in the  city-county, including pineapple canneries, sugar refineries, clothing  factories, and steel, aluminum, oil, cement, and dairying enterprises. The  international airport is one of the busiest in the United States, with nearby  Waikiki as the primary destination of tourists.

Honolulu is the educational nucleus of the state and is the  site of the University of Hawaii in Manoa Valley (1907) with its East-West  Center (established in 1960 for technical and cultural exchange); Chaminade  University (1955); Hawaii Pacific University (1953); Honolulu (1920) and  Kapi'olani (1965) community colleges; and the Kamehameha Schools (1887) for  children of Hawaiian descent. The Bernice P. Bishop Museum (1889) has noted  Polynesian collections, and the Honolulu Academy of Arts (1927), considered to  be the cultural centre of Hawaii, sponsors a wide range of programs. Punchbowl,  a 2,000-foot- (600-metre-) wide crater 1 mile (2 km) inland, contains the  National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific with some 24,000 graves of World War  II, Korean, and Vietnam War dead. The focus of Honolulu's civic centre is the  Iolani Palace (completed 1882); it is now a museum but served as the legislative  seat until replaced by the nearby new State Capitol (an unusual rectangular  structure featuring legislative chambers shaped like volcanoes and columns  shaped like royal palms). Within a two-block radius of the palace are several  historic buildings, including Kawaiahao Church (1841) and the early Mission  Houses, built in the 1820s from lumber brought from Boston around Cape Horn by  the first missionary contingents. The Library of Hawaii and the Honolulu Hale  (City Hall) are also in the vicinity.