Video: 'On This Day in History: Captain James Cook visits Hawaii'

(Sunday, January 18, 1778) — English explorer Captain James Cook became the first European to discover the present-day Hawaiian Islands, which he named the “Sandwich Islands” (in honor of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, who was one of his sponsors as the First Lord of the Admiralty) when he sailed past the island of Oahu today.

Cook would be attacked and killed while attempting to kidnap Kalaniopuu, a Hawaiian chief, during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific in 1779.