Honolulu, Hawai'i
 
No one knows for certain when Honolulu was founded. Hawaiian oral histories and modern archeology indicate a settlement in Honolulu about 1100 A.D., but it may have been settled earlier as the first Polynesian migrants arrived nearly 2,000 years ago.
 
King Kamehameha I, who conquered Oahu in a decisive battle fought the length of Nuuanu Valley, moved his court from Hawaii Island to Waikiki in 1804. He relocated to what is now downtown Honolulu five years later. The royal housing complex site is under the Marin building built next to Nimitz Highway at Queen and Bethel streets. The monarchs also maintained official residences in Kailua on Hawaii and Lahaina on Maui.
 
When Honolulu (meaning sheltered harbor) was named is unclear. The old name for Honolulu is said to be Kou, a district roughly encompassing the area from Nuuanu Avenue to Alakea Street and from Hotel Street to Queen Street (then the edge of the waterfront) which is the heart of the present downtown district.
 
Honolulu Harbor, known also as Kulolia, was entered by the first foreigner, Captain William Brown of the English ship Butterworth, in 1794. He named the harbor Fair Haven. Other foreign captains then referred to it as Brown's Harbor. The name Honolulu (with numerous variations in spelling) soon came into use. In the 1800s, the City of Honolulu was the area near the harbor which is now referred to as downtown Honolulu.
 
Honolulu became the most important shipping point in Hawaii. It flourished with the sandalwood export and then as a supply port for whalers. Sugar, pineapples, light manufacturing, tourism and defense installations followed as economic mainstays and the last two remain so to this day.
 
Seamen, colonizers, adventurers, merchants and missionaries from America and Europe westernized the Hawaiian Islands. Probably the greatest influence was by the group of missionaries who arrived from New England in 1820. They left a lasting imprint in fields of religion, education, economics and politics. Later, immigrants from Asia brought other cultural values and practices that helped to fashion the unique Hawaiian culture of today.
 
In 1850, Kamehameha III proclaimed Honolulu the capital city of his kingdom. It is still the capital and dominant city of the nation's 50th State.
 
STATISTICS
 
Total Island Area: 600 sq. miles (1560 sq. km)
Form of government : Mayor-Council
Date of incorporation as City and County of Honolulu : April 30, 1907
Population (2004 estimate): 899,593
Number of City Employees: approximately 8,000 (including semiautonomous water department and contract employees and excluding TheBus employees.)
Streets and Roads in miles: 1,933
Number of City Buses: 525
Park Acreage: 6,108
Meaning of name : Literally means "protected bay"
Nickname : The Gathering Place
Official flower : Ilima
Official street tree : Rainbow Shower
 
The county also includes hundreds of islets and reefs extending 2,000 miles from just beyond Niihau to Kure Atoll, but excluding Midway Island. None of these islands have a permanent resident population.
 
Honolulu is located at approximately 158 degrees longitude west and 21.5 degrees latitude north, approximately 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) from North America. This places it in the subtropics and gives it a mild climate that varies between 65 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit (15 - 32 Celsius).
 
Tourism is the most important industry in Hawaii, especially in Honolulu, which is the leading economic center of the state. Tourism brings between $8 billion and $9 billion to the state each year, or about 55 percent of all income. The military contributes about 19 percent while services and merchandise contribute about 26 percent.
 
Items and goods produced: jewelry, clothing, food and beverages, rubber products, construction materials, and electronics and computer equipment.
Hawaii is diversifying.
 
Honolulu offers a fertile environment for innovation and collaboration. Honolulu's entrepreneurial spirit is evident from the number of small and start-up businesses that call Honolulu home. The University of Hawaii with its prolific research centers and Hawaii's defense contracting industry, provide opportunities for private sector commercialization through technology transfer and dual use. Federal funding has enabled Hawaii to build various infrastructural facilities supporting innovation and commercialization in Hawaii's targeted sectors.
 
Enterprise Honolulu is focused on retaining, attracting and expanding eight innovation driven sectors. These sectors have significant growth potential and are creating a third pillar for Hawaii's economy. The other major economic pillars are tourism (visitor spending) and military (military spending). The innovation sectors are:
 
• Astronomy & Space Sciences
- Astronomy.
- Defensive space situational awareness.
 
• Diversified Agriculture
- Aquaculture.
- Floriculture.
- Seed crops.
- Livestock.
- Vegetables and fruits.
- Coffee.
- Macadamia nuts.
- Food processing.
 
• Film and Digital Media
- Traditional film and television production and post-production work.
- Digital media (content development, enablers, delivery).
 
• Information & communication technologies (ICT)
- Optics and Photonics.
- Modeling, simulation and training.
- Software development.
- Call centers.
- Wireless technologies.
 
• Life sciences
- Agricultural biotechnology.
- Marine biotechnology.
- Human therapeutics.
- Health care and medical technology.
 
• Sustainability technologies
- Renewable (alternate) energy.
- Environmental technologies.
- Disaster mitigation, management & humanitarian relief.
 
• Defense and dual-use technologies
Companies developing technologies for defense with commercial applications or vice versa.
The sector includes a cross section of companies from:
- Optics and Photonics.
- Modeling, simulation and training.
- Sustainability technologies.
- Life sciences.
- Unmanned aerial and underwater vehicles.
 
• Ocean resources and marine sciences
 
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