This Day in History for January 18 – Hawaiian Islands Discovered and More

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history:

1778 – James Cook is the first known European to discover the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the Sandwich Islands (More info)

1919 – President Woodrow Wilson attends the Paris Peace Conference that would formally end World War I and lay the groundwork for the formation of the League of Nations (More info)

1990 – Washington, DC Mayor Marion Barry is arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting (More info)

1993 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is officially observed for the first time in all 50 states (More info)

2012 – Wikipedia enacts a global blackout of the English version of the site in protest of SOPA and PIPA (More info)