Aloha, Diane Ako, the communications officer for the Department of Accounting and General Services (DAGS), for remembering why we had a holiday on Friday — the third Friday in August is celebrated as the day Hawaii joined the Union, also known as Statehood Day or Admission Day.

Ako said in a press release that DAGS has two important artifacts in the Hawaii State Archives vault from that date, including the telephone used to convey news of our statehood. Congressional delegate John Burns used that phone to call Speaker of the House Elmer Carvallho to tell him the news.

The second item is the pen President Dwight Eisenhower used to sign the Statehood Bill. The pen was gifted to the state’s first governor, William Quinn.

These are the real deal, not AI.

Jackie Kaina of the Kauai Economic

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