| 1893 | A U.S.-led coup topples the Hawaiian kingdom and deposes the queen, Liliʻuokalani; its leaders declare a provisional government and seek U.S. annexation. |
| 1895 | Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association (HSPA) formed. |
| 1898 | United States annexes Hawaiʻi, the Philippines, and Guam; Korean merchants arrive in Honolulu. Aguinaldo proclaims first Philippine Republic on June 12 at Kawit, Cavite, after U.S. naval forces under Commodore George Dewey destroy Spanish fleet in a mock battle. m December the Treaty of Paris is signed by the U.S. and Spain without any Filipino representation. U.S. buys the Philippines for $20 million. |
| 1899 | Philippine-American War starts in February and lasts through 1902 but Filipino resistance continues until 1908. At least 250,000 Filipinos die in battle or from starvation, disease and other wartime hardships. |
| 1900 | The Organic Act makes all U.S. laws applicable to Hawaiʻi, ending contract labor and prompting a series of strikes by Japanese plantation workers; health officials burn Honolulu's Chinatown and quarantine about 7,000 Chinese, Japanese, and Hawaiʻians to camps for several months. |
| 1901 | U.S. establishes first civil government with William Howard Taft as Governor. The Hawaiʻi Sugar Planters Association (HSPA) explores recruiting Filipino labor for the Hawaiʻi plantations. |
| 1902 | The U.S.-Philippine War declared at an end, resulting in 4,300 American and more than 50,000 Filipino deaths. |
| 1904 | Two hundred and fifty Korean workers hired on Waialua sugar plantation on the island of O'ahu, Hawaiʻi, to break a strike of Japanese laborers. |
| 1906 | The first group of 15 sakadas (migrant workers) recruited by HSPA arrive in Honolulu harbor on Dec. 20 and sent to the Ola'a plantation on the Big Island. No recruitment in 1907-08. |
| 1907 | Filipino laborers—188 men, 20 women, and 2 children—arrive in Hawaiʻi. |
| 1909 | A group of 554 sakadas arrive in Hawaiʻi,followed by 2,653 in 1910 and 1,363 in 1911. Seven thousand Japanese sugar plantation workers on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, strike for four months. |
| 1911 | Pablo Manlapit forms the Filipino Higher Wages Association in Hawaiʻi. |
| 1912 | Sakada recruitment intensifies with 4,319 arriving in Hawaiʻi, followed by 3,258 in 1913. |
| 1915 | The Philippine Government (under U.S. colonial rule) expresses concern about labor outflow and recruitment abuses. HSPA works out a system of individual contracts. |
| 1919 | Japanese in Hawaiʻi form the Federation of Japanese Labor. |
| 1920 | Labor leaders form the Higher Wages Movement but HSPA rejects demands. Filipino and Japanese workers strike separately, and nearly 12,100 workers are evicted. |
| 1924 | Strike called by Manlapit and 16 Filipino workers and four policemen are killed in the “Hanapepe Massacre” incident on Kauai. Manlapit is convicted and exiled to California. Immigration Act by the U.S. Congress excludes virtually all Asians; About 9,000 Filipino sugar plantation workers strike in Hawaiʻi over an eleven-month period. |
| 1925 | Filipino Federation of America formed; In re Toyota, issues by the U.S. Supreme Court declares Filipinos, except those who served in the U.S. military for three years, ineligible for citizenship. |
| 1926 | Sakadas comprise 50 percent of all plantation workers, replacing the Japanese as majority. |
| 1927 | U.S. Supreme Court, on a challenge filed by the schools rules that government control of Japanese-language schools in Hawaiʻi is unconstitutional. |
| 1928 | Filipino farm workers are expelled from Dryden, Washington, and warned to leave town at Wenatchee. |
| 1930 | Anti-Filipino riot in Watsonville, California; a Filipino rooming house in California's Imperial Valley and the office of the Filipino Federation of America in Stockton are bombed. |
| 1932 | Manlapit returns to Hawaiʻi and revitalizes the Filipino Labor Federation with Antonio Fagel and Epifanio Taok. Organizing focuses on Maui and union is renamed Vibora Luviminda. Congress passes the Hawes-Cutting Act, which declares Filipinos to be aliens ineligible for citizenship and establishes an immigration quota of 100 Filipinos per year. |
| 1933 | Filipino field workers in Salinas, California, refuse to work, in protest against growers who failed to deliver on their promised wages; Filipino Labor Union organizes; California's Court of Appeals rules in favor of Salvador Roldan's petition to marry a white woman because Filipinos are Malays and not Mongolians; this prompts the state legislature to amend its anti-miscegenation law to include Malays |
| 1934 | Tydings-McDuffie Act by the U.S. Congress establishes a timeline for Philippine independence; the Act declares Filipinos as “aliens” and limits their entry to Hawaiʻi and the U.S. to 50 persons per year; Filipino farm workers strike in Salinas Valley and walk out in Santa Maria and Lompoc valleys, California; whites expel Filipino workers from Turlock, California. |
| 1935 | Filipino Repatriation Act provides free transportation for indigent Filipino Americans to the Philippines; an act of Congress grants naturalization to U.S. veterans of World War I who were before the war aliens ineligible for citizenship (under this act, several Chinese, Filipino, and Japanese American veterans of World War I became U.S. citizens). |
| 1936 | Filipino strike starts at Puunene plantation on Maui. Strikebreakers, also Filipinos, are used. HSPA is forced to negotiate with strikers this time. American Federation of Labor grants charter to a Filipino-Mexican farm workers union; Mexican, Japanese, and Filipino celery workers strike against Japanese growers in Venice, California; Cable Act is repealed. |
| 1937 | Four-mile procession on May 1 of Filipino strikers stretches from Kahului to Wailuku on Maui. Fagel is charged with conspiracy and Vibora Luviminda collapses. |
| 1938 | White vigilantes expel striking Filipino workers in Yakima Valley, Washington; Filipino Repatriation Act extended to December 31, 1938. |
| 1939 | Filipino asparagus workers strike against growers in Stockton and Sacramento, California, and form the Filipino Agricultural Workers Union; the second Filipino Repatriation Act signed into law. |
| 1940 | Half of first-wave sakadas (19061930s) leave Hawaiʻi, either for the U.S. mainland or back to the Philippines. American Federation of Labor charters the Filipino Federated Agricultural Laborers Association; Filipino American repatriation ends. |
| 1941 | Japan attacks Pearl Harbor; Public Law 360 allows Filipinos to serve in the U.S. Army. Martial law stops all labor organizing. The First and Second Filipino Regiments of the U.S. Army see action in the Philippines. |
| 1942 | Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, and Korean Americans support the American war effort as soldiers and through national defense bond drives. |
| 1944 | The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) under Jack Hall's leadership becomes a strong political force by organizing ethnic workers, including Filipinos. ILWU grows to more than 30,000 in 1947. |
| 1945 | U.S. Supreme Court rules Filipinos are not aliens but nationals and are thus not susceptible to the various laws against aliens. |
| 1946 | ILWU strike paralyzes the island economy. HSPA imports the last group of 6,000 Ilokano sakadas. Luce-Celler Act confers naturalization rights and small immigration quotas to Asian Indians and Filipinos; Philippine Rehabilitation Act allows Filipino students to study in the United States; the Philippines wins its independence. |
| 1947 | Philippine Consulate is established in Honolulu with Modesto Farolan as head. Filipina writer Ligaya Reyes Fruto joins staff and also writes for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. |
| 1949 | Longshore strike breaks out and lasts 157 days. Establishes ILWU as an “entrenched power” in Hawaiʻi politics. |
| 1954 | Lawyer Peter Aquino Aduja becomes the first Filipino to be elected Representative in Hawaiʻi Territorial Legislature. The Filipino Chamber of Commerce is founded with Pastor Pablo as president. Democrats gain control of Hawaiʻi’s legislature. |
| 1958 | De la Cruz is elected to the Territorial Legislature representing Lanai and Bernaldo Bicoy is elected to represent West Oahu. |
| 1959 | Hawaiʻi becomes the fiftieth state. Juan C. Dionisio organizes first statewide Filipino convention resulting in future formation of the United Filipino Council of Hawaiʻi (UFCH). |
| 1962 | Alfred Laureta is appointed director of the state's Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, the first Filipino American to hold a state cabinet position in Hawaiʻi. Also appointed later as first Filipino U.S. district judge (in Saipan). Benjamin Menor is elected to the State Senate, the first Filipino immigrant to win a seat in that body. His son Ron Menor would later be elected Hawaiʻi senator. |
| 1965 | Liberalized Immigration Law allows family reunification and professionals to enter U.S. increasing the number of Filipinos to II percent of the total Hawaiʻi population. Strike by Mexican and Filipino grape pickers in Delano, California; riot in the Watts section of Los Angeles leave thirty-four dead |
| 1972 | Ferdinand Marcos declares Martial Law in the Philippines, which would last for 14 years, dividing the Filipino community. Anti-martial law movement is active in Hawaiʻi. |
| 1973 | KISA, the first Filipino-owned radio station in the U.S. opens in Honolulu, owned by Dr. Henry Manayan. A core group of radio personalities host Tagalog, Ilokano and Visayan programs. Emme Tomimbang starts radio career with Morning Girl program and father Tommy Tomimbang is engineer and has Maligayang Araw show. |
| 1974 | Benjamin Menor is appointed Justice of the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court, the first Filipino to hold that position in any U.S. state Supreme Court. |
| 1975 | Eduardo Malapit is elected mayor of Kauai, the first Filipino American to become mayor of a U.S. county. The Center for Philippine Studies is established at the University of Hawaiʻi. |
| 1979 | Geminiano “Toy” Arre, Jr. is appointed Director of Finance, the first Filipino to hold a cabinet post in the City and Council of Honolulu. |
| 1981 | Filipinos in Hawaiʻi celebrate their 75th anniversary. The Second International Philippine Studies Conference is held in Honolulu with Justice Benjamin Menor as guest speaker. |
| 1982 | Eight candidates of Filipino ancestry are elected to the Hawaiʻi State Legislature. |
| 1983 | The Aloha Medical Mission (AMM) is established and volunteer doctors treat indigent patients in the Philippines. Native Hawaiians Study Commission appointed by Congress, and recommends against Hawaiʻian reparations. |
| 1985 | Emme Tomimbang is named KITV anchorwoman, the first Filipino American woman in the country to become a TV news anchor. |
| 1986 | The Marcos dictatorship is toppled and he arrives in Hawaiʻi in exile. In 1989 he dies and his remains stay in Hawaiʻi until 1992. Sister Grace Dorothy Lim, originally from Hocos Sur, Philippines, is named the first woman chancellor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu. John Waihee becomes Hawaiʻi's governor and is the first Hawaiʻian to be elected to that office. |
| 1987 | Daniel Kihano is elected Speaker of the Hawaiʻi State House of Representatives, the first FilipinoAmerican to occupy the position in the U.S. His term ends in 1992. |
| 1990 | Bombing of Kahoʻolawe suspended. Lorraine Rodero-Inouye is elected mayor of the Big Island (Hawaiʻi), the first Filipino American woman to become mayor of a U.S. county. Filipino population in Hawaiʻi reaches 170,000 or 14 percent of state population. |
| 1993 | U.S. Congress passes a joint resolution, signed by President Bill Clinton, apologizing for America's role in the 1893 overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani. |
| 1994 | Benjamin L. Cayetano, son of an immigrant from Urdaneta, Pangasinan, is elected Governor of Hawaii, the first Filipino American to occupy the highest office in an American state. He would be re-elected in 1998. |
| 2000 | Darolyn Lendio is appointed Corporation Counsel, the first Filipina to be named to a cabinet position in the City and County of Honolulu. Another Filipina-American lawyer, Abelina Madrid Shaw, is appointed Deputy Corporation Counsel, also a cabinet position. Six Filipino American candidates win State Senate seats. U.S. Justice and Interior departments release a draft report recommending sovereignty for Hawaiians |
| 2001 | Robert Bunda is elected Hawaiʻi State Senate president, the first Filipino American in the U.S. to fill the position. Abelina Madrid Shaw is appointed Chief of Staff to Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris, in the Office of the Mayor, the first Filipino American woman to occupy the position in the City and County of Honolulu. Angela Perez Baraquio becomes first Filipino American to win Miss America title. |
| 2002 | The Filipino Centennial Celebration Commission is created by the Legislature to oversee 100th anniversary of the first Filipino arrivals in Hawaii in 2006. The Filipino Community Center (FilCom) is completed and inaugurated after several years of fundraising through government grants and private donations. Five Filipino American candidates are elected State Senators and six win House seats. |
| 2004 | Five Filipino American candidates for the State Senate and seven candidates for the House win. Robert Bunda is re-elected as Senate President. |
| 2005-2006 | Yearlong observance of the Filipino Centennial starts on December 10, 2005 and ends December 17, 2006. |