The TIME Magazine Vault

Dwight Eisenhower Signing Hawaii as a State

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Making Hawaiian Statehood Official

It was Aug. 21, 1959, that Hawaii officially became a U.S. state. The change brought one of the most celebratory local elections in modern American memory. And, TIME noted, the diverse results of those elections had deep meaning: "United in monarchy, nourished in benevolent feudalism, resurgent in the growing pains that shadowed its 59-year-long territorial status, Hawaii now pro claimed itself a dynamic entity—cross-matched by blood strains that converge from every corner of the earth, bound by the vastness of the sea, unified by democracy, strengthened by aloha and hope."

Making Hawaiian Statehood Official

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Aug. 17, 1998

John Glenn’s Return to Space

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Remembering the King

Upon the death of Elvis Presley on Aug. 16, 1977, TIME remembered the King for the way his music defined an era. "He inspired scores of imitators, sold millions of records. He got drafted into the Army, got his infamous D.A. and 'burns clipped, served a tour of duty in Germany, sold millions of records. He went to Hollywood, appeared in 33 movies, sold millions of records," the magazine noted. "He played Vegas, got married, filled amphitheaters, got divorced, lived a gaudy life so high and wide that it seemed like a parody of an American success story. And he kept selling records, well over 500 million in all."

Remembering the King

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Aug. 15, 1932

At It Again With the Marx Brothers

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Cast of Bonnie and Clyde in Publicity Shot

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‘Low-Down’ Bonnie and Clyde

Though the movie would receive an appreciative reconsideration later in the year, TIME's original 1967 review of Bonnie and Clyde pulled no punches. "The real fault with Bonnie and Clyde is its sheer, tasteless aimlessness," the magazine's critic wrote. "[Repeated] bursts of country-style music punctuating the bandits' grisly ventures, and a sentimental interlude with Bonnie's old Maw photographed through a hazy filter, aim at irony and miss by a mile."