On this day, 14 February 1779, British coloniser captain James Cook was killed by a Native Hawaiian by being stabbed in the neck as he tried to kidnap a local leader.
Cook became famous in particular for assisting the British invasion of Aotearoa (New Zealand) and Australia. Within two hours of his crew’s arrival in Aotearoa in 1769, they had shot and killed a Māori man called Te Maro. Over the next few days at least eight more Ngati Oneone hapu and Rongowhakaata iwi people were killed. In 1770, after Cook’s arrival in Australia, his men shot two Aboriginal Gweagal people.
In Hawaii, on February 14, news of Cook and his marines killing a local chief caused an angry crowd of several hundred Indigenous people to gather. Cook was also attempting to kidnap the Hawaiian aliʻi nui (hereditary ruler), Kalaniʻōpuʻu. Some of the crowd gathered stones and spears, at which point Cook fired at the crowd, killing one. Rather than run in fear, as the colonisers anticipated, the local people began throwing stones at the marines, and a man called Kanaʻina hit Cook on the head with a club. Cook was then stabbed and killed, and which point a full-scale battle broke out, forcing the marines to retreat. By the end of the fight, several locals had been killed as well as four British soldiers. https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1652316768286800/?type=3