Sovereignty Restoration Day is a national holiday of the former Hawaiian Kingdom celebrated on July 31 and still commemorated by Native Hawaiians in the state of Hawaii. It honors the restoration of sovereignty to the kingdom, by British Rear-Admiral Richard Darton Thomas, following the occupation of Hawaiʻi by the United Kingdom during the 1843 Paulet Affair and when King Kamehameha III uttered the phrase: Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ʻĀina i ka Pono.
