# Monarchs/Royalty Making State Visits to the US

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monarchs-royalty-making-state-visits-to-the-us/584877>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 9, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monarchs-royalty-making-state-visits-to-the-us/584877 "2011-06-09T17:27:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monarchs-royalty-making-state-visits-to-the-us/584877/21 "2011-06-09T21:44:46Z")

</div>

> [@HeyHomie](#):
>
> Who was the first monarch, European or otherwise, to visit the US after we became a nation?

I just read last night in _Unfamiliar Fishes_ that it was King David Kalakaua of Hawaii sometime in the 1870s.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monarchs-royalty-making-state-visits-to-the-us/584877/22 "2011-06-09T22:10:35Z")

</div>

> [@HeyHomie](#):
>
> Who was the first monarch, European or otherwise, to visit the US after we became a nation?

We became a nation under the Constitution in March 1789.

The first monarch to visit the new country would have at that time, or within a month, with the annual northern migration of the Monarch Butterfly.

Whut?

😃

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monarchs-royalty-making-state-visits-to-the-us/584877/23 "2011-06-09T22:57:05Z")

</div>

> [@Darryl\_Lict](#):
>
> In October 1995 King Harald V of Norway visited the US meeting President Bill Clinton in an official state visit.
> 
> [List of state visits made and received by Harald V - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_state_visits_made_by_King_Harald_V_of_Norway)

Amusingly, the guest lived in the White House before his host did. As a small child, Harald was taken to England along with his parents and grandfather as the Nazis invaded. His mother brought him to America when she came for a visit, and FDR, finding her charming company, invited them to stay in White House guest rooms for a few months, which they did. He’s almost certainly the only reigning monarch who once lived in the White House.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monarchs-royalty-making-state-visits-to-the-us/584877.md?page=1)