Sweden ascended to the ranks of NATO last month, joining the United States and 30 other nations in the intergovernmental military alliance—though the United States isn't exactly 100% "united" on this front. That's because one of the 50 states, Hawaii, isn't covered under the treaty, due to what CNN calls "a quirk of geography and history." What this means is that if a foreign entity attacked Hawaii—site of the Pearl Harbor strike in World War II—NATO technically wouldn't be required to come to the rescue. It's a fact that many Hawaiians don't even know, notes David Santoro, head of the Pacific Forum think tank, adding, "It's the weirdest thing."
- Why: The reasoning behind it is pretty self-explanatory once you look more closely at the expansion of the acronym. NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and while the other 49 US states are all contained on the giant land mass that has an eastern shore along the Atlantic Ocean, Hawaii is drifting alone in the Pacific—ie, with no ties to the Atlantic.