About Hiram Fong
Hiram Leong Fong (born Yau Leong Fong; October 15, 1906 – August 18, 2004) was an American businessman, lawyer, and politician from Hawaii. Born to a Cantonese immigrant sugar plantation worker, Fong was one of the first two senators for Hawaii after it became the 50th US state in 1959. He was the first Chinese American and first Asian American United States Senator, serving from 1959 to 1977, and to date he remains the only Republican U.S. senator from Hawaii. At the 1964 Republican National Convention, Fong became the first Asian American to receive delegate votes for his party's nomination for President of the United States. In the Senate, Fong supported civil rights legislation and eliminating ethnic barriers to immigration. == Early life and education == Fong was born in the Honolulu neighborhood of Kalihi on the island of Oahu as the seventh of 11 children. His father, Fong Sau Howe, was of Cantonese origin (from modern day Zhuhai) and immigrated to Hawaii in 1872, along with nearly 45,000 other immigrants who would work on sugar plantations. Fong began working at age four picking beans for cattle feed, and by the age of seven was working as a shoeshiner. Fong attended local public schools and graduated from McKinley High School in 1924. Masaji Marumoto, who went on to become the first Japanese-American Justice on the Supreme Court of Hawaii, was a classmate.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.