'Tibet was absolutely a sovereign nation. I guess it depends what you mean by "recent"' The rest of the world notes from afar that Hawaii became a US state in

'Tibet was absolutely a sovereign nation. I guess it depends what you mean by "recent"' The rest of the world notes from afar that Hawaii became a US state in 1959, whilst Tibet entered the PRC way back in 1951. In 1993, the US congress apologised for this - they didn't give it back :)