Chuuk was one of six districts of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) which were administered by the United States under charter from the United Nations from the end of the Second World War to the mid-1980s.
On July 2, 2002, heavy rains from Tropical Storm Chataan caused more than thirty landslides that killed forty-seven people and injured dozens others, in the state's deadliest weather disaster.