Hikueru was the setting for Jack London's short story "The House of Mapuhi" in South Sea Tales (1911) and Armstrong Sperry's novel Call It Courage, which won the Newbery Medal in 1941.

Spanish navigator Domingo de Boenechea sighted Hikueru in 1774 on his ship the Aguila.

The 1903 cyclone wrought considerable damage, however, and caused the death of 377 people, including 261 from the island of Hao.

In his South Sea Tales, Jack London gives a vivid description of this disastrous hurricane.

[4] The atoll is served by the Hikueru Airport (IATA: HHZ, ICAO: NTGH).