A chronological listing of when each state joined the United States

A state is one of the 50 individual entities that make up the United States and share sovereignty with the federal government. Given the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. [1]The full official names of the states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all include the word "commonwealth" rather than "state."

The 50 states make up the main divisions of the USA. They have all the authority that is not specifically given to or forbidden to the federal government in the United States Constitution. Local matters, such as intrastate commerce, elections, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and non-federal road construction and maintenance, are generally under the purview of state governments. Government in each state is divided into an executive, a legislature, and a judiciary, and is based on a unique set of constitutional safeguards based on republican ideals. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of senators and representatives from all 50 states. There are two senators and at least one representative from each state, with the size of each state's delegation in the House of Representatives determined by that state's population as of the most recent decennial census required by the Constitution. There's also the Electoral College, which votes for the President and Vice President of the United States, of which each state gets a certain number of representatives and senators to represent it. [4]

According to the Constitution, Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 gives Congress the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union. There are now fifty states, up from the original thirteen that existed when the United States was founded in 1776. Upon admission, each new state joins the union on an equal footing with the others. [5]

All 50 states and their respective dates of statehood are listed below. After signing on to the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the first 13 states formally became independent nations on their own right in July 1777 and became part of the first Union of States between 1777 and 1781 by ratifying the Articles of Confederation. (The dates of AoC ratification are listed in a separate table below.) The order in which these states are listed indicates the order in which they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed (and still existing) United States of America. For each subsequent state, the on-list admission date represents the legally binding date established by legislation. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted or approved) Produced by 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) The State of Delaware, or the Delaware Colony[b]. 2   Pennsylvania The 12th of December, 1787 [10]
(ratified) State of Pennsylvania as a Private Colony 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) State of New Jersey, once a Crown Colony 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Colony 5   Connecticut Tuesday, January 9, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a Colony under the Crown 6   Massachusetts This day in 1788, on February 6th, you could say [8]
(ratified) Boston, Massachusetts, a Royal Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Province of South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   A New England State: June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) State of Virginia, Dominion of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   The state of North Carolina1 Wednesday, November 21st, 1789 [14]
(ratified) Royal Colony of North Carolina 13   Location: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Providence Plantations and Rhode Island, a Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) Independent State of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) A total of nine counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia's District in the state of Kentucky[d]. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) The Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) North West Territories, Segment 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) Those Parts of the United States That Are Currently Cal 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Piece of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) Alabam's Home State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) New England (Maine(f) District) Massachusetts 24   Missouri Saturday, August 10th, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Split Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) To the East of the Mississippi River, Arkansas 26   Michigan Saturday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Michigan State 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas On this date in 1845: [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa On this day in 1846:
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) An Area of Wisconsin 31   California Date: September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Mexican Cession [g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) The State of Minnesota, or a Portion of It 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) Piece of Kansas Territory 35   In the state of West Virginia1. June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada October 31st, 1864
(admitted) Nevada, State of 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   The state of North Dakota1 Tuesday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   Dakota (State) On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana Dated: November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington It all started on November 11th, 1889. [42]
(admitted) Region of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Locales in Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico 6 January 1912
(admitted) Location: New Mexico, USA 48   Arizona Today in History (February 14th, 912)
(admitted) Territorial Status: Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959:
(admitted) In Alaska's case, this means the territory itself. 50   Hawaii Wednesday, August 21, 1959
(admitted) Honolulu, Hawaii

Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On this day in 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved by the Second Continental Congress and sent to the individual states for ratification. After being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation became effective on March 1, 1781. The Articles of Confederation were abolished and replaced by the present Constitutional government on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia Friday, December 16th, 1777 2 Southeastern United States, Specifically, the State of South Carolina On this day in 1778, February 5 3 New York Saturday, February 6th, 1778 4 A Place Called Rhode Island It was February 9th, 1778. 5 Connecticut The date was February 12, 1778. 6 Georgia The 26th of February, 1778 7 The State of New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 The State of North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware Day of the Sun, February 1, 1779 13 Maryland The date was February 2, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was a part of the Compromise of 1850, a set of legislative acts passed by Congress.
• During the years 1854–1861, when Kansas was still considered part of the territory rather than a state, a series of violent conflicts broke out in the territory between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups.
• The Enabling Act of 1889 gave the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories the right to organize themselves into states (with Dakota being split into two separate states) and to apply for admission to the Union.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act granted the people of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory the right to organize a state government and seek admission to the Union as a single state. It also granted the people of New Mexico and Arizona the right to do the same. calls for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be united as a single state.
• The Alaska Statehood Act, which officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Websites outside the scope of this paper [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 States" History com
• The "Birth of a Nation" 50states com