American state membership timeline

The 50 individual states that make up the United States are co-sovereign entities with the central government. Due to the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. In their full legal names, the states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia use the term commonwealth rather than state.

The fifty states are the most basic political units in America. They have all the authority that isn't specifically given to or prohibited to the federal government by the United States Constitution. Issues of local concern are typically delegated to the respective state governments, and these include the management of intrastate commerce, the conduct of elections, the formation of local governments, the direction of public schools, and the construction and maintenance of roads that are not funded by the federal government. Republican principles form the basis for each state's constitution and government, which is made up of an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, from which citizens of all 50 states and the District of Columbia can elect their own representatives. Each state has two senators and at least one representative, with the size of each state's delegation in the House of Representatives determined by the 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]

The power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union is delegated to Congress by Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution. The original thirteen states of the United States have since been joined by another 33, bringing the total to fifty. All newly admitted states have been given full voting rights. [5]

Below is a table with information about when each of the 50 states became independent. Following their approval of the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the original 13 states entered the Union of States in the years 1777–1781, and ratified the Articles of Confederation. (See below for a separate table detailing the ratification dates of the AoC.) They are listed here in the order in which they joined the new (and current) federal government after ratifying the Constitution in 1787. Each subsequent state's admission date is a statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted or confirmed) Incorporated from 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) [b]The Colony of Delaware. 2   Pennsylvania Monday, December 12th, 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia This day in 1788, January 2 [8]
(ratified) Royal Georgian Colony 5   Connecticut It all started on January 9th, 1788. [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Massachusetts Bay Colony was a royal possession. 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   Columbia, South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Originally, South Carolina was a British colony. 9   For the state of New Hampshire1, see: June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony of the British Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominated Colony of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Crown Colony 12   Asheville, North Carolina1 Thursday, November 21st, 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former Crown Colony 13   To the State of Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Providence Plantations, Rhode Island, and the Crown Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The Republic of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (Kentucky is represented by nine counties in Virginia) 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) The Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Canada's Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Louisiana's Orleans Province 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) Indiana Territory 20   Mississippi On this day in 1817, December 10 [22]
(admitted) Land Located in the State of Mississippi 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) An Area of Illinois 22   Alabama Thursday, December 14, 1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Region of Missouri 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Geographical Region Including Arkansas 26   Michigan Tuesday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) State of Florida 28   Texas The date is December 29th, 1845. [29]
(admitted) The State of Texas, Republika 29   Iowa On this day in 1846:
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California The Nineteen Fifteenth of September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Part of the Mexican Cession, an area of disorganization[g]. 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Segment of Minnesota 33   Oregon Date: February 14, 1859
(admitted) Portions of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Tuesday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) Separate Section of Kansas Territory 35   "West Virginia1" June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Virginia (all fifty counties in the Trans-Allegheny area[h]). 36   Nevada Monday, October 31st, 1864
(admitted) Places in Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Area 39   State of North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) Section of Dakota Territory 40   Geographical Indicator: South Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana The Date of November 8, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington The Eleventh Day of November, 1889 [42]
(admitted) Territorial Government of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Geographical ID: The Gem State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) States Constituting Wyoming 45   Utah Thursday, January 4, 1896 [43]
(admitted) Utah Territory 46   Oklahoma The Date Was November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) State of Oklahoma and Native American Lands 47   New Mexico On this day in 1912, January 6
(admitted) This is the New Mexico Territory1. 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959, January 3
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii On this day in 1959, August 21st,
(admitted) Hawaiian Home Islands

Timeline of the Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved by the Second Continental Congress and sent to the individual states for ratification. On March 1, 1781, after ratification by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation entered into force. The current federal government, established under the Constitution, succeeded the general government under the Articles on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia On this day in 1777, December 16 2 Colony State of South Carolina The fifth of February, 1778 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 A Place Called Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia Friday, February 26th, 1778 7 This New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 Geographical Indication: North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey On this day in 1778, November 19 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland Two-Fourths of February, 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.
• The years between 1854 and 1861, just before Kansas became a state, were marked by a string of bloody conflicts in the Kansas 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 their own governments and seek admission to the Union as individual states (the Dakotas were to be split in half).
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act gave the people of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory the legal right to organize a state government and seek admission to the Union as a single state. The New Mexico and Arizona Admission Acts did the same for the people of those territories. calling for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be combined into one state.
• Alaska became the 49th state on January 3, 1959, thanks to the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 States" History com
• "Independence Day" 50states com