American state membership timeline

A state is one of the 50 individual entities that make up the United States and share sovereignty with the federal government. Since the federal government and the individual states share power, all U.S. citizens are also citizens of the state in which they currently reside. [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 are the most basic administrative divisions of the USA. They have all the authority that is not specifically granted to or prohibited by the federal government. In most cases, state governments are responsible for overseeing activities that affect only their respective territories, such as intrastate commerce regulation, election administration, municipal formation, public school policy, and the building and upkeep of roads that are not funded by the federal government. A republican form of government, with separate executive, legislative, and judicial branches, exists in each of the 50 states, all of which are governed by their own constitutions. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and it is comprised of representatives from all 50 states and their citizens. 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. In addition, the number of electors a state can choose to represent it in the Electoral College, the body responsible for choosing the President and Vice President of the United States, is equal to the sum of its congressional deputies. [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. A total of 50 states now make up the United States, up from the original 13. Each newly admitted state has been given full voting rights alongside all the others. [5]

Statehood dates for each of the 50 U.S. states are listed below. After signing on to the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the first 13 states formally entered the Union of States between 1777 and 1781 by ratifying the Articles of Confederation. (The dates of each ratification of the AoC are listed in a separate table below.) This list of states is presented in the order in which they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed and currently functioning federal government. For each succeeding 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 confirmed)" Composed of 1   Delaware On this day in 1787: [8]
(ratified) Province of Delaware[b] 2   Pennsylvania The 12th of December, 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) Kingdom of New Jersey 4   Georgia Sunday, January 2nd, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut Dated: January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) State of Connecticut, Royal Colony 6   Massachusetts 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   A State in the Southeastern United States May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Carolina was a crown colony at the time. 9   The state of New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Crown Colony 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 Colony 12   Cary, North Carolina1 On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, the Crown Colony 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Royal Colony 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) Continent's Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Part of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Valley 21   Illinois Monday, December 3, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Substantial Area of Illinois 22   Alabama Thursday, December 14, 1819 [24]
(admitted) Alabama State 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Region of Maine(f): Massachusetts 24   Missouri Date: August 10, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Section of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Arkansas State 26   Michigan January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Region of Florida 28   Texas Saturday, December 29th, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa On this day in 1846:
(admitted) The Iowa Territory, Part 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Ungoverned regions / Mexican Cession (part)[g]. 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Split off of Minnesota 33   Oregon Date: February 14, 1859
(admitted) Portions of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Monday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) Partial Kansas Territory 35   "West Virginia1" June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) West Virginia (all fifty counties in the Trans-Allegheny area[h]) 36   Nevada It is now October 31, 1864
(admitted) Locale of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) State of Nebraska 38   Colorado When: August 1st, 1876 [37]
(admitted) Location of Colorado's Territory 39   That Place Called North Dakota1 It all started on November 2nd, 1889. [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   Dakota (State) The date of November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) An Area of Dakota 41   Montana This day in 1889, November 8 [41]
(admitted) Western United States region encompassing Montana. 42   Washington This day in 1889, November 11 [42]
(admitted) Location: The State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) It's the state of Idaho. 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah Thursday, January 4, 1896 [43]
(admitted) UT - Utah Valley 46   Oklahoma Saturday, November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Including both Oklahoma and Indian Country as their own separate territories. 47   New Mexico The date was January 6th, 1912
(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) Region of Alaska 50   Hawaii The date of August 21, 1959
(admitted) Hawaii, a Territorial State

Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

The Articles of Confederation were approved for ratification by the individual states on November 15, 1777, after being approved by the Second Continental Congress. After being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation took effect on March 1, 1781. The Articles of Confederation were formally abolished on March 4, 1789, and the present federal government under the Constitution took their place. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia On this day in 1777 2 Specifically, the State of South Carolina 05 Février 1778 3 New York Date: February 6, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island On this day in 1778, February 9: 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia Tuesday, February 26th, 1778 7 For the state of New Hampshire, see: March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 Here in good ol' NC April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey The date was November 19th, 1778. 12 Delaware The date was February 1, 1779. 13 Maryland The date was February 2, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was a provision of the Compromise of 1850, a collection of 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.
• In 1889, Congress passed the Enabling Act, which allowed the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories to organize themselves politically as states and 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. 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.
• Upon passage of the Alaska Statehood Act on December 2, 1958, Alaska was officially admitted to the Union as the 49th state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Web Resources [ edit ]

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