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. People in the United States are citizens of both the federal republic and the state in which they currently reside. There are four states (Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia) whose official names do not include the word "state," but rather "commonwealth."

In the United States, the individual states are the most basic political entities. Each state is endowed with all authority not specifically delegated to the federal government or prohibited from being exercised by the Constitution of the United States. Concerns 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. Republican principles form the basis for each state's constitution and government, which consists 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, and it includes representatives from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Two senators and at least one representative represent each state in the Senate, while the size of a state's delegation in the House of Representatives is determined by that state's population as of the most recent decennial census required by the Constitution. Further, the Electoral College, the body that chooses the President and Vice President, allows each state to send a number of voters to Congress equal to its total number of representatives and senators. [4]

The Constitution clearly states that Congress has the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1. There are now fifty states, up from the original thirteen that existed when the United States was founded in 1776. New states join the union on an equal footing with the rest. [5]

The table below details the official statehood dates for each of the fifty US states. 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. (See below for a table detailing the timeline of Acts of Consecration) These states are listed in the order in which they joined the new (and current) federal government upon ratification of 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
approved of or allowed in Consisting of 1   Delaware On this day in 1787: [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania It was on December 12th, 1787, that the Declaration of Independence was [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey Saturday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey was a royal colony. 4   Georgia Sunday, January 2nd, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Crown Colony of Georgia 5   Connecticut 9 January 1788 [12]
(ratified) The Connecticut Colony, a British Crown Colony 6   Massachusetts The sixth of February, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Royal Colony of Massachusetts Bay 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial-era colony turned-property province 8   A State in the Southeastern United States May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The New Hampshire Colony was a Crown Colony. 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Imperial and Royal Dominion of Virginia 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Colony of the British Crown 12   In the state of North Carolina1 On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a British Crown Colony 13   The State of 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) In its District of Kentucky[d], Virginia includes nine counties. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) The Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Region of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) District of Orleans 19   Indiana It was on this date in 1816 that the United States declared independence from France.
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) Location of the Mississippi River and Its Surrounding Lands 21   Illinois On this day in 1818, December 3: [23]
(admitted) Part of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) Region of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri The Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Its Namesake State of Arkansas 26   Michigan January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Territorial Government of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) State of Florida 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) Independence, Texas 29   Iowa Sunday, December 28th, 1846
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Cession to Mexico[g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Piece of Minnesota Territory 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) Piece of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Sunday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) This portion of Kansas Territory 35   That State in the Mountaineer State June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) West Virginia (all fifty counties in the Trans-Allegheny area[h]) 36   Nevada The 31st of October, 1864
(admitted) Located in the state of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) State of Nebraska 38   Colorado First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   The State of North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) Partial Dakota Territory 40   It's in the Badlands of South Dakota1. Day of the Dead, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Location: Montana 42   Washington 11 November 1889 [42]
(admitted) Locale of Washington State 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Located in the state of Idaho. 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) In the state of Wyoming. 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) Territorial Claims in Utah 46   Oklahoma On this day in 1907 — November 16 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico Initially published: January 6, 1912
(admitted) This is the New Mexico Territory1. 48   Arizona Monday, February 14, 1912
(admitted) Pardon my ignorance, but I wasn't aware that Arizona was 49   Alaska Three days into 1959
(admitted) The State of Alaska 50   Hawaii Today in History (August 21st, 1959)
(admitted) Aloha! Hawaii!

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. After the 13 states ratified the Articles of Confederation on March 1, 1781, they became law. The Articles of Confederation were abolished on March 4, 1789, and the present federal government under the Constitution was established. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia On this day in 1777 2 Carolina del Sur 05 Février 1778 3 New York Thursday, February 6th, 1778 4 Place Name: Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut The 12th of February, 1778 6 Georgia Tuesday, February 26th, 1778 7 That State of New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 Carolina del Norte April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey Dated: November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware The First of February, 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.
• A series of bloody conflicts between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups occurred in Kansas Territory between 1854 and 1861, a period known as "Bleeding Kansas."
• 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. necessitating a vote in a referendum to decide 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 ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• Video Clips of the 50 United States History com
• Indicators of Statehood Dates 50states com