American state membership timeline

One of the fifty entities that make up the United States and share sovereignty with the federal government is a state. Due to the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. 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 political units in America. They have all the authority that is not specifically given to or forbidden to the federal government by the United States Constitution. Generally speaking, matters of local concern are under the purview of the respective state government. This includes, but is not limited to, the conduct of intrastate commerce, the management of elections, the formation of local governments, the direction of public schools, and the building and maintenance of roads that are not funded by Generally speaking, republican principles form the basis for each individual state's constitution and government, which is made up of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, that includes representatives from all 50 states and their citizens. At least one senator and one representative are elected from each state, with the number of representatives each state has in the House of Representatives determined by that state's population as of the last 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 Constitution specifically gives the Congress the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1. A total of 50 states now make up the United States, up from the original 13. All newly admitted states have been given full voting rights. [5]

A timeline of statehood for each of the 50 states is provided below. By signing on to the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the first 13 states were officially established, and from 1777 to 1781, they all became part of the original Union of States by ratifying the Articles of Confederation. (See below for a separate table detailing the ratification dates of the AoC.) Each state is listed in the order in which it ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became a part of the newly formed (and still existing) federal government. Each subsequent state's admission date is a statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(approved or permitted) Created by 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) The State of Delaware, a British Colony[b] 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) State of Pennsylvania as a Private Colony 3   New Jersey Wednesday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia Time: Tuesday, January 2, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colony of the British Crown in Georgia 5   Connecticut Tuesday, January 9, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts This day in 1788, on February 6th, you could say: [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Maryland Colony was a private colony. 8   Specifically, the state of South Carolina1. May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Kingdom of New Hampshire 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominated Colony of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Colony Held in Trust for the Crown 12   The state of North Carolina1 On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a British Colony 13   Providence, Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) People's Republic of Vermont[c] 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) Province of the Northwest 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) Hoosier State 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois Wednesday, December 3, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Part of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama This day in 1819, on December 14 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Maine[f] District). 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Arkansas State 26   Michigan January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Province of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The Florida Peninsula 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) The State of Texas as a Separate Republic 29   Iowa Last Updated: 28 December, 1846
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Date: September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) A portion of the Mexican Cession that is disorganized[g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) Segment of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Wednesday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   "West Virginia1" June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada It is now October 31, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) Land of Colorado 39   The State of North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) Specifically the Dakota Territory. 40   State of South Dakota1 It all started on November 2nd, 1889. [38][i]
(admitted) Section of Dakota Territory 41   Montana Friday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington Dated: November 11th, 1889 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) State of Wyoming 45   Utah Sunday, January 4th, 1896 [43]
(admitted) Territorial Claims in Utah 46   Oklahoma Friday, November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico Saturday, January 6th, 1912
(admitted) An Area Now Part of New Mexico 48   Arizona On this day in 1912, February 14th,
(admitted) Territorial Status: Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959, January 3
(admitted) Region of Alaska 50   Hawaii The date of August 21, 1959
(admitted) State of 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. On March 1, 1781, after ratification by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation took effect. The current federal government, established under the Constitution, succeeded the general government under the Articles on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia Wednesday, December 16th, 1777 2 Carolina del Sur Friday, February 5th, 1778 3 New York Adopted: February 6th, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia Tuesday, February 26, 1778 7 Element: 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 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.
• 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.
• This was made possible by the Enabling Act of 1889, which 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 apply for admission to the Union.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act granted permission for a state government to be established and for Oklahoma and the Indian Territory to be admitted to the Union as a single state. The New Mexico and Arizona Admission Acts granted similar permission for those territories. calling for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be combined into one state.
• The Alaska Statehood Act, which officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

A look at the world outside [ edit ]

• Watch videos from each state in the United States. History com
• "Independence Day" 50states com