American state membership timeline

A state is one of the 50 individual entities that make up the United States and have equal 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. [1]The full official names of the states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all include the word "commonwealth" rather than "state."

All of the United States can be broken down into its constituent parts, but states are the most basic level They have all authority not specifically granted to or prohibited by the federal government in the United States Constitution. Concerns such as intrastate commerce, elections, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and non-federal road construction and maintenance fall under the purview of state governments. 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. 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 the population of that state as determined by the most recent decennial census required by the Constitution. In addition, the Electoral College, the body that chooses the President and Vice President of the United States, grants each state a number of electors equal to the sum of its congressional deputies and senators. [4]

Congress has the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union per Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution. There are now fifty states, up from the original thirteen that existed when the United States was founded in 1776. Each newly admitted state has been given full voting rights alongside all the others. [5]

Below is a table with information about when each of the 50 states became independent. In July 1776, after agreeing to the United States Declaration of Independence, the first 13 colonies became states. Between 1777 and 1781, they ratified the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, and became members of the Union. (See the separate table below for the exact dates each AoC was ratified.) These states are listed according to the order in which they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed (and still existing) federal government. Each subsequent state's admission date is an official, statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted; confirmed) Developed from 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) [b]The Colony of Delaware. 2   Pennsylvania As of today (12 December 1787) [10]
(ratified) PA, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey This day in 1787, on the 18th, [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a Crown Colony 4   Georgia Sunday, January 2nd, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a Crown Colony 5   Connecticut Monday, January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) The Province of Connecticut as a Royal Colony 6   Massachusetts 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) Royal Colony of Massachusetts Bay 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Maryland Colony was a colonial possession. 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) New Hampshire, a Colony under the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominated Colony of the British Empire 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   In the state of North Carolina1 Wednesday, November 21st, 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   State of Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) (c)The Vermont Republic 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) State of Virginia (which includes nine counties in its District of Kentucky[d]). 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) State located in the South-Western part of the United States 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Northern Provinces 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana This day in 1816, on December 11
(admitted) Those Parts of the United States That Are Currently 20   Mississippi Sunday, December 10th, 1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Valley 21   Illinois Sunday, December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Part of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) The State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Maine(f] District) Massachusetts 24   Missouri As of this date in 1821, August 10 [26]
(admitted) An Area of Missouri 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan This day in 1837, on January 26th, [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas Thursday, December 29, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa This day in 1846, on December 28th,
(admitted) Part of Iowa was once known as the Iowa Territory. 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Disorganized land / the Mexican Cession, part [g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Piece of Minnesota Territory 33   Oregon The 14th of February, 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Thursday, 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 Date: October 31, 1864
(admitted) Location: Nevada, USA 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado Initial use: August1st, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Area 39   There's a lot of room in North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) State of Dakota (in part) 40   Dakota (State) This day in 1889, November [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington 11 November 1889 [42]
(admitted) Territorial Government of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Wyoming, the Territories 45   Utah It all started on this day in 1896: January 4 [43]
(admitted) Territory of Utah 46   Oklahoma Friday, November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico The date was January 6th, 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska Dated: January 3rd, 1959
(admitted) Alaskan territory. 50   Hawaii Tuesday, August 21, 1959
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

Times of Articles of Confederation ratification [ edit ]

By a vote of 15 to 1, the Second Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation on November 15, 1777. After being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation took effect on March 1, 1781. To replace the Articles of Confederation's general government, the present Constitution was ratified on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia A Date in History: December 16th, 1777 2 This is the state of South Carolina. The fifth of February, 1778 3 New York The sixth of February, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut Friday, February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia February 26th, 1778 7 In 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 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.
• It was the passage of the Enabling Act of 1889 that allowed the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories to organize their own governments and eventually join the Union as individual states (the Dakotas were split in half).
• Enabling Act for the State of Oklahoma; allowing citizens of the Indian Territory to organize a state government and seek admission to the Union as a single state; allowing citizens of the New Mexico and Arizona Territories to organize a state government and seek admission to the Union as individual states. calling for a vote on whether or not the two jurisdictions should be merged into one state.
• On January 3, 1959, Alaska officially became a state thanks to the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

To other sites [ edit ]

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