An orderly list of the U.S. states' admission to the Union

A state is one of the 50 individual entities that together make up the United States and share sovereignty with the federal government. Due to the separation of powers between the federal government and the individual states, all U.S. citizens are considered citizens of both the federal republic and the state in which they currently reside. [1]In their full official names, the states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia use the term commonwealth rather than state.

The 50 states are the most basic administrative divisions of the USA. They hold all authority not specifically granted to or prohibited by the United States federal government in the Constitution. Local matters, such as intrastate commerce, elections, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and non-federal road construction and maintenance, are typically under the purview of state governments. Each state has a government that includes an executive, legislative, and judicial branch, and a constitution based on republican principles. [2]

Congress, the federal legislature, is bicameral, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and all states and their citizens have a voice there. 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]

Congress has the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union according to 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]

The table below details the dates of statehood for each of the 50 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 separate table detailing the ratification dates of the AoC.) The order in which these states are listed indicates the order in which they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed (and still existing) United States of America. Each subsequent state's admission date is a statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted or approved) Constituted of 1   Delaware Wednesday, December 7th, 1787 [8]
(ratified) "Delaware Colony" 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) State of Pennsylvania as a Private Colony 3   New Jersey Thursday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia Initially published: January 2, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut 9 January 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, the Royal Colony 6   Massachusetts Tuesday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Massachusetts Bay Colony, a crown colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a Colonial Colony 8   The State of South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   Granite State, New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) State of New Hampshire, a British Crown Colony 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominated Colony of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) Imperial New York 12   To the State of North Carolina1 Tuesday, November 21st, 1789 [14]
(ratified) Kingdom of North Carolina 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Province of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The Republic of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) There are nine counties in Virginia's District of Kentucky[d]. 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) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana It was on this date in 1816 that the United States declared independence from France.
(admitted) Those Parts of the United States That Are Currently 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) This is Mississippi Country. 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Part of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Tuesday, December 14, 1819 [24]
(admitted) Geographical Area Including Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Province of New Brunswick, Canada 24   Missouri It was August 10th, 1821. [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 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 Monday, 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 Portion of Wisconsin Territory 31   California Saturday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Ungoverned regions / Mexican Cession (part)[g]. 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Area Including the State of Minnesota 33   Oregon Sunday, February 14th, 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861, January 29: [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   "West Virginia1" June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Virginia (all fifty counties in the Trans-Allegheny area[h]). 36   Nevada The thirtieth of October, 1864
(admitted) Places in Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado On this day in 1876, August 1. [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   Dakota Dunes State It all started on November 2nd, 1889. [38][i]
(admitted) State of Dakota (in part) 40   Dakota (State) On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) Regional portion of Dakotas 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Location: Montana, USA 42   Washington Adopted: 11 November 1889 [42]
(admitted) Territory of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) This is the territory of Idaho. 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah Sunday, January 4th, 1896 [43]
(admitted) Locale of Utah 46   Oklahoma Tuesday, November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico Monday, January 6th, 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona Sunday, February 14th, 1912
(admitted) In the Territory of Arizona 49   Alaska The Third of January, 1959
(admitted) State of Alaska 50   Hawaii Those words were first spoken on August 21st, 1959.
(admitted) Oahu, Hawaii

Dates of ratification of the articles of confederation [ edit ]

Articles of Confederation were approved for ratification by the 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 abolished and the present Constitution ratified on March 4, 1789, ushering in the modern federal government. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia Monday, December 16th, 1777 2 Colony State of South Carolina 05 Février 1778 3 New York This day in history: February 6th, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Nineteen Seventy-Eighth Day, February 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia Friday, February 26th, 1778 7 Granite State, 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 It's the 19th of November in the year 1778. 12 Delaware As of today, February 1, 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.
• Enabling Act of 1889, allowing citizens of the Dakota (to be split into two states), Montana, and Washington territories to organize state governments and apply for admission to the Union.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act gave the people of Oklahoma and 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 to decide whether or not the two areas should be united as one state.
• On January 3, 1959, Alaska officially became the 49th state in the Union thanks to the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Web Resources [ edit ]

• Title: "Videos of the 50 States of the USA" History com
• The "Birth of a Nation" 50states com