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

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. Commonwealth is used in the official names of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia rather than state.

The 50 states are the most basic administrative divisions of the USA. They have all the authority that isn't specifically given to or forbidden to the federal government by the United States Constitution. Generally, matters of local concern are under the purview of state governments, including but not limited to: intrastate commerce regulation, election administration, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and the construction and maintenance of roads that are not funded by the federal government. 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 senators and representatives from each state. 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. The Electoral College is the body that officially votes for the President and Vice President of the United States. [3] Each state has the right to send a number of electors to the Electoral College equal to the sum of its congressional deputies and senators. [4]

The power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union is vested in Congress by Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution. The United States was founded in 1776, and since then the number of states has grown from 13 to the current 50. All newly admitted states have been given full voting rights. [5]

All 50 states and their respective dates of statehood are listed below. After signing on to the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the first 13 states formally became independent nations in their own right on July 4th, 1776, and ratified the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, between 1777 and 1781. (See the separate table below for the exact dates each AoC was ratified.) These states are listed in the order in which they joined the new (and current) federal government upon ratification of the Constitution in 1787. After that, each subsequent state's admission date is a legally binding statute. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
accept(ed) or (approved) Based on 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) State of Pennsylvania as a Private Colony 3   New Jersey Friday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Massachusetts Bay Colony, a crown colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) State of Maryland, a Private Colony 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   A New England State: June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Kingdom of New Hampshire 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Kingdom and Dominion of Virginia 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   Carolina del Norte On this day in 1789, November 21st, [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Colony under British Rule; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) This is a free and independent Vermont republic. 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (Kentucky is represented by nine counties in Virginia) 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Southwestern Acreage 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Canada's Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Province of Orleans 19   Indiana Friday, December 11th, 1816
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi When: December 10th, 1817 [22]
(admitted) Area encompassing the present-day state of Mississippi 21   Illinois The date was December 3, 1818. [23]
(admitted) Substantial Area of Illinois 22   Alabama On this day in 1819, December 14th, [24]
(admitted) Lands in Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Extent of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Region of Arkansas 26   Michigan Saturday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) In the State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Land of Florida 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa When: Sunday, December 28, 1846
(admitted) An Area of Iowa 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) State of Wisconsin, Inc. 31   California Wednesday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Frontiers without government oversight / Mexican Cession (Part)[g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon Thursday, February 14, 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861, January 29 [33]
(admitted) Regional Kansas 35   Appalachia's West Virginia1 June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada Date: October 31, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Area encompassing present-day Nebraska 38   Colorado Beginning on August 1st, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The State of Colorado 39   The State of North Dakota1 The Date Is Tuesday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Part of the Dakota Territory 40   Dakota (State) Dated: November 2nd, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Specifically the Dakota Territory. 41   Montana Friday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Located in the state of Montana. 42   Washington Dated: November 11th, 1889 [42]
(admitted) Location: The State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Locale of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Places in 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 6 January 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) Land of Arizona 49   Alaska This day in 1959, on January 3:
(admitted) Alaskan Territory. 50   Hawaii When: 21 August 1959
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

Moments in time when the Articles of Confederation were ratified [ 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 being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation took effect on March 1, 1781. The current federal government, established under the Constitution, succeeded the general government under the Articles on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia Saturday, December 16th, 1777 2 Colony State of South Carolina 05 Février 1778 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut Friday, February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia Tuesday, February 26, 1778 7 This 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 Friday, November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland The date was February 2, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• A set of laws passed by Congress in 1850 known as the "Compromise of 1850" included a clause guaranteeing California's entry into the Union.
• In the years leading up to Kansas's admission to the Union as a state, from 1854 to 1861, the territory was the site of a series of violent conflicts between pro- and anti-slavery groups known as "Bleeding Kansas."
• The Enabling Act of 1889 gave the people of the Dakota Territory, the Montana Territory, and the Washington Territory the legal right to organize their own state governments (with the Dakota Territory being split into two separate states) and apply for admission to the United States as new states.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act granted permission for the people of the Indian Territory and the State of Oklahoma to join the Union as a single state, and the New Mexico and Arizona Admission Act granted similar permission for the people of those territories to join the Union as individual states. calling for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be combined into one state.
• As of January 3, 1959, Alaska officially became a member of the United States as a result of the passage of the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

To other sites [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 States" History com
• ''Early states'' 50states com