Date of admission to the Union is listed for each of the 50 states in the United States.

As one of the 50 federally recognized entities that make up the United States, a state has a degree of autonomy from the federal government. Due to the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. [1]The full official names of the states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all include the word "commonwealth" rather than "state."

Each of the 50 states constitutes the main divisions of the USA. They have all the authority that is not specifically given to or forbidden to the federal government by 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. A republican form of government, with separate executive, legislative, and judicial branches, exists in each of the 50 states, all of which are governed by their own constitutions. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of senators and representatives from all 50 states. In the Senate, every state has two seats, and in the House of Representatives, every state has a minimum of one representative and as many as its population warrants, as determined by the most recent decennial census required by the Constitution. In addition, the number of electors a state can choose to represent it in the Electoral College, the body responsible for choosing the President and Vice President of the United States, is equal to the sum of the number of representatives and senators from that state. [4]

The power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union is delegated to Congress by 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. The admission standards for each new state are the same as those for the preexisting states. [5]

Below is a table with information about when each of the 50 states became independent. After signing on to the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the first 13 states formally entered the Union of States in the years between 1777 and 1781 by ratifying the Articles of Confederation. (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. Each succeeding state's admission date is a legally binding deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
admitted; approved Developed from 1   Delaware On this day in 1787: [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Friday, December 12th, 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, the Formerly-Imperial Crown Colony 4   Georgia Time: Tuesday, January 2, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut Earlier today, on January 9th, 1788, [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a Colony of the British Crown 6   Massachusetts 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) State of Maryland, a Private Colony 8   A State in the Southeastern United States May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   That State of New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The State of New Hampshire as a Royal Colony 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 by the Crown 12   Asheville, North Carolina1 The 21st of November, 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   The Ocean State: 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) (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) Canada's Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana Friday, December 11th, 1816
(admitted) Its Location: The Indiana Territory1 20   Mississippi As of today, December 10th, 1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Valley 21   Illinois It's the 3rd of December, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Substantial Area of Illinois 22   Alabama Yesterday, on the 14th of December, 1819 [24]
(admitted) Regional Identifier for Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Boston, MA (Maine Federal Court District) 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) State of Missouri (in part) 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan On this day in 1837, January 26 [28]
(admitted) The Michigan Territory1 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The Florida Peninsula 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) 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) The portion of Wisconsin Territory that is in question 31   California Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Disorganized land / the Mexican Cession, part [g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Split off of Minnesota 33   Oregon Day of the Week: 14 FEBRUARY 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Friday, January 29, 1861 [33]
(admitted) Separate Section of Kansas Territory 35   "West Virginia1" June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada Tuesday, October 31st, 1864
(admitted) This is Nevada Country. 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado When: August 1st, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Area 39   We're in North Dakota1. Dated: November 2nd, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Part of the Dakota Territory 40   Geographical Indicator: South Dakota1 When: Tuesday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Pieces of Dakota Territory 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington On this date in 1889 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah Thursday, January 4th, 1896 [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma The Date Was November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico It all started on January 6th, 1912
(admitted) It's the State of New Mexico! 48   Arizona Earlier today, on February 14th, 1912
(admitted) Places in Arizona 49   Alaska The date January 3, 1959
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii Monday, August 21st, 1959
(admitted) Island of Hawaii

A timeline of the ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved by the Second Continental Congress and sent on to the individual states for ratification. After being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation took effect on March 1, 1781. 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 Tuesday, December 16, 1777 2 Columbia, South Carolina On this day in 1778, February 5 3 New York Thursday, February 6th, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Sunday, February 9th, 1778 5 Connecticut Dated: February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia February 26th, 1778 7 This New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 This is the state of North Carolina. April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey This day in 1778, November 19 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 collection 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 gave 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 their respective territories. calling for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be combined into one state.
• This was made possible by the Alaska Statehood Act, which officially made January 3, 1959, the day Alaska was admitted to the Union as the 49th state.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Connecting to the Outside World: Some Useful Resources [ edit ]

• Videos Relating to Individual U.S. States History com
• Definition of Terms: "Date of Statehood" 50states com