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

The 50 individual states that make up the United States are co-sovereign entities with 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."

The 50 individual states make up the basic organizational unit of the USA. When it comes to authority, they have everything the federal government doesn't and can't. Concerns such as intrastate commerce, elections, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and the construction and maintenance of non-federal roads are generally under the purview of state governments. There is a separate government in each state, with its own constitution based on republican ideals and its own executive, legislative, and judicial branches. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of senators and representatives from all 50 states. 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. Each state has the right to send a number of electors to the Electoral College, the body that votes for President and Vice President, equal to the sum of its congressional deputies. [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. No state has been given preferential treatment over another, and all new states have been granted full membership. [5]

The table below details the official statehood dates for each of the fifty US states. In July 1776, upon agreeing to the United States Declaration of Independence, the original 13 states became sovereign nations; between 1777 and 1781, they ratified the Articles of Confederation, the country's first constitution, and formally joined the Union. (A separate table with dates of AoC ratification is provided below.) These states are listed in the order in which they joined the new (and current) federal government upon ratification of the Constitution in 1787. Dates of admission for subsequent states are those officially recognized by law. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted or confirmed) Developed from 1   Delaware It was the 7th of December, 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Thursday, December 12th, 1787 [10]
(ratified) British Colony of Pennsylvania 3   New Jersey On this day in 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 Wednesday, January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Royal Province 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial-era colony turned-property province 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   The state of New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) 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) Province of New York under the Crown 12   Specifically, the state of North Carolina1. On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) The North Carolina Colony was a Crown Colony. 13   The State of Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Officially, the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations were a crown colony. 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) [c]Republic of Vermont; 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) The Commonwealth 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) Canada's Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) France's Orleans Territory 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi This day in 1817, on the 10th, [22]
(admitted) In the Mississippi Territory1 21   Illinois The Third of December, 1818 [23]
(admitted) This is a section of Illinois Territory. 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) Location: Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Maine[f]) District 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Area of Missouri 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Land of Arkansas 26   Michigan On this day in 1837, January 26 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) An Area Including Florida 28   Texas The 29th of December, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Texas Confederate States 29   Iowa Thursday, December 28th, 1846
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) An Area of Wisconsin 31   California Publish Date: September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Disordered Lands / The Mexican Cession, Part (g) 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon Day of the Week: 14 FEBRUARY 1859
(admitted) Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   Western Virginia 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) Nebraska State 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) Colorado, the Territory 39   The State of North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) Partial Territory of Dakota 40   An Acronym for South Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) South Dakota Section 41   Montana Tuesday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Region 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) States Constituting Wyoming 45   Utah Time: Thursday, January 4, 1896 [43]
(admitted) This is Utah Country. 46   Oklahoma On this day in 1907 — November 16 [44]
(admitted) Bordering Oklahoma is Indian Territory. 47   New Mexico Sunday, January 6th, 1912
(admitted) An Area Now Part of New Mexico 48   Arizona Date: February 14th, 1912
(admitted) Arizona State 49   Alaska On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Alaskan Territory 50   Hawaii Day of the Moon, August 21, 1959
(admitted) Located in Hawaii's territorial waters

Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On this day in 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved by the Second Continental Congress and sent to the individual states for ratification. Once all 13 states ratified the Articles of Confederation, they became effective 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 On this day in 1777, December 16 2 Carolina del Sur Friday, February 5th, 1778 3 New York Saturday, February 6th, 1778 4 Location: Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia On this day in 1778, February 26 7 Specifically, the state of 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 Dated: November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware On this day in 1779: 13 Maryland The date was February 2nd, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was one of the provisions of the Compromise of 1850, a set of congressional acts.
• 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.
• The Enabling Act of 1889 gave the citizens of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories the legal right to organize state governments (with Dakota being split into two states) and apply for admission to the Union.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act granted 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 the people of those territories. calling for a vote on whether or not the two jurisdictions should be merged into one state.
• State of Alaska officially joined the Union on January 3, 1959, thanks to the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• U.S. State Video Collection History com
• "Independence Day" 50states com