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

A state is one of the fifty individual entities that together form the United States and share sovereignty with the federal government. Due to the separation 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 states make up the main divisions of the USA. The United States states have all the authority that is not specifically given to the federal government or expressly forbidden to the states by the United States Constitution. Issues of local concern are typically delegated to the respective state governments, and these include the management of intrastate commerce, the conduct of elections, the formation of local governments, the direction of public schools, and the construction and maintenance of roads that are not funded by the federal government. Government in each state is divided into an executive, a legislature, and a judiciary, and is based on a unique set of constitutional safeguards based on republican ideals. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, both of which are elected by the citizens of their respective 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. The Electoral College is the body that votes for 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]

This 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. The United States' total number of states has grown from the original 13 in 1776 to the current 50. No state has been given preferential treatment over another, and all new states have been granted full membership. [5]

See below for a chronological listing of when each of the 50 states became independent. After signing on to the 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. (A separate table detailing dates of AoC ratification is provided below.) 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. Listed for each subsequent state is the legally mandated date of admission. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(acknowledged or confirmed) Developed from 1   Delaware This day in 1787, on the 7th of December, [8]
(ratified) The State of Delaware, a British Colony[b] 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Colonized Pennsylvania Province 3   New Jersey Saturday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey was a royal colony. 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut Tuesday, January 9, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts It was February 6th, 1788. [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay, a Royal Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial-era province 8   The State of South Carolina1. May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Royal New Hampshire 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 Royal Colony 12   To the State of North Carolina1 On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former Crown colony 13   Providence, 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) A total of nine counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia's District in the state of Kentucky[d]. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) The Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Northern Provinces 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Monday, December 10, 1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Valley 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Section of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) Located in Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Region of Maine(f): Massachusetts 24   Missouri Date: August 10, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Region of Arkansas 26   Michigan Wednesday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The Michigan Territory1 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Places in Florida 28   Texas Friday, December 29th, 1845 [29]
(admitted) TX Republic 29   Iowa Tuesday, December 28th, 1846
(admitted) This portion of Iowa Territory is known as: 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Wilderness / Mexican Cession (Part)[g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Piece of Minnesota Territory 33   Oregon Date: February 14, 1859
(admitted) This portion of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Last Updated: 29 January, 1861 [33]
(admitted) The State of Kansas and Adjacent Areas 35   Western Virginia June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) 50 counties in the state of Virginia that are located in the Trans-Allegheny region. 36   Nevada On this day in 1864, October 31
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Territory of Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) Said of the area now known as Colorado: 39   The State of North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Section of Dakota Territory 40   State of South Dakota1 The date of November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) North Dakota (a portion of) 41   Montana Sunday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington The Eleventh Day of November, 1889 [42]
(admitted) Region of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) It's both Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory. 47   New Mexico Sunday, January 6th, 1912
(admitted) State of New Mexico 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) Specifically, the Arizona State Region 49   Alaska On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii When: 21 August 1959
(admitted) Hawai'ian Acquired Territory

Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On this day in 1777, the Second Continental Congress recommended to the states that they ratify the Articles of Confederation. After being ratified by the necessary number of states (13 in this case), 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 Dated: December 16th, 1777 2 Carolina del Sur On this day in 1778, February 5 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island On this day in 1778, February 9: 5 Connecticut 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 Carolina del Norte April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland The date was February 2nd, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was one provision of the Compromise of 1850, a package of congressional acts.
• 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."
• 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 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 united as one state.
• Upon passage of the Alaska Statehood Act on December 2, 1958, Alaska was officially admitted to the Union as the 49th state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Related Sites [ edit ]

• American State Videos History com
• dates of statehood 50states com