Here is a timeline of the states' official admission to the United States.

A state is one of the fifty individual entities that together make up the United States of America and share sovereignty 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."

All of the United States can be broken down into its constituent parts, but states are the most basic level. They have all the authority that isn't 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. 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 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 last decennial census required by the Constitution. Moreover, the Electoral College, the body that chooses the President and Vice President of the United States, allows each state to send a number of electors to the vote equal to the sum of its congressional deputies and senators. [4]

The Constitution specifies that Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 gives Congress the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union. A total of 50 states now make up the United States, up from the original 13. The new states have been accepted without discrimination. [5]

Presented below is a table detailing the official admission of each of the 50 states into the Union. After signing on to the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the first 13 states formally became independent nations in their own right and, between 1777 and 1781, ratified the Articles of Confederation to form the first United States of America. (An additional table detailing the ratification of the Acts of Confederation is provided below.) These states are listed in the order in which they voted to join the new (and current) federal government after ratifying the Constitution in 1787. Each subsequent state's admission date is a legally binding statute. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(approved or permitted) Composed of 1   Delaware On this day in 1787: [8]
(ratified) State of Delaware as a Colony[b] 2   Pennsylvania Wednesday, December 12th, 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pa., a colonial holdout in a Union of colonies 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia As of today, January 2nd, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Empire of the Crown: Georgia 5   Connecticut January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts Thursday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial-era province 8   Columbia, South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colony of the Crown of South Carolina 9   A New England State: June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The New Hampshire colony was a crown colony. 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominated Colony of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, the "Crown Colony" 12   Cary, North Carolina1 The date of November 21, 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   A Place Called 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) (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) France's Orleans Territory 19   Indiana Time Period: December 11th, 1816
(admitted) Geographical Region Including Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Territory in Illinois, Part 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) The State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Locale of Arkansas 26   Michigan Monday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Michigan State 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Its Florida-based definition 28   Texas Saturday, December 29th, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa Wednesday, December 28th, 1846
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) Area of Wisconsin That Was Once Called the Wisconsin Territory 31   California Monday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Diffuse Government / The Mexican Cession, Part (g) 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) The State of Minnesota and Adjacent Lands 33   Oregon Monday, February 14, 1859
(admitted) It's true that Oregon only makes up a portion of the territory. 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   "West Virginia1" June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada As of today, October 31, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Its Name for the State of Nebraska 38   Colorado It all started on August 1st, 1876. [37]
(admitted) The State of Colorado 39   The State of North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   States of America: South Dakota1 It all started on November 2nd, 1889. [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Montana, the Wild West 42   Washington As of today (11 November 1889) [42]
(admitted) Locale of Washington State 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) There's a lot of Wyoming here. 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) Locale of Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico This day in 1912, on January 6
(admitted) In the State of New Mexico 48   Arizona The date February 14th, 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska Starting on January 3rd, 1959
(admitted) Anchorage, Alaska 50   Hawaii Friday, August 21st, 1959
(admitted) Hawai'ian Acquired Territory

Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved by the Second Continental Congress and submitted to the individual states for ratification. On March 1, 1781, after ratification by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation took effect. 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 On this day in 1777 2 The State of South Carolina Five of February, 1778 3 New York Dated: February 6th, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island It was February 9th, 1778. 5 Connecticut Monday, February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia Sunday, February 26th, 1778 7 This New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 A Place Called North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland The date was February 2, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• Included in the "Compromise of 1850" set of legislative acts was a provision for 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."
• 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 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 areas should be united as one state.
• On January 3, 1959, Alaska officially became a state thanks to the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 States" History com
• A list of "Statehood Dates" 50states com