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

One of the fifty entities that make up the United States and share sovereignty with the federal government is a state. Given the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. [1]In their official state names, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all use the term commonwealth rather than state.

Individual states are the most basic administrative 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. Local matters, such as intrastate commerce, elections, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and non-federal road construction and maintenance, are generally under the purview of state governments. Each state has its own government that consists of an executive, legislative, and judicial branch, and its own constitution based on republican principles. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of senators and representatives from all 50 states. Two senators and at least one representative represent each state in the Senate, while the size of a state's delegation in the House of Representatives is determined by that state's population as of the most recent decennial census required by the Constitution. There's also the Electoral College, which votes for the President and Vice President of the United States, of which each state gets a certain number of representatives and senators to represent it. [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. The admission standards for each new state are the same as those for the preexisting states. [5]

Here's a handy table with all 50 states and the days they became independent. Following their approval of the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the original 13 states entered the Union of States in the years 1777–1781, and ratified the Articles of Confederation. (An AoC ratification timeline is provided in a separate table 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. Each subsequent admission date is a statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
acceptable; approved; recognized Constructed from 1   Delaware On this day in 1787: [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania As of today (12 December 1787) [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Proprietary Province 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia Starting on January 2nd, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Georgia Colony was a Crown Colony. 5   Connecticut Nineteen Eighty-Eighth Day, January [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, the Royal Colony 6   Massachusetts Dated: February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   The State of South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Province of South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   For the state of New Hampshire1, see: June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, Royal Colony 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominant Colony of the British Empire 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Colony Under the Crown 12   To the State of North Carolina1 Monday, November 21st, 1789 [14]
(ratified) Royal Colony of North Carolina 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Known as the Crown Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) Independent State of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (Kentucky is represented by nine counties in Virginia) 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Southwest Area 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Region of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) New Orleans Area 19   Indiana Friday, December 11th, 1816
(admitted) Geographical Region Including Indiana 20   Mississippi On this day in 1817 — December 10 — [22]
(admitted) Where the Mississippi River Meets the Gulf of Mexico 21   Illinois Wednesday, December 3, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Territory in Illinois, Part 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) This is Alabama Country. 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri As of this date in 1821, August 10 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) In the Arkansas Territory1 26   Michigan January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) An Area Including Florida 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa Last Updated: 28 December, 1846
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Disordered Lands / The Mexican Cession, Part (g) 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) Part of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Dated: January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   The Mountain State, or West Virginia1 June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada A Date Certain: October 31, 1864
(admitted) Places in Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado Monday, August 1st, 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) Regional portion of Dakotas 40   The State of South Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Section of the Dakota Territory 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington As of today (11 November 1889) [42]
(admitted) Located in Washington State 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Idaho is a territory in the United States. 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Where Wyoming Is Located 45   Utah On this day in 1896: January 4 [43]
(admitted) Land of Utah 46   Oklahoma Thursday, November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico Monday, January 6th, 1912
(admitted) Region of New Mexico 48   Arizona Earlier today, on February 14th, 1912
(admitted) This is Arizona State Land 49   Alaska As of this date in 1959:
(admitted) In Alaska's case, this means the territory itself. 50   Hawaii On this date in 1959:
(admitted) State or Province of Hawaii

Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved by the Second Continental Congress for submission to state legislatures for ratification. By March 1, 1781, all 13 states had ratified the Articles of Confederation, making them legally binding. The Articles of Confederation were abolished on March 4, 1789, and the current federal government under the Constitution was established. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia Wednesday, 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 To the State of Rhode Island Thursday, February 9, 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia February 26th, 1778 7 This New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 Specifically, the state of North Carolina. April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware Day of the Sun, February 1, 1779 13 Maryland Tuesday, 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.
• 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 people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories the legal right to organize state governments (with the Dakota Territory being split into two separate 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. It also granted the people of New Mexico and Arizona the right to do the same. calling for a vote to decide if the two areas should be united as 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 ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• A Collection of Videos Representing Each State in the United States History com
• "Independence Day" 50states com