In order of their admission to the United States, the following list of states has been compiled.

One of the fifty entities that make up the United States and share sovereignty with the federal government is a state. Since the federal government and the individual states share power, Americans hold dual citizenship. For example, the full official names of the states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all include the word "commonwealth" rather than "state."

For the most part, the United States can be broken down into its individual states. They have all the authority that is not specifically given to or forbidden to the federal government 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. Each of the fifty states has a government that consists of an executive, legislative, and judicial branch, and a constitution based on republican principles. [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. 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]

According to the Constitution, Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 gives Congress the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union. There are now fifty states, up from the original thirteen that existed when the United States was founded in 1776. New states have been admitted on an equal footing with the rest. [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. (A separate table detailing the ratification of the Acts of Confederation is provided below.) States are listed in the order in which they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed (and still existing) federal government. The date of admission listed for each subsequent state is the official date set by Act of Congress [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(acknowledged or confirmed) Prompted by 1   Delaware On this day in 1787: [8]
(ratified) (b) the colony known as Delaware. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) The Pennsylvania Colony as a Colonial Establishment 3   New Jersey Tuesday, December 18, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia Sunday, January 2nd, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Kingdom of Georgia 5   Connecticut Monday, January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Massachusetts Bay Colony, a British Possession 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial province with a strong sense of independence 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   A New England State: June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony of the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Royal Colony and Dominated State 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   Asheville, North Carolina1 On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a British Crown Colony 13   Place Name: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Providence Plantations and the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a British Crown Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) (c)The Vermont Republic 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (Kentucky is represented by nine counties in Virginia) 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Lands to the West of the Mississippi 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Territory in the Northwest 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana Sunday, December 11th, 1816
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi The date was December 10th, 1817. [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Area 21   Illinois It's the 3rd of December, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Portion of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Wednesday, December 14, 1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri The tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Region of Missouri 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Arkansas State 26   Michigan Wednesday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Territory of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) State of Florida 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) Independent Texas 29   Iowa Yesterday, on the 28th of December, 1846
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A section of Wisconsin 31   California Tuesday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Mexican Cession [g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon Date: February 14, 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Thursday, January 29th, 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 Date: October 31, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) A Land Named Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) Geographical Definition of Colorado 39   The State of North Dakota1 Two thousand and eleven on November [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   Dakota (State) The date was November 2, 1889. [38][i]
(admitted) Region of Dakota 41   Montana Saturday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Location: Montana, USA 42   Washington On this day in 1889, November 11 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) There is a territory in Idaho. 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Geographical Region Called Wyoming 45   Utah Time: Thursday, January 4, 1896 [43]
(admitted) It's the State of Utah 46   Oklahoma Sunday, November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Native American Lands in Oklahoma 47   New Mexico 6 January 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska Three days into 1959
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Aloha! Hawaii!

Information about when the Articles of Confederation were ratified [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved by the Second Continental Congress and sent to the individual states for ratification. Articles of Confederation entered into force on March 1, 1781, after being ratified by all 13 states. The Articles of Confederation were formally abolished on March 4, 1789, and the present federal government under the Constitution took their place. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia On this day in 1777 2 State Name: South Carolina 05 Février 1778 3 New York Tuesday, February 6th, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut As of this date in 1778: February 12 6 Georgia Monday, February 26th, 1778 7 For the state of New Hampshire, see: March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 It's in the Tar Heel State, or North April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware Initially, on February 1, 1779 13 Maryland It all started on February 2nd, 1781

See also [ edit ]

• Part of the "Compromise of 1850," a collection of legislative acts that included a clause admitting California to the Union,
• Conflicts between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups in Kansas Territory escalated into bloody clashes in the years leading up to Kansas's statehood in 1861, a period known as "Bleeding Kansas."
• In 1889, Congress passed the Enabling Act, which allowed the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories to organize themselves politically as states and apply for admission to the Union.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act granted the people of the Indian Territory and the State of Oklahoma the legal 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. asking for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be united as a single state.
• The Alaska Statehood Act officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Referring to Resources Outside This Article [ edit ]

• Title: "Videos of the 50 States of the USA" History com
• "Independence dates" 50states com