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

The 50 individual states that make up the United States of America are co-sovereign entities with the central 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 states make up the main 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 the construction and maintenance of roads not funded by the federal government, are generally under the purview of the respective state's government. Republican principles form the basis for each state's constitution and government, which is made up of an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of senators and representatives from all 50 states. At the federal level, each state has two senators and at least one representative, while the size of a state's delegation in the House is determined by the state's population as of the most recent decennial census required by the Constitution. In addition, the Electoral College, the body that chooses the President and Vice President of the United States, grants each state a number of electors equal to the sum of its congressional deputies and senators. [4]

The 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. There are now fifty states, up from the original thirteen that existed when the United States was founded in 1776. All new members have been granted full membership with all other states. [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 between 1777 and 1781 by ratifying the Articles of Confederation. (See below for a separate table detailing the ratification dates of the AoC.) 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 state's admission date is a statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(approved or permitted) Developed from 1   Delaware Wednesday, December 7th, 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony 2   Pennsylvania Monday, December 12th, 1787 [10]
(ratified) Province of Pennsylvania that is under Proprietary Rule 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) Kingdom of New Jersey 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) Queen Anne's Georgian Colony 5   Connecticut Sunday, January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a Colony under the Crown 6   Massachusetts Earlier this year, on February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Commonwealth of Massachusetts Bay, a British Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colony of the Crown of South Carolina 9   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) State of Virginia, Dominion of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   Carolina del Norte On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   The Ocean State: 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) 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) Territories in the Northwest 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Area Known as Orleans 19   Indiana The 11th of December, 1816
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Tuesday, December 10, 1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Partial Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) Located in Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) New England (Maine(f) District) Massachusetts 24   Missouri Wednesday, August 10, 1821 [26]
(admitted) This portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Region of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Places in Florida 28   Texas Thursday, December 29, 1845 [29]
(admitted) State of Texas as a Republic 29   Iowa On this day in 1846, December
(admitted) Regional Iowa 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Ungoverned regions / Mexican Cession (part)[g]. 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon Sunday, February 14th, 1859
(admitted) An Area of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas In the beginning of 1861, on January 29th, [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   The state of West Virginia1 June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Virginia (all fifty counties in the Trans-Allegheny area[h]). 36   Nevada Observed on October 31st, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) States Constituting the Nebraska Territory1 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The State of Colorado 39   There's a lot of room in North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   State Name: South Dakota1 It all started on November 2nd, 1889. [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana Tuesday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Western United States region encompassing Montana. 42   Washington When: November 11th, 1889 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah A Date: January 4, 1896 [43]
(admitted) Territory of Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Territory of Oklahoma and Indian Territory 47   New Mexico Sixteen hundred and twelve: January 6th, 1912
(admitted) Places in New Mexico that Are Not in Texas 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) In the Territory of Arizona 49   Alaska Dated: January 3rd, 1959
(admitted) Alaskan Territory 50   Hawaii Dated: August 21st, 1959
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

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

State Date 1 Virginia This day in 1777, on the 16th of December, 2 Carolina del Sur Friday, February 5th, 1778 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Sunday, February 9th, 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia Wednesday, February 26th, 1778 7 This New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 Cary, North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey Dated: November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware Dated: February 1st, 1779 13 Maryland The date was February 2, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was a part of the Compromise of 1850, a set of legislative acts passed by Congress.
• 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 between pro- and anti-slavery groups in the territory.
• 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 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 jurisdictions should be united into one state.
• The Alaska Statehood Act, which officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Web Resources [ edit ]

• Videos Relating to Individual U.S. States History com
• "Independence Day" 50states com