Order of U.S. statehood at the time of unionization

A state is one of the 50 individual entities that make up the United States and have equal sovereignty with the federal government. Due to the separation of powers between the federal government and the states, Americans hold dual citizenship with the federal republic and the state in which they reside. [1]In their full official names, the states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia use the term commonwealth rather than state.

The 50 states make up the main divisions of the USA. To paraphrase, they have all the authority that isn't specifically given to or forbidden to the federal government in 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 typically under the purview of state governments. The government of each state is divided into an executive, legislative, and judicial branch, and is based on republican principles as outlined in the state's own constitution. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and it includes representatives from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Two senators and at least one representative are assigned to each state, with the size of a state's delegation in the House of Representatives determined by that state's population as of the most recent decennial census required by the Constitution. Furthermore, the Electoral College, the body that elects the President and Vice President of the United States, allows each state to choose a number of electors to vote in the election equal to the sum of its congressional deputies and senators. [4]

The Constitution clearly gives Congress the power to decide whether or not to Union" target="_blank">admit new states in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1. 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]

The table below details the dates of statehood for each of the 50 US states. 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 of the AoC.) In the order in which they joined the new (and current) federal government after ratifying the Constitution in 1787, these states are listed below. Each succeeding state's admission date is a statutory deadline mandated by federal law. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(approved or permitted) Produced by 1   Delaware Sunday, December 7th, 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania During the 12th of December, 1787 [10]
(ratified) PA, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey Wednesday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia This day in 1788, January 2 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut It all started on January 9th, 1788. [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a Colony of the British Crown 6   Massachusetts Sixteen years ago today, on February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   In the state of South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colony of the Crown of South Carolina 9   In the state of New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominion of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Crown Colony 12   Carolina del Norte On this day in 1789, November 21st, [14]
(ratified) The North Carolina Colony was a Crown Colony. 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a Colony of the British Crown 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) [c]Republic of Vermont; 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) Nine counties in Virginia's District in Kentucky[d] 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Southwestern Acreage 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Northern Provinces 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Area Known as Orleans 19   Indiana Time Period: December 11th, 1816
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi On this day in 1817, December 10: [22]
(admitted) Land Located in the State of Mississippi 21   Illinois On this day in 1818, December 3: [23]
(admitted) Area of Illinois 22   Alabama December 14, 1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri On this day in 1821, August 10 [26]
(admitted) The Missouri Territory, Part 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan Friday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) The State of Texas, Republika 29   Iowa Yesterday, on the 28th of December, 1846
(admitted) Region of Iowa 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A section of Wisconsin 31   California Sunday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Regions of Mexico and Other Cessions to Mexico[g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon Earlier today, on February 14th, 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   "West Virginia1" June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Forty-five counties in the Greater Pittsburgh Area in Virginia. 36   Nevada October 31st, 1864
(admitted) State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) This is Colorado Country. 39   The State of North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   State of South Dakota1 The date of November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington When: November 11th, 1889 [42]
(admitted) Washington State 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) This is Wyoming Country. 45   Utah As of today's date, January 4th, 1896 [43]
(admitted) Territorial Claims in Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico 6 January 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona Earlier today, on February 14th, 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona. 49   Alaska Earlier this month, on January 3rd, 1959
(admitted) Alaskan Territory 50   Hawaii On this date in 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 for submission to state legislatures for ratification. The Articles of Confederation were ratified by the required number of states (13) and went into effect on March 1, 1781. The Articles of Confederation, the precursor to the present United States Constitution, were formally abolished on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia Monday, December 16th, 1777 2 This is the state of South Carolina. 05 Février 1778 3 New York Friday, February 6th, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Dated: February 9th, 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia Sunday, February 26th, 1778 7 That State of New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 This is the state of North Carolina. April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey Wednesday, November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland The date is February 2, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was one of the provisions of the Compromise of 1850, a collection of acts passed by Congress.
• Kansas Territory was the site of a series of bloody conflicts between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups known as Bleeding Kansas from 1854 to 1861.
• The Enabling Act of 1889 gave the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories the legal right to organize themselves into states (with Dakota being split into two separate states) and to 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. The New Mexico and Arizona Admission Acts granted the people of those territories the same rights. to hold a vote on whether or not the two areas should be merged into a single state
• The Alaska Statehood Act, which officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

To other sites [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 States" History com
• "Birth dates of nations" 50states com