Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

In the United States, each of the fifty individual states is a sovereign nation in its own right, with the federal government also having authority over its citizens. 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."

Throughout the United States, the states serve as the most fundamental political divisions. They have all the authority that is not specifically given to or prohibited 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. Each state has a government that includes an executive, legislative, and judicial branch, and a constitution based on republican principles. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature, composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives, from which citizens of all 50 states and the District of Columbia can elect their own representatives. 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. Furthermore, the Electoral College, the body that elects 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]

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 currently 50 states, up from the original 13. Each newly admitted state has been given full voting rights alongside all the others. [5]

The table below details the official statehood dates for all 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 in the years between 1777 and 1781 by ratifying the Articles of Confederation. (See the separate table below for the exact dates each AoC was ratified.) This list of states is presented in the order in which they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed and currently functioning federal government. Each subsequent state's admission date is a legally binding statute. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(approved or permitted) Made up of 1   Delaware 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania This day in 1787, on December 12 [10]
(ratified) State of Pennsylvania as a Private Colony 3   New Jersey Wednesday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) Imperial Province of New Jersey 4   Georgia Initially published: January 2, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Kingdom of Connecticut 6   Massachusetts Saturday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) State of Maryland, a Private Colony 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Royal Province of South Carolina 9   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony of the British Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Commonwealth of Virginia, British Dominions 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   Asheville, North Carolina1 Friday, November 21st, 1789 [14]
(ratified) Royal Colony of North Carolina 13   State of Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The Republic of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) Including the nine counties that make up its District in Kentucky(d), Virginia. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Western Hemisphere's Southwest Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Canada's Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Louisiana's Orleans Province 19   Indiana Friday, December 11th, 1816
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Area 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Piece of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Yesterday, on the 14th of December, 1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) In the state of Massachusetts (Maine[f] District). 24   Missouri Wednesday, August 10, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan Initially published: January 26, 1837 [28]
(admitted) In the State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Those Parts of the United States That Are Currently Cal 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) State of Texas as a Republic 29   Iowa On this day in 1846, December
(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 Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Disorganized land / the Mexican Cession, part [g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Separate Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon Today in History (February 14th, 1859)
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) Part of Kansas Territory 35   "West Virginia1" June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) State of Virginia (all fifty counties in the Trans-Allegheny area [h]). 36   Nevada On this day in 1864, October 31st,
(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) State of Colorado 39   The State of North Dakota1 Earlier today, on November 2nd, 1889, [38][i]
(admitted) Section of Dakota Territory 40   State Name: South Dakota1 The date was November 2, 1889. [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Geographical Region Including Montana 42   Washington Dated: November 11th, 1889 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Locales in Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: January 4 [43]
(admitted) This is Utah Country. 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico The date was January 6th, 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 When: 21 August 1959
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

Rationality of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved for ratification by the individual states by the Second Continental Congress. After being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation took effect on March 1, 1781. The current federal government, established under the Constitution, succeeded the general government under the Articles on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia On this day in 1777 2 State of South Carolina On this day in 1778, February 5 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Sunday, February 9, 1778 5 Connecticut Wednesday, February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia A Date in 1778: February 26 7 A New England State: March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 Asheville, North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware It all started on February 1st, 1779 13 Maryland The date was February 2, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• Cali's incorporation into the Union was a part of the legislative package known as the "Compromise of 1850."
• Violence between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups in Kansas Territory occurred frequently between 1854 and 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 Oklahoma and the Indian Territory the right to organize a state government and seek admission to the Union as a single state, and 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 combined into one state.
• The Alaska Statehood Act officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

References outside of the text [ edit ]

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