Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

Each of the 50 states in the United States is a separate sovereign nation that shares power with the federal government. Given the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. In their full legal names, the states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia use the term commonwealth rather than state.

A state is the basic administrative unit of the USA. They have all authority not specifically granted to or prohibited by the federal government in the United States Constitution. In most cases, local matters that affect a state's citizens fall under the purview of that state's government. This includes, but is not limited to, intrastate commerce, elections, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and the construction and maintenance of roads that are not funded by the federal 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 the Senate and the House of Representatives, from which citizens of all 50 states and the District of Columbia can elect their own representatives. There are two senators for every state and at least one representative, with the size of a state's delegation to the House of Representatives determined by the 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 send a number of voters to vote for president and vice president equal to the sum of its Senators and Representatives in Congress. [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. The United States' total number of states has grown from the original 13 in 1776 to the current 50. A new state is admitted to the union on the same terms as the existing ones. [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. Dates of AoC ratification are listed in a separate table below.) [6] The 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. 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) Produced by 1   Delaware 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a Proprietary State 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) Kingdom of Georgia 5   Connecticut 9 January 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts Saturday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) State of Maryland as a Private Colony 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) British possession in the American colony of South Carolina 9   To 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, Dominated Crown Colony and Currently Reigning Monarchy 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Colony of the British Crown 12   The state of North Carolina1 On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The Republic of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) With nine counties in its District of Kentucky[d], Virginia is a large state. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) The Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Area of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) Its Location: The Indiana Territory1 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) State of Mississippi 21   Illinois On this day in 1818 — December 3 — [23]
(admitted) Regional Illinois 22   Alabama Friday, 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) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan Monday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Territory of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa On this day in 1846, December
(admitted) Part of Iowa was once known as the Iowa Territory. 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California The Nineteen Fifteenth of September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Cession to Mexico 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Separate Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) The State of Oregon, or (a portion of) the Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Dated: January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) This portion of Kansas Territory 35   A state located in western Virginia. June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) There are fifty counties in Virginia that are included in the Trans-Allegheny statistical area. 36   Nevada Date: October 31, 1864
(admitted) Location: Nevada, USA 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Geographical Region Known As Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Area 39   The State of North Dakota1. Dated: November 2nd, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Area Including the State of Dakota 40   A State in the Midwestern U.S. On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana Saturday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Region of Montana 42   Washington Tuesday, November 11th, 1889 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Locale of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: January 4 [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Native American Lands in Oklahoma 47   New Mexico January 6th, 1912
(admitted) This is the New Mexico Territory1. 48   Arizona Today in History (February 14th, 912)
(admitted) State of Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii As of the 21st of August, 1959
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

Events surrounding the ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Second Continental Congress passed the Articles of Confederation to the individual states for ratification. When the Articles of Confederation were finally ratified by all 13 states on March 1, 1781, the new government was officially established. The Articles of Confederation, the precursor to the present United States Constitution, were formally abolished on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia On this day in 1777 2 Carolina del Sur Dated: February 5th, 1778 3 New York The date was February 6th, 1778. 4 It's in Rhode Island. 9 February 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 Here in good ol' NC April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland Initially published: 2 February, 1781

See also [ edit ]

• One of the bills included in the "Compromise of 1850" set of legislation passed by Congress to allow for California's entry into the Union.
• The years 1854–1861, just before Kansas became a state, were marked by a string of bloody conflicts in the Kansas Territory between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups.
• Upon passage of the Enabling Act in 1889, the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories were given the green light to organize their own state governments (with Dakota being split into two separate 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. necessitating a vote in a referendum to decide whether or not the two areas should be united as a single state
• The Alaska Statehood Act, which officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• The United States of America Video Archive History com
• Dates of statehood 50states com