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."

To better understand the United States, it is helpful to break it down into its constituent parts, which are called "state Any authority not specifically granted to or denied to the federal government by the United States Constitution is implicitly granted to the states. 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. Every state has its own government, with its own constitution and set of laws 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. In addition, the number of electors a state can choose to represent it in the Electoral College, the body responsible for electing the President and Vice President of the United States, is equal to the sum of the number of its congressional deputies and senators. [4]

Congress has the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union according to Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution. From its original thirteen in 1776 to its current fifty, the United States has undergone tremendous growth since its inception. All newly admitted states have been given full voting rights. [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 became independent nations in their own right on July 4th, 1776, and ratified the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, between 1777 and 1781. (See below for a separate table detailing the ratification dates of the AoC.) The order in which these states are listed indicates the order in which they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed (and still existing) United States of America. Each subsequent state's admission date is a legally mandated deadline. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted or confirmed) Produced by 1   Delaware On this day in 1787, December 7 [8]
(ratified) State of Delaware as a Colony[b] 2   Pennsylvania Friday, December 12th, 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey This day in 1787, on the 18th, [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia Starting on January 2nd, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Kingdom of Georgia 5   Connecticut Earlier today, on January 9th, 1788, [12]
(ratified) The Connecticut Colony, a British Crown Colony 6   Massachusetts Tuesday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachussetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   The State of South Carolina1. May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) British possession in the American colony 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) Virginia, Royal Colony and Independent State 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) Royal New York's Colony 12   Carolina del Norte When: Tuesday, November 21, 1789 [14]
(ratified) Kingdom of North Carolina 13   The Ocean State, Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, British Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) Vermont's [c]Republic 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) The Commonwealth of Virginia (which includes nine counties in its District of Kentucky[d]). 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Territories to the Southwest 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) A Portion of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) New Orleans Area 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: December 10th, 1817 [22]
(admitted) In the Mississippi Territory1 21   Illinois On this day in 1818 — December 3 — [23]
(admitted) Area of Illinois 22   Alabama Thursday, December 14th, 1819 [24]
(admitted) The State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Specifically, 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 January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Geographical Region of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) Texan Republic 29   Iowa On this day in 1846:
(admitted) This portion of Iowa Territory is known as: 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) State of Wisconsin, Inc. 31   California Date: September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Disordered Lands / The Mexican Cession, Part (g) 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) The State of Minnesota, or a Portion of It 33   Oregon Date: February 14, 1859
(admitted) The State of Oregon, or (a portion of) the Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) Partial Kansas Territory 35   Situated in western Virginia June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada Date: October 31, 1864
(admitted) This is Nevada Country. 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Area encompassing present-day Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Area 39   Geographical Location: North Dakota1 As of today's date, November 2nd, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   It's in the Badlands of South Dakota1. The Date Was November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Regional portion of Dakotas 41   Montana Tuesday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Located in the state of Montana. 42   Washington On this date in 1889 [42]
(admitted) Territory of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah The Fourth of January, 1896 [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico On this day in 1912, January 6
(admitted) This is the State of New Mexico 48   Arizona Monday, February 14, 1912
(admitted) This is Arizona State Land 49   Alaska The Third of January, 1959
(admitted) The Alaskan Territories 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 and sent to the individual states for ratification. On March 1, 1781, after being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation officially took effect. 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 Friday, December 16th, 1777 2 The State of South Carolina. Friday, February 5th, 1778 3 New York It was February 6th, 1778. 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Monday, February 9, 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia The 26th of February, 1778 7 This New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 Carolina del Norte April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware Monday, 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.
• The years 1854–1861, just before Kansas became a state, were marred by a string of bloody conflicts in the Kansas Territory between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups.
• Federal legislation passed in 1889 that made it possible for citizens of the Dakota (later split into two states), Montana, and Washington territories to organize state governments 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. It also granted the people of New Mexico and Arizona the right to do the same. calling for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be united as a single state.
• The Alaska Statehood Act, which officially made Alaska a member of the United States on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Websites outside the scope of this paper [ edit ]

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