Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

Each of the 50 states in the United States is a sovereign nation in its own right, with equal authority from the federal government and the people. Because of the separation of powers that exists in the United States, citizens of the federal republic are also citizens of the state in which they currently reside. To distinguish themselves from other states, the official names of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all include the word "commonwealth" rather than "state."

The United States can be broken down into its constituent parts, which are called "states." They have all the authority that is not specifically given to or forbidden to the federal government by the United States Constitution. Concerns such as intrastate commerce, elections, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and non-federal road construction and maintenance fall under the purview of state governments. Republican principles form the basis for each state's constitution and government, which is made up of an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. [2]

Congress is a bicameral legislature, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, in which all states and their citizens have a voice. 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 Electoral College, the body that chooses the President and Vice President of the United States, allows each state to send a number of voters to vote there that is 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. From its original thirteen in 1776 to its current fifty, the United States has undergone tremendous growth since its inception. Upon admission, each new state joins the union on an equal footing with the others. [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 admission date is a legally binding deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted or approved) Created by 1   Delaware 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) [b]The Colony of Delaware. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, the former Crown Colony 4   Georgia The date was January 2, 1788. [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut 9 January 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts Monday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Commonwealth of Massachusetts Bay, a British Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial-era colony 8   Columbia, South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colonial South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The New Hampshire Colony was a Crown Colony. 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominion of the Crown and Proud Colony 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   The State of North Carolina1 On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) Colony of the British Crown in North Carolina 13   A Place Called Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) The Crown Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The [c]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) Canada's Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana Dated: 12-11-1816
(admitted) Geographical Region Including Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Section of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Thursday, December 14th, 1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) State of Massachusetts (Maine(f) District). 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Specifically, a section of Missouri. 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Arkansas State 26   Michigan The 26th of January, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas Sunday, December 29th, 1845 [29]
(admitted) The State of Texas as a Democratic Republic 29   Iowa Last Updated: 28 December, 1846
(admitted) Piece of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) State of Wisconsin, Inc. 31   California Monday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Disordered Lands / The Mexican Cession, Part (g) 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) State of Minnesota and Adjacent Lands 33   Oregon Wednesday, February 14, 1859
(admitted) The Oregon Region, Specifically 34   Kansas Friday, January 29, 1861 [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   A state located in western Virginia. June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada Observed on October 31st, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) Said of the area now known as Colorado: 39   The State of North Dakota1 It all started on November 2nd, 1889. [38][i]
(admitted) A Section of the Dakota Territory 40   Dakota (State) Day of the Dead, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) State of Dakota (in part) 41   Montana This day in 1889, November 8 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington On this date in 1889 [42]
(admitted) Territorial Government of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Idaho is a territory in the United States. 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma Thursday, November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico Saturday, January 6th, 1912
(admitted) Aspects of New Mexico State and Territory 48   Arizona Tuesday, February 14, 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska Earlier this month, on January 3rd, 1959
(admitted) Kingdom of Alaska 50   Hawaii Tuesday, August 21, 1959
(admitted) Hawai'ian Acquired Territory

Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

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

State Date 1 Virginia The 16th of December, 1777 2 " South Carolina" 05 Février 1778 3 New York Sixteen years ago today, on February 6th, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut Twelve days after Valentine's Day, 1778 6 Georgia Wednesday, February 26th, 1778 7 To the State of New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 Geographical Indication: North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland The date was February 2, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was a provision of the Compromise of 1850, a collection of acts passed by Congress.
• In the years 1854–1861, just before Kansas became a state, anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups engaged in a series of violent conflicts in Kansas Territory.
• The Enabling Act of 1889 gave the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories the right to establish their own governments and apply for admission to the Union as individual states (the Dakota territory was to be split into two separate states).
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act gave 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 gave the people of those territories the same rights. a vote in a referendum would be needed to decide whether or not the two areas should be combined to form a single state.
• On January 3, 1959, Alaska officially became a state thanks to the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

The term "external links" is used to indicate links [ edit ]

• Video Clips of the 50 United States History com
• "Independence Day" 50states com