Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

The 50 individual states that make up the United States of America are co-sovereign entities with the central government. Due to the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. [1]In their official state names, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Commonwealth of Virginia use the term commonwealth rather than state.

For the most part, the United States can be broken down into its individual states. They have all the authority the US Constitution does not give to the federal government or specifically forbids them from exercising. 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 consists of an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. [2]

Congress, the federal legislature, is bicameral, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and all states and their citizens have a voice there. There are two senators and at least one representative from each state, 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, grants each state a number of electors 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. There are now fifty states, up from the original thirteen that existed when the United States was founded in 1776. All newly admitted states have been given full voting rights. [5]

The table below details the dates of statehood for all 50 US states. After signing on to the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the original 13 states entered the Union of States in the years between 1777 and 1781 and ratified the Articles of Confederation. (The dates of each AoC ratification are listed in a separate table below.) 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 state's admission date is a statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted or approved) Originating from 1   Delaware Wednesday, December 7th, 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Friday, December 12th, 1787 [10]
(ratified) The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey Wednesday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former Crown Colony 4   Georgia Initially published: January 2, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Queen Anne's Georgian Colony 5   Connecticut On this day in 1788, January 9 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony and now a state 6   Massachusetts This day in 1788, on February 6th, you could say: [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colonial Maryland 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Royal Province of South Carolina 9   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The State of New Hampshire as a Royal Colony 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominated Colony of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   Carolina del Norte On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former Crown colony 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) The Crown Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) Vermont's [c]Republic 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) State of Virginia (which includes nine counties in its District of Kentucky[d]). 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Its Southwestern Parts 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) A Portion of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Province of Orleans 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) Its Location: The Indiana Territory1 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) Places in the Mississippi Valley 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Section of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Sunday, December 14th, 1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri A.D. 10th, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Its portion of the Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan The 26th of January, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) An Area Including Florida 28   Texas The date is December 29th, 1845. [29]
(admitted) TX Republic 29   Iowa On this day in 1846:
(admitted) A Section of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Portion of Wisconsin Territory 31   California Saturday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Ungoverned regions / Mexican Cession (part)[g]. 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) State of Minnesota and Adjacent Lands 33   Oregon Monday, February 14, 1859
(admitted) The State of Oregon and Adjacent Areas 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) Partial Kansas Territory 35   A state located in western Virginia. June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) There are 50 counties in the Trans-Allegheny area of Virginia. 36   Nevada Date: October 31, 1864
(admitted) Region of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Location: Nebraska 38   Colorado One August Day in 1876 [37]
(admitted) Geographical Definition of Colorado 39   Geographical Location: North Dakota1 Wednesday, November 2nd, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) This portion of Dakota Territory 40   Dakota (South) On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of the Dakotas 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Location: Montana, USA 42   Washington Wednesday, November 11th, 1889 [42]
(admitted) Location: The State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Located in the state of Idaho. 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) State of Wyoming 45   Utah Wednesday, January 4th, 1896 [43]
(admitted) Location: Utah 46   Oklahoma On this day in 1907, November 16 [44]
(admitted) Bordering Oklahoma is Indian Territory. 47   New Mexico 6 January 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona Earlier today, on February 14th, 1912
(admitted) State of Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Anchorage, Alaska 50   Hawaii Monday, August 21st, 1959
(admitted) State of Hawaii

A timeline of the 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. After being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation took effect on March 1, 1781. The current federal government, established by the Constitution, succeeded the general government under the Articles on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia In the year 1777, on December 16th, 2 Carolina del Sur On this day in 1778, February 5 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Friday, February 9, 1778 5 Connecticut Dated: February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia February 26th, 1778 7 This New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 In the state of North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey Sunday, November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware Dated: 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.
• During the years 1854–1861, when Kansas was still considered part of the territory rather than a state, a series of violent conflicts broke out in the territory between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups.
• 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. The New Mexico and Arizona Admission Acts granted the people of those territories the same rights. necessitating a vote in a referendum to decide whether or not the two areas should be united as a single state
• On January 3, 1959, Alaska was officially accepted into the Union per the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

References outside the text [ edit ]

• U.S. State Video Collection History com
• When a country or territory was established as a nation. 50states com