Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

Each of the fifty United States' constituent entities, known collectively as "states," shares sovereignty with the federal government. 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.

The 50 states are the most basic administrative divisions of the USA. It gives them authority over everything the federal government doesn't have, including everything the Constitution expressly forbids them from doing. Local matters, such as intrastate commerce, elections, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and non-federal road construction and maintenance, are generally 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]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. 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, grants each state a number of electors equal to the sum of its congressional deputies and senators. [4]

The Constitution specifically gives Congress the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1. From its original thirteen in 1776 to its current fifty, the United States has undergone tremendous growth since its inception. All new states have been given full voting rights, just like the others. [5]

Below is a table with information about when each of the 50 states became independent. In July 1776, upon agreeing to the United States Declaration of Independence, the first 13 colonies became states; between 1777 and 1781, they ratified the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, and became full members of the Union. (See below for a separate table detailing the ratification dates of the AoC.) The order in which these states are listed reflects 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 statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
"(accepted or confirmed)" Produced by 1   Delaware Sunday, December 7th, 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey was a royal colony. 4   Georgia The date was January 2, 1788. [8]
(ratified) The Georgian Colony was a Crown Colony. 5   Connecticut On this day in 1788, January 9 [12]
(ratified) The Connecticut Colony, a British Crown Colony 6   Massachusetts Tuesday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Crown Colony of South Carolina 9   This 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, the Crown Colony" 12   State of North Carolina1 Tuesday, November 21st, 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former Crown Colony 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) In its District of Kentucky[d], Virginia includes nine counties. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Western Hemisphere's Southwest Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) The Northern and Western Areas of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Louisiana's Orleans Province 19   Indiana Time Period: December 11th, 1816
(admitted) Those Parts of the United States That Are Currently Called Indiana 20   Mississippi It's the 10th of December, 1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois As of today, December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Territory in Illinois, Part 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) Lands in Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) [f]Maine District, Commonwealth of Massachusetts 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Region of Arkansas 26   Michigan Initially published: January 26, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Formerly Known as: Michigan Territory1 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) To occupy the Florida Peninsula 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) The State of Texas as a Democratic Republic 29   Iowa On this day in 1846:
(admitted) Partial Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) State of Wisconsin, Inc. 31   California Wednesday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Diffuse Government / The Mexican Cession, Part (g) 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Territory in Minnesota, Sectional. 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) An Area of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861, January 29 [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   It's in West Virginia1. June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada The 31st of October, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado When: August 1st, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   The Great Plains State of North Dakota1 When: Tuesday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   Dakota (State) On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) Region of Dakota 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington The Eleventh of November, 1889 [42]
(admitted) Washington State 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) A Land Called Wyoming 45   Utah Sunday, January 4th, 1896 [43]
(admitted) UT - Utah Valley 46   Oklahoma When: Tuesday, November 16, 1907 [44]
(admitted) It's both Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory. 47   New Mexico Sunday, January 6th, 1912
(admitted) This is the New Mexico Territory1. 48   Arizona It all started on this date in 1912: February 14
(admitted) Specifically, the Arizona State Region 49   Alaska On this day in 1959, January 3
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

Articles of Confederation were approved for ratification by the individual states on November 15, 1777, after being approved by the Second Continental Congress. After the Articles of Confederation were ratified by all 13 states, they became effective 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 In the state of South Carolina The fifth of February, 1778 3 New York It was February 6th, 1778. 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut Thursday, February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia A Date in 1778: February 26 7 In the state of New Hampshire 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 The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland Sunday, February 2nd, 1781

See also [ edit ]

• It was included in the Compromise of 1850, a set of legislative acts passed by Congress, that California was finally admitted to the Union.
• 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.
• This was made possible by the Enabling Act of 1889, which gave the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories the right to organize themselves into states (with Dakota being split into two separate 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. It also granted the people of New Mexico and Arizona the right to do the same. call for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be united as a single state
• On January 3, 1959, Alaska officially became a state thanks to the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

References outside the text [ edit ]

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