Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

The 50 individual states that make up the United States 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. The full official names of the states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all include the word "commonwealth" rather than "state."

The 50 states make up the main divisions of the USA. They have complete authority over all matters not specifically delegated to the federal government or expressly prohibited 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]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up 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. Furthermore, the Electoral College, the body that elects the President and Vice President of the United States, allows each state to choose a number of electors to vote in the election proportional to the number of its representatives and senators in Congress. [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. A total of 50 states now make up the United States, up from the original 13. All new states have been granted full membership with no special treatment. [5]

Here's a handy table with all 50 states and the days they became independent. Each of the first 13 states ratified the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, in the years between 1777 and 1781, making them eligible to join the Union of States in July 1776. (An additional table detailing the ratification of the Acts of Confederation is provided below.) Each of these states is listed in the order in which it ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became a part of the fledgling (and now established) 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 approved) Developed from 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Kingdom of Pennsylvania Colony 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, the Former Crown Colony 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) A British Colony in the State of Georgia 5   Connecticut 9 January 1788 [12]
(ratified) The State of Connecticut, a Colony of the British Crown 6   Massachusetts On this day in 1788, February 6th, [8]
(ratified) New England's Original Colony and the Site of Boston 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a former Crown Colony 9   That State of New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The New Hampshire Colony was a Crown Colony. 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominated Colony of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) Kingdom of New York 12   Carolina del Norte Dated: November 21st, 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) Republican State of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) Nine counties in Virginia's District in Kentucky(d). 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) District of Orleans 19   Indiana Instance created: December 11, 1816
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Area 21   Illinois The Third of December, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Section of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama It was on this date in 1819, December 14th, that [24]
(admitted) Located in Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) The Bay State (Maine Congressional District) 24   Missouri Wednesday, August 10, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Its portion of the Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Regional Term for Arkansas 26   Michigan On this day in 1837, January 26th: [28]
(admitted) This is Michigan Country. 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Region of Florida 28   Texas Thursday, December 29, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa This day in 1846, on December 28th,
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Saturday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Wilderness area / Mexican Cession (part)[g]. 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Section of Minnesota Territory 33   Oregon On this day in 1859, February 14
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Tuesday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) This portion of Kansas Territory 35   It's in West Virginia1. June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada It is now October 31, 1864
(admitted) Locale of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Territorial Status: Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) State of Colorado 39   The Great Plains State of North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   Location: South Dakota1 Sunday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of the Dakotas 41   Montana Monday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Region of Montana 42   Washington 11 November 1889 [42]
(admitted) The State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) It's in Wyoming! 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma Tuesday, November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico Sunday, January 6th, 1912
(admitted) Land of New Mexico 48   Arizona Earlier today, on February 14th, 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska On this day in 1959, the calendar turned to:
(admitted) Province of Alaska 50   Hawaii Dated: August 21st, 1959
(admitted) Hawaii, a Territorial State

Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

Articles of Confederation were approved for ratification by the states on November 15, 1777, after being approved by the Second Continental Congress. After being ratified by the required number of states (13 in this case), the Articles of Confederation took effect 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 Yesterday, on the sixteenth of December, 1777 2 Carolina del Sur Friday, February 5th, 1778 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 Specifically, the state of Rhode Island Wednesday, February 9th, 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia On this day 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 It's in the Tar Heel State, or North Carolina. April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware On this day in 1779, February 1st, 13 Maryland The date was February 2, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• In the Compromise of 1850, a group of bills was passed by Congress; one of these bills guaranteed California's entry into the Union.
• Between 1854 and 1861, when Kansas was still part of the territory, a series of violent conflicts broke out between pro- and anti-slavery groups that came to be known as "Bleeding Kansas."
• This was made possible by the Enabling Act of 1889, which allowed the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories to organize themselves politically as states (with Dakota being split in half) and apply for admission to the Union.
• 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 did the same for the people of those territories. a vote in a referendum would be needed to decide whether or not the two areas should be combined to form a single state.
• The Alaska Statehood Act officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Referring to Resources Outside This Article [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 United States" History com
• ''Early states'' 50states com