Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

For those unfamiliar, a state is one of the 50 individual entities that together make up the United States and share sovereignty with the federal government. Due to the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. Only four states—Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia—have commonwealth in their official names rather than state.

The fifty states constitute the most basic administrative divisions of the USA. They have all the authority that isn't 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 the construction and maintenance of non-federal roads are generally under the purview of state governments. Republican principles form the basis for each individual state's constitution and government, which consists 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, both of which have members elected by the citizens of their respective 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. 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 Electoral College equal to the sum of the state's representatives and senators in Congress. [4]

Constitutional law states that Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 gives Congress the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states to the Union. United States expansion from 13 to 50 states since 1776. All new states are fully integrated into the union. [5]

Each of the 50 states' official statehood dates is listed below. 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 the separate table below for the exact dates each AoC was ratified.) These states are listed in chronological order according to when 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 binding deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(acknowledged or approved) Consisting of 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) State of Delaware as a Colony[b] 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) Kingdom of New Jersey 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) Kingdom of Georgia 5   Connecticut On this day in 1788, January 9: [12]
(ratified) State of Connecticut, Royal Colony 6   Massachusetts Day of the Frog, February 6, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Massachusetts Bay Colony, a British Possession 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   Colony State of South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Royal Province of South Carolina 9   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a British Crown Colony 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Royal Colony and Independent State 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   Carolina del Norte The 21st of November, 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a British Crown Colony 13   This is the state of Rhode Island1. May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Province of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The Republic of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) A total of nine counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia's District in the state of Kentucky[d]. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) The Southwestern 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) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana Time Period: December 11th, 1816
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi The date was December 10th, 1817. [22]
(admitted) Mississippi Country 21   Illinois The Third of December, 1818 [23]
(admitted) A Section of Illinois 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) (Maine F District) Massachusetts 24   Missouri It was August 10th, 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) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa On this day in 1846:
(admitted) This portion of Iowa Territory is known as: 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Cession to Mexico 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon On this day in 1859 — February 14
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Thursday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   We're in the Mountain State. June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Specifically, the fifty counties that make up Virginia's Trans-Allegheny region. 36   Nevada This day in 1864, on October 31st,
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Region of Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   Location: North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   Geographical Indicator: South Dakota1 Tuesday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of the Dakotas 41   Montana The Date of November 8, 1889 [41]
(admitted) It's in Montana! 42   Washington 11 November 1889 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The Idaho Panhandle 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Wyoming, the Territories 45   Utah On this day in 1896: January 4 [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico Starting on January 6th, 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona The date February 14th, 1912
(admitted) Location: Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959, January 3
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii Those words were first spoken on August 21st, 1959.
(admitted) Hawaiian Home Islands

Timelines for 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 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 On this day in 1778 — February 5 — 3 New York Thursday, February 6th, 1778 4 Providence, Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut Wednesday, February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia On this day in 1778, February 26 7 Granite State, 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 November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware Dated: February 1st, 1779 13 Maryland Tuesday, 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.
• There were a number of violent conflicts in Kansas Territory between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups in the years 1854-1861. This period is known as "Bleeding Kansas."
• Enabling Act of 1889, allowing citizens of the Dakota (to be split into two states), Montana, and Washington territories to organize state governments 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 gain admission to the Union as a single state. The New Mexico and Arizona Admission Acts did the same for the people of those territories. calling for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be combined into one state.
• The Alaska Statehood Act officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Websites outside the scope of this paper [ edit ]

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