Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

Any one of the 50 individual states that 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. [1]The full official names of the states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all include the word "commonwealth" rather than "state."

The fifty states are the main administrative 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. Generally speaking, matters of local concern are under the purview of state governments, which include the likes of regulating intrastate commerce, conducting elections, forming local governments, establishing public school policy, and constructing and maintaining non-federal roads. There is a separate government in each state, with its own constitution based on republican ideals and its own executive, legislative, and judicial branches. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of senators and representatives from all 50 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. There's also the Electoral College, which votes for the President and Vice President of the United States, of which each state gets a certain number of representatives and senators to represent it. [4]

New states may be Union" target="_blank">admitted into the Union as provided for in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution. A total of 50 states now make up the United States, up from the original 13. Upon admission, each new state joins the union on an equal footing with the others. [5]

The table below details the official statehood dates for each of the fifty US states. After signing on to the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the first 13 states formally became independent nations in their own right in July 1777 and July 1781, respectively, and formally joined the Union of States by ratifying the Articles of Confederation, the country's first constitution, in each of those years (An AoC ratification timeline is provided in a separate table below.) The states are listed in the order in which they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed (and still existing) federal government. For each succeeding state, the enacted date of admission is shown. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(approved or allowed) Developed from 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware Colony[b] 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey Friday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former Crown Colony 4   Georgia As of today, January 2nd, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Queen Anne's Georgian Colony 5   Connecticut 9 January 1788 [12]
(ratified) The Connecticut Colony, a British Crown Colony 6   Massachusetts The sixth of February, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Commonwealth of Massachusetts Bay, a British Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colonial Maryland 8   State of South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Carolina was a crown colony at the time. 9   Specifically, the state of New Hampshire1. June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under the Crown 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   The State of North Carolina1 In the year 1789, on November 21st, [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   That place called Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) The Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a British colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The 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) Northwest Territories (portion of) 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana The 11th of December, 1816
(admitted) Locales in Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois Monday, December 3, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Specifically, the area of Illinois that is now known as the territory of 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Region of Maine(f): Massachusetts 24   Missouri Tuesday, August 10, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Specifically, a section of Missouri. 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Locale of Arkansas 26   Michigan On this day in 1837, January 26 [28]
(admitted) Region of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) This is Florida Country. 28   Texas Dated: December 29th, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Democratic Socialists of America 29   Iowa Thursday, December 28th, 1846
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Date: September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Frontiers without government oversight / Mexican Cession (Part)[g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Piece of Minnesota Territory 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) The State of Oregon, or (a portion of) the Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Friday, January 29, 1861 [33]
(admitted) Section of Kansas Territory 35   "West Virginia1" June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada On this day in 1864, October 31st,
(admitted) Places in Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) In the State of Nebraska 38   Colorado When: August 1st, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   The state of North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) Section of Dakota Territory 40   The Badlands of South Dakota1 Sunday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Region of Dakota 41   Montana Tuesday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington It all started on November 11th, 1889. [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Located in Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Oklahoma and Indian Land 47   New Mexico Sunday, January 6th, 1912
(admitted) State of New Mexico 48   Arizona Monday, February 14, 1912
(admitted) Arizona State University 49   Alaska On this day in 1959, January 3
(admitted) Located in Alaska 50   Hawaii Sunday, August 21st, 1959
(admitted) Located in Hawaii's territorial waters

Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On this day in 1777, the Second Continental Congress voted to send the Articles of Confederation to the individual states for ratification. After being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation took effect on March 1, 1781. The Articles of Confederation were abolished on March 4, 1789, and the present federal government under the Constitution took their place. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia The date was December 16, 1777. 2 Columbia, South Carolina Tuesday, February 5th, 1778 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Sunday, February 9th, 1778 5 Connecticut As of this date in 1778: February 12 6 Georgia On this day in 1778, February 26 7 Specifically, 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 On this day in 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.
• Kansas Territory was the site of a series of bloody conflicts between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups known as Bleeding Kansas from 1854 to 1861.
• 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.
• Authorizing the people of the Indian Territory and the Oklahoma Territory to organize themselves into a single state and to seek admission to the Union as a single state via the Oklahoma Enabling Act; also authorizing the people of the New Mexico and Arizona Territories to organize themselves into a state government and to seek admission to the Union as a single state. to hold a vote on whether or not the two areas should be merged into a single state
• The Alaska Statehood Act, which officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

To other sites [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 States" History com
• dates of statehood 50states com