Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

A state is one of the 50 individual entities that make up the United States and have equal sovereignty with the federal government. Due to the separation of powers between the federal government and the individual states, all U.S. citizens are considered citizens of both the federal republic and the state in which they currently reside. The full official names of the states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all include the word "commonwealth" rather than "state."

All of the United States can be broken down into its constituent parts, but states are the most basic level. They have all the authority that isn't specifically granted to or prohibited by the federal government. The federal government does not have jurisdiction over local issues, so it is up to the states to handle things like intrastate commerce, elections, new municipalities, public school policy, and non-federal road building and maintenance. Constitutions based on republican ideals are the basis for each state's 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 are elected by the citizens of their respective states. Depending on its population, as determined by the most recent decennial census required by the Constitution, each state is allotted a certain number of representatives in the House of Representatives, with a minimum of one representative and a maximum determined 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]

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. The new states have been accepted without discrimination. [5]

In the table below, you'll find information about when each of the 50 states became independent. 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. (An additional table detailing the ratification of the Acts of Confederation is provided below.) 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. Each subsequent state's admission date is a statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(approved or permitted) Formed by 1   Delaware Monday, December 7th, 1787 [8]
(ratified) (b) the colony known as Delaware. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey Sunday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) The New Jersey Crown Colony 4   Georgia Sunday, January 2nd, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Georgia Colony was a Crown Colony. 5   Connecticut The 9th of January, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts Day of the Frog, February 6, 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) Royal Province of South Carolina 9   That State of New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under British Rule 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominant Colony of the British Empire 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   Here in good ol' NC The date November 21st, 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former Crown colony 13   There's no place like Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Province of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) People's Republic of Vermont[c] 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (9 counties in its District in Kentucky[d]) Virginia. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) State located in the South-Western part of the United States 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Canada's Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) France's Orleans Territory 19   Indiana Friday, December 11th, 1816
(admitted) State of Indiana 20   Mississippi The date was December 10, 1817. [22]
(admitted) Where the Mississippi River Meets the Gulf of Mexico 21   Illinois December 3rd, 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) The Bay State (Maine Congressional District) 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Section of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Its Namesake State of Arkansas 26   Michigan January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) This is Michigan Country. 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Location of Florida as a Separate Political Entity 28   Texas Wednesday, December 29, 1845 [29]
(admitted) TX Republic 29   Iowa On this day in 1846:
(admitted) State of Iowa, Part 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) An Area of Wisconsin 31   California The 9th of September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) In a state of disarray / the Mexican Cession, part 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon Thursday, February 14, 1859
(admitted) The State of Oregon, or (a portion of) the Oregon Territory 34   Kansas In the beginning of 1861, on January 29th, [33]
(admitted) Partial Kansas Territory 35   "West Virginia1" June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada October 31st, 1864
(admitted) Nevada State 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Area encompassing present-day Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   In the state of North Dakota1 Dated: November 2nd, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Area Including the State of Dakota 40   The Badlands of South Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of the Dakotas 41   Montana The date of November 8, 1889 [41]
(admitted) That Part of the Country Known as Montana 42   Washington 11 November 1889 [42]
(admitted) Territorial Government of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) In the state of Wyoming. 45   Utah Sunday, January 4th, 1896 [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma Dated: November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico January 6th, 1912
(admitted) There's a lot of new territory in New Mexico. 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) To occupy the territory now known as Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii Friday, August 21st, 1959
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Island

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 On this day in 1777 2 " South Carolina" Dated: February 5th, 1778 3 New York Saturday, February 6th, 1778 4 To the State of Rhode Island It was February 9th, 1778. 5 Connecticut Wednesday, February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia As of today (26 February) in 1778 7 This New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 Cary, North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware Monday, February 1st, 1779 13 Maryland The date was February 2, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• As part of the legislative package known as the "Compromise of 1850," California's incorporation into the Union was guaranteed.
• A series of bloody conflicts between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups occurred in Kansas Territory between 1854 and 1861, a period known as "Bleeding Kansas."
• The Enabling Act of 1889 gave the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories the legal right to organize state governments (with Dakota being split into two separate 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. which calls for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be united as a single state.
• Upon passage of the Alaska Statehood Act on December 2, 1958, Alaska was officially admitted to the Union as the 49th state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

External links [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 States" History com
• When a country or territory was established as a nation. 50states com