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 separation of powers that exists in the United States, each individual citizen has dual citizenship: that of the federal republic and the state in which they currently reside. (First) the full official names 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. They have all the authority that is not specifically given to or forbidden to the federal government by the United States Constitution. In most cases, local matters that affect a state's citizens fall under the purview of that state's government. This includes, but is not limited to, intrastate commerce, elections, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and the construction and maintenance of roads that are not funded by the federal government. Republican principles form the basis for each state's constitution and government, which consists of an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. [2]

Congress, the federal legislature, is a bicameral body consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and it includes representatives from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. 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, [3] the number of electors a state can choose to represent it in the Electoral College, the body that votes for President and Vice President, is equal to the sum of the number of representatives and senators from that state in Congress. [4]

This 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. All new states are fully integrated into the union. [5]

The table below details the official statehood dates of all 50 US states. After signing on to the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the original 13 states entered the Union of States in the years between 1777 and 1781 and ratified the Articles of Confederation, the country's first constitution. (The dates of each ratification of the AoC are listed in a separate table below.) These states are listed in the order in which they joined the new (and current) federal government upon ratification of the Constitution in 1787. 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)" Prompted by 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) Settlement in Delaware [b] 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) British Colony of Pennsylvania 3   New Jersey Monday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, the former Crown Colony 4   Georgia First Day of the Year, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut It all started on January 9th, 1788. [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) Royal Colony of Massachusetts Bay 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colonial Maryland 8   Specifically, the state of South Carolina1. May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Kingdom of the South Carolina Colonies 9   State of New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The State of New Hampshire as a Royal Colony 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Imperial and Royal Dominion of Virginia 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) Kingdom of New York 12   In the state of North Carolina1 On this day in 1789, November 21st: [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   Specifically, the 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[c] 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) To be exact, Virginia has nine counties in its District of Kentucky(d). 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Western Hemisphere's Southwest 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 On this date in 1816:
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi As of today, December 10th, 1817 [22]
(admitted) Places in the Mississippi Valley 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Part of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Tuesday, December 14, 1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Maine(f) District). 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) This portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan It's the 26th of January, 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) Independent Texas 29   Iowa On this day in 1846:
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Mexican Cession [g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) Partial Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) Specifically, a section of Kansas. 35   "West Virginia1" June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) The Commonwealth of Virginia (all fifty counties in the Trans-Allegheny area[h]). 36   Nevada October 31st, 1864
(admitted) Located in the state of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado The Day That Started It All: August 1, 1876 [37]
(admitted) To the west, in the Colorado Territory1 39   The State of North Dakota1 The Date Was November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) This portion of Dakota Territory 40   Location: South Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana It all started on November 8th, 1889. [41]
(admitted) Montana, the Wild West 42   Washington On this date in 1889 [42]
(admitted) Locale of Washington State 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) In the Idaho Panhandle 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Colorado State 45   Utah Time: Thursday, January 4, 1896 [43]
(admitted) In the State of Utah 46   Oklahoma On this day in 1907 — November 16 [44]
(admitted) Lands in Oklahoma and Indian Country 47   New Mexico 6 January 1912
(admitted) Places in New Mexico that Are Not in Texas 48   Arizona Instance: Thursday, February 14, 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska The Third of January, 1959
(admitted) In Alaska's case, this means the territory itself. 50   Hawaii On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Oahu, Hawaii

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 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 Monday, December 16th, 1777 2 The State of South Carolina It was on this day in 1778, February 5th, that the Declaration 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Thursday, February 9, 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia February 26th, 1778 7 This 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 Monday, 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.
• In the years leading up to Kansas's admission to the Union as a state, from 1854 to 1861, the territory was the site of a series of violent conflicts between pro- and anti-slavery groups known as "Bleeding Kansas."
• The Enabling Act of 1889 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 to apply for admission to the Union.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act gave the people of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory the legal 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.
• This was made possible by the Alaska Statehood Act, which officially made January 3, 1959, the day Alaska was admitted to the Union as the 49th state.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• Videos Relating to Individual U.S. States History com
• A list of "Statehood Dates" 50states com