Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

One of the fifty entities that make up the United States and share sovereignty with the federal government is a state. Due to the separation of powers between the federal government and the states, Americans hold dual citizenship with the federal republic and the state in which they reside. [1]In their full official names, the states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia use the term commonwealth rather than state.

The fifty states constitute 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. 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. The government of each state is divided into an executive, legislative, and judicial branch, and is based on republican principles as outlined in the state's own constitution. [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. In addition, the Electoral College, the body that chooses the President and Vice President of the United States, grants each state a number of electors equal to the sum of its congressional deputies and senators. [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. United States expansion from 13 to 50 states since 1776. New states have been admitted on an equal footing with the rest. [5]

The table below details the dates of statehood 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 entered the Union of States between 1777 and 1781 by ratifying the Articles of Confederation. (A separate 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 succeeding state's admission date is a statutory deadline mandated by federal law. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
assented to or confirmed Formed by 1   Delaware 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) The Province of Delaware[b] 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) British Colony of Pennsylvania 3   New Jersey Sunday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia Day of the Year 1788, January [8]
(ratified) Queen Anne's Georgian Colony 5   Connecticut It all started on January 9th, 1788. [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a Royal Colony 6   Massachusetts Monday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Massachusetts Bay Colony, a crown colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Maryland Colony was a colonial possession. 8   An Acronym for the State of South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colony of the Crown of South Carolina 9   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Royal Colony and Dominated State 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   The State of North Carolina1 Tuesday, November 21st, 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former Crown Colony 13   Providence, Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) [c]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) States Constituting the South-Western Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Canadian Region of the Northwest 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) The Province of Orleans 19   Indiana On this day in 1816, December 11
(admitted) Geographical Region Including Indiana 20   Mississippi As of today, December 10th, 1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Valley 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Section of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Thursday, December 14th, 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) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) State of Arkansas 26   Michigan Monday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Its Name Means "Territory of Michigan" 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Land of Florida 28   Texas The 29th of December, 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) Region of Wisconsin 31   California The Nineteen Fiftieth Day of September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Disorganized land / the Mexican Cession, part [g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A Portion of Minnesota 33   Oregon Day of the Week: 14 FEBRUARY 1859
(admitted) Segment of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Thursday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) This portion of Kansas Territory 35   The state of West Virginia1 June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada Date: October 31, 1864
(admitted) This is Nevada Country. 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) Colorado, the Territory 39   That Place Called North Dakota1 Sunday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) State of Dakota (in part) 40   Geographical Indicator: South Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) Pieces of Dakota Territory 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Places in Montana 42   Washington Tuesday, November 11th, 1889 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Places in Wyoming 45   Utah The date of January 4, 1896 [43]
(admitted) Utah, the Territories 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Native American Lands in Oklahoma 47   New Mexico The sixth of January, 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) Places in Arizona 49   Alaska Dated: January 3rd, 1959
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii Tuesday, August 21, 1959
(admitted) Hawai'ian Acquired Territory

Events surrounding 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 In the year 1777, on December 16th, 2 Carolina del Sur 05 Février 1778 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Nineteen Seventy-Eighth Day, February 5 Connecticut Tuesday, February 12, 1778 6 Georgia February 26th, 1778 7 It's in the Granite State, New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 To the State of North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey The 19th of November, 1778 12 Delaware Starting on February 1st, 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.
• During the years 1854–1861, when Kansas was still considered part of the territory rather than a state, a series of violent conflicts broke out in the territory between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups.
• This was made possible by the Enabling Act of 1889, which 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 apply for admission to the Union.
• New Mexico and Arizona Territories Enabling Act, allowing residents of those territories to organize a state government and seek admission to the Union as a new state; and the Oklahoma Enabling Act, allowing residents of Oklahoma and the Indian Territories to organize a state government and seek admission to the Union as a new state. to hold a vote on whether or not the two areas should be merged into a single state
• On January 3, 1959, Alaska officially joined the Union as a result of the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Web Resources [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 United States" History com
• Dates of statehood 50states com