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 division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, all U.S. citizens 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 50 individual states are the most basic administrative divisions of the USA. They have all the authority that isn't specifically given to or prohibited to the federal government by the United States Constitution. Issues of local concern are typically delegated to the respective state governments, and these include the management of intrastate commerce, the conduct of elections, the formation of local governments, the direction of public schools, and the construction and maintenance of roads that are not funded by the federal government. It is based on republican principles, and each state has its own constitution and government that includes 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. In the Senate, every state has two seats, and in the House of Representatives, every state has a minimum of one representative and as many as its population warrants, as determined by 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]

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. The original 13 states of the United States have been joined by 47 others since 1776. Upon admission, each new state joins the union on an equal footing with the others. [5]

Below is a table detailing the official statehood dates for each of the fifty United States' jurisdictions. 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 on July 4th, 1776, and ratified the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, between 1777 and 1781. (An additional table detailing the ratification of the Acts of Confederation is provided below.) Each of these states is listed in the order in which it ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became a part of the fledgling (and now established) United States of America. 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) Based on 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia Tuesday, January 2, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut Tuesday, January 9, 1788 [12]
(ratified) The State of Connecticut, a Colony of the British Crown 6   Massachusetts 6 February 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   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colonial South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   Element: New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony of 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 Crown Colony 12   State of North Carolina1 When: Tuesday, November 21, 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) New England's Original Colony, Providence Plantations, and the State of Rhode Island 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) We are a republic in Vermont. 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (9 counties in its District in Kentucky[d]) Virginia. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) The Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) The Northwest Territories, Fractional 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) The Province of Orleans 19   Indiana The 11th of December, 1816
(admitted) Geographical Region Including Indiana 20   Mississippi On this day in 1817, December 10 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois Dated: 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) Partial Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) This is Arkansas State 26   Michigan Friday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas Wednesday, December 29, 1845 [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) Ungoverned regions / Mexican Cession (part)[g]. 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon Today in History (February 14th, 1859)
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas It all began on this date in 1861: January 29. [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   Specifically, the state of West Virginia1. June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) There are fifty counties in Virginia that are included in the Trans-Allegheny statistical area. 36   Nevada Sunday, October 31st, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) States Constituting the Nebraska Territory1 38   Colorado As of today, August 1, 1876 [37]
(admitted) This is Colorado Country. 39   The State of North Dakota1. On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   Dakota (State) On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana The Date Was November 8, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Territory of Montana 42   Washington On this date in 1889 [42]
(admitted) Western Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) It's the state of Idaho. 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma On this day in 1907, November 16 [44]
(admitted) There's Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory. 47   New Mexico The date January 6th, 1912
(admitted) A portion of the state of New Mexico 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska This day in 1959, on January 3:
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii When: 21 August 1959
(admitted) Aloha! 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 Sunday, December 16th, 1777 2 Carolina del Sur Instance created: February 5th, 1778 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 The State of Rhode Island It was February 9th, 1778. 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia The 26th of February, 1778 7 This New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 Carolina del Norte April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware On this day in 1779: 13 Maryland Two-Fourths of February, 1781

See also [ edit ]

• A set of laws passed by Congress in 1850 known as the "Compromise of 1850" included a clause guaranteeing California's entry into the Union.
• 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.
• The Enabling Act of 1889 gave the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories the legal right to organize themselves into new states and join 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. calling for a vote on whether or not the two jurisdictions should be merged into one state.
• On January 3, 1959, Alaska officially became a state thanks to the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 States" History com
• Definition of Terms: "Date of Statehood" 50states com