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. In light of 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 states make up the main divisions of the USA. They hold all authority not specifically granted to or prohibited by the United States federal government in the Constitution. In most cases, state governments are responsible for overseeing activities that affect only their respective territories, such as intrastate commerce regulation, election administration, municipal formation, public school policy, and the building and upkeep of roads that are not funded by the federal government. A republican form of government, with separate executive, legislative, and judicial branches, exists in each of the 50 states, all of which are governed by their own constitutions. [2]

U.S. citizens and residents from every state have a voice in the Senate and House of Representatives that make up the federal Congress. 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. Furthermore, the Electoral College, the body that elects the President and Vice President of the United States, allows each state to choose a number of electors to vote in the Electoral College equal to the sum of the state's representatives and senators in Congress. [4]

The Constitution specifically vests the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union with Congress in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1. Since its founding in 1776, the United States has grown from its original 13 to its current 50 states. All newly admitted states have been given full voting rights. [5]

The table below details the dates of statehood for each of the 50 US states. Following their approval of the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the original 13 states entered the Union of States in the years 1777–1781, and ratified the Articles of Confederation. (An AoC ratification timeline is provided in a separate table 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. For each succeeding state, the on-list admission date represents the legally binding date established by legislation. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(approved or allowed) Produced by 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) The Province of Delaware[b]. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a Proprietary State 3   New Jersey Friday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) Jersey, a former British colony now a state 4   Georgia It all began on January 2nd, 1788. [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts Tuesday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial-era colony 8   Citing South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   In the state of New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony of the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Commonwealth of Virginia, British Dominions 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Colony Under British Rule 12   Cary, North Carolina1 On this day in 1789, November 21st, [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former Crown Colony 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Officially, the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations were a crown colony. 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) There is a republic in Vermont. 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (Kentucky is represented by nine counties in Virginia) 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Southwest Area 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Canada's Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Places Located in the Province of Orleans 19   Indiana Time Period: December 11th, 1816
(admitted) Its Location: The Indiana Territory1 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) Places in the Mississippi Valley 21   Illinois Time: Wednesday, December 3, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Region of Illinois 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) Location: Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri Observed on August 10th, 1821 [26]
(admitted) State of Missouri (in part) 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan Initially published: January 26, 1837 [28]
(admitted) This is Michigan Country. 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Location of Florida as a Separate Political Entity 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) The State of Texas as a Separate Democratic Republic 29   Iowa Thursday, December 28th, 1846
(admitted) A Section of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) This is a section of Wisconsin. 31   California This day in 1850, on September 9 [31]
(admitted) Part of the Mexican Cession, an area of disorganization[g]. 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) Partial Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Saturday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   A state located in western Virginia. June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada Last Updated: 31 October, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Territory of Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) State of Colorado 39   The State of North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) Partial Territory of Dakota 40   "South Dakota1" On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Montana, the Wild West 42   Washington 11 November 1889 [42]
(admitted) In the State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah As of today's date, January 4th, 1896 [43]
(admitted) Land of Utah 46   Oklahoma When: Tuesday, November 16, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Bordering Oklahoma is Indian Territory. 47   New Mexico Starting on January 6th, 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona Thursday, February 14th, 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska The date was January 3, 1959.
(admitted) Arctic Alaskan Territories 50   Hawaii Wednesday, August 21, 1959
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

Dates of Articles of Confederation Ratification [ 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 This day in 1777, on the 16th of December, 2 The State of South Carolina 05 Février 1778 3 New York Tuesday, February 6th, 1778 4 It's in Rhode Island. Earlier today, on February 9th, 1778, 5 Connecticut Initially published: 12 February 1778 6 Georgia As of today (26 February) in 1778 7 It's in the Granite State, 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 Friday, November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland As of today, February 2, 1781

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was one of the provisions of the Compromise of 1850, a set of congressional acts.
• During the years 1854–1861, when Kansas was still considered part of the territory rather than a state, anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups engaged in a series of violent conflicts in the territory.
• 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.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act gave the people of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory the 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.
• Effective January 3, 1959, Alaska officially became the 49th state in the Union thanks to the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• Watch videos from each state in the United States. History com
• "Independence Day" 50states com