Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

The 50 individual states that make up the United States are co-sovereign entities with the central government. Due to the separation of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans 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 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. Republics are the norm in the United States, but each state has its own constitution and system of government (the executive, the legislature, and the courts). [2]

Congress, the United States' bicameral legislature, consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and all states and their citizens are guaranteed a voice there. 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. The Electoral College is the body that votes for President and Vice President of the United States. [3] Each state has the right to send a number of electors to the Electoral College equal to the sum of its congressional deputies and senators. [4]

The power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union is vested in Congress by Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution. The original thirteen states of the United States have since been joined by another 33, bringing the total to fifty. All newly admitted states have been given full voting rights. [5]

A timeline of statehood for each of the 50 states is provided below. 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.) In the order in which they joined the new (and current) federal government after ratifying the Constitution in 1787, these states are listed below. Dates of admission for subsequent states are those officially recognized by law. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
acceptance or approval Prompted by 1   Delaware The Seventh of December, 1787 [8]
(ratified) The State of Delaware as a Colony[b] 2   Pennsylvania It was on December 12th, 1787, that the Declaration of Independence was signed [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania is a private province. 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut Sunday, January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts Monday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial-era province 8   The State of South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   Specifically, the state of New Hampshire1. June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony of the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominion of the Crown and Proud Colony 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   The state of North Carolina1. The 21st of November, 1789 [14]
(ratified) Colonial North Carolina, a Crown Colony 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Colony under British Rule; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The Republic of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) District of Kentucky[d] (consisting of nine counties) in the Commonwealth of Virginia. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) South-Western Part of the Country 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Territory in the Northwest 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana The 11th of December, 1816
(admitted) Region of Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois On this day in 1818 — December 3 — [23]
(admitted) An Area of Illinois 22   Alabama On this day in 1819, December 14 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Province of New Hampshire 24   Missouri Observed on August 10th, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Its Namesake State of Arkansas 26   Michigan On this date in 1837, January 26 [28]
(admitted) Location: Michigan, USA 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas Today in 1845 (December 29) [29]
(admitted) The State of Texas as a Separate Republic 29   Iowa On this day in 1846:
(admitted) Area of Iowa That Was Once Known As Iowa 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A section of Wisconsin 31   California Saturday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Ungoverned regions / Mexican Cession (part)[g]. 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Region of Minnesota 33   Oregon Sunday, February 14th, 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Friday, January 29, 1861 [33]
(admitted) Area Including Kansas 35   Mountain State of West Virginia1 June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in the state of Virginia that are part of the Trans-Allegheny metropolitan area. 36   Nevada Date: October 31, 1864
(admitted) In the State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Location: Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   The State of North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) This portion of Dakota Territory 40   Location: South Dakota1 Tuesday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Specifically the Dakota Territory. 41   Montana Tuesday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of 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) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah The Fourth of January, 1896 [43]
(admitted) That Part of the Country Known as Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico January 6th, 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona Today in History (February 14th, 912)
(admitted) State of Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii When: 21 August 1959
(admitted) Oahu, Hawaii

Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On this day in 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 Articles of Confederation were formally abolished on March 4, 1789, and the present federal government under the Constitution took their place. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia On this day in 1777 2 A State in the Southeastern United States The date of February 5, 1778 3 New York The date was February 6, 1778. 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia As of today (26 February) in 1778 7 New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 The State of North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey 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 one of the provisions of the Compromise of 1850, a collection of acts passed by Congress.
• 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."
• In 1889, Congress passed the Enabling Act, which allowed the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories to organize themselves politically as states and apply for admission to the Union.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act granted 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. It also granted the people of the New Mexico and Arizona Territories the same right. calling for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be united as a single state
• The Alaska Statehood Act, which officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Connecting to the Outside World: Some Useful Resources [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 States of the USA" History com
• The "Birth of a Nation" 50states com