Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

Each of the fifty United States' constituent entities, known collectively as "states," shares sovereignty with the federal government. People in the United States are citizens of both the federal republic and the state in which they currently reside. [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 are the most basic administrative divisions of the USA. They have all the authority that is not specifically granted to or prohibited by the federal government. Local matters, 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. Republican principles form the basis for each individual state's constitution and government, which consists of 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, from which citizens of all 50 states and the District of Columbia can elect their own 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 number of electors a state can choose to represent it in the Electoral College, the body responsible for choosing the President and Vice President of the United States, is equal to the sum of its congressional deputies. [4]

A new state may be Union" target="_blank">admitted to the Union only by the Congress, as stated in Clause 1 of Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution. There are now fifty states, up from the original thirteen that existed when the United States was founded in 1776. New states join the union on an equal footing with the rest. [5]

The table below details the dates of statehood for each of the 50 US states. First accepting the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the first 13 states ratified the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, one by one between 1777 and 1781. (See below for a separate table detailing the ratification dates of the AoC.) The order in which these states are listed indicates the order in which they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed (and still existing) United States of America. Each subsequent state's admission date is a legally binding deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
formally recognized or approved Produced by 1   Delaware Seventh of December, 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware Colony[b] 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Propertied Province 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, the former Crown Colony 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) Royal Georgian Colony 5   Connecticut Sunday, January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts Saturday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Royal Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   Colony State of South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Province of South Carolina under the Crown 9   Element: 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 Dominion 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Colony of the British Crown 12   Carolina del Norte This day in 1789, November 21 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British 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) With nine counties in its District of Kentucky[d], Virginia is a large state. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Continent's Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) A Portion of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) French for "Orange Land"; the Orleans Region 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Valley 21   Illinois On this day in 1818 — December 3 — [23]
(admitted) Region of Illinois 22   Alabama It was on this date in 1819, December 14th, that [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) [f]Maine District, Commonwealth of Massachusetts 24   Missouri Date: August 10, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Land of Arkansas 26   Michigan Sunday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Its Florida-based definition 28   Texas This day in 1845, on December 29th, [29]
(admitted) The State of Texas, Republika 29   Iowa This day in 1846, on December 28th,
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California The 9th of September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Cession to Mexico[g]. 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Segment of Minnesota 33   Oregon Wednesday, February 14, 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   The Mountain State, or West Virginia1 June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada When October 31st, 1864 rolled around,
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado As of today, August 1, 1876 [37]
(admitted) In the Colorado Territory1 39   The State of North Dakota1 The date was November 2, 1889. [38][i]
(admitted) Pieces of Dakota Territory 40   An Acronym for South Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana The date of November 8, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington 11 November 1889 [42]
(admitted) Territory of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) This is the territory of Idaho. 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: January 4 [43]
(admitted) Locale of Utah 46   Oklahoma The Date Was Tuesday, November 16, 1907 [44]
(admitted) This is Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory. 47   New Mexico 6 January 1912
(admitted) Places in New Mexico that Are Not in Texas 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Hawaiian Home Islands

Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved for ratification by the states by the Second Continental Congress. After being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation took effect on March 1, 1781. The current federal government under the Constitution replaced the general government under the Articles on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia On this date in 1777, December 16 2 Carolina del Sur Wednesday, February 5th, 1778 3 New York This day in history: February 6th, 1778 4 Providence, Rhode Island Thursday, February 9, 1778 5 Connecticut Monday, February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia The 26th of February, 1778 7 For the state of New Hampshire, see: March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 It's in the Tar Heel State, or April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey Saturday, November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware The First of February, 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 set of congressional acts.
• During the years 1854–1861, when Kansas was still considered part of the territory rather than a state, a number of violent conflicts broke out between pro- and anti-slavery groups in the territory.
• Enabling Act of 1889, allowing citizens of the Dakota (to be split into two states), Montana, and Washington territories to organize state governments and apply for admission to the Union.
• Authorizing the people of the Indian Territory and the Oklahoma Territory to organize themselves into a single state and to seek admission to the Union as a single state via the Oklahoma Enabling Act; also authorizing the people of the New Mexico and Arizona Territories to organize themselves into a state government and to seek admission to the Union as a single state. calling for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be united as a single state.
• The Alaska Statehood Act officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Linked external resources [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 States" History com
• A list of "Statehood Dates" 50states com