Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

A state is one of the fifty individual entities that together make up the United States of America and share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of the separation of powers that exists between the federal government and the individual states, all U.S. citizens have dual citizenship. [1]The full official names of the states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all include the word "commonwealth" rather than "state."

For the most part, the United States can be broken down into its individual states. They have all the authority that isn't given to or restricted to the federal government. The federal government does not have jurisdiction over local issues, so it is up to the states to handle things like intrastate commerce, elections, new municipalities, public school policy, and non-federal road building and maintenance. Each of the fifty states has a government that consists of an executive, legislative, and judicial branch, and a constitution based on republican principles. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of senators and representatives from all 50 states. The number of representatives each state has in the House of Representatives is based on the population count from 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]

This 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. There are now fifty states, up from the original thirteen that existed when the United States was founded in 1776. All newly admitted states have been given full voting rights. [5]

The table below details the dates of statehood for each of the fifty US states. In July 1776, upon agreeing to the United States Declaration of Independence, the first 13 colonies became states; between 1777 and 1781, they ratified the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, and became full members of the Union. (A separate table with dates of AoC ratification is provided below.) This list of states is presented in the order in which they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed and currently functioning 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
accept(ed) or (approved) Based on 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) The State of Delaware, a British Colony[b] 2   Pennsylvania On this day in 1787, December 12 [10]
(ratified) Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey Monday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) The New Jersey Colony, a Crown Colony 4   Georgia Day of the Year 1788, January [8]
(ratified) Empire of the Crown: Georgia 5   Connecticut 9 January 1788 [12]
(ratified) The Connecticut Colony, a British Crown Colony 6   Massachusetts Sunday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Royal Province 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) State of Maryland as a Private Colony 8   Citing South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Province of South Carolina as a Crown Colony 9   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Kingdom of New Hampshire 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominant Colony of the British Empire 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   Carolina del Norte On this date in 1789, November 21st, [14]
(ratified) The North Carolina Colony was a Crown Colony. 13   The Ocean State: 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) Southwest Area 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Canada's Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) France's Orleans Territory 19   Indiana Tuesday, December 11th, 1816
(admitted) Those Parts of the United States That Are Currently 20   Mississippi Tuesday, December 10, 1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Valley 21   Illinois The date was December 3, 1818. [23]
(admitted) Piece of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) Location: Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Boston, MA (Maine Federal Court District) 24   Missouri Date: August 10, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Its portion of the Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Region of Arkansas 26   Michigan Friday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) State of Michigan (Territory) 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The Florida Peninsula 28   Texas Friday, December 29th, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa Yesterday, on the 28th of December, 1846
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) Part of Wisconsin was once known as the 31   California The 9th of September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Disordered Lands / The Mexican Cession, Part (g) 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) Area Including Kansas 35   "West Virginia1" June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) 50 counties in the state of Virginia that are located in the Trans-Allegheny region. 36   Nevada Date: October 31, 1864
(admitted) Location: Nevada, USA 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Geographical Region Known As Nebraska 38   Colorado On this day in 1876, August 1: [37]
(admitted) Said of the area now known as Colorado: 39   Dakota Dunes State Tuesday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   Dakota (State) On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) The Dakotas, or a Portion of It 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) State of Montana 42   Washington The Eleventh Day of November, 1889 [42]
(admitted) Located in Washington State 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Location: Idaho, in the Territory 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Places in Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma The date was November 16th, 1907. [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico It all started on January 6th, 1912
(admitted) An Area Now Part of New Mexico 48   Arizona Earlier today, on February 14th, 1912
(admitted) State of Arizona 49   Alaska The Third of January, 1959
(admitted) The Alaskan Territories 50   Hawaii The date of August 21, 1959
(admitted) State or Province of 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. Once all 13 states ratified the Articles of Confederation, they 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 Monday, December 16th, 1777 2 " South Carolina" The fifth of February, 1778 3 New York Sunday, February 6th, 1778 4 That place called Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut As of this date in 1778: February 12 6 Georgia Tuesday, February 26, 1778 7 Granite State, 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, February 1st, 13 Maryland The Date Is February 2, 1781

See also [ edit ]

• With the passage of the Compromise of 1850, Congress passed a series of bills that included a provision for California's entry into the Union.
• Between 1854 and 1861, when Kansas was still part of the territory, a series of violent conflicts broke out between pro- and anti-slavery groups that came to be known as "Bleeding Kansas."
• The Enabling Act of 1889 gave the people of the Dakota Territory, the Montana Territory, and the Washington Territory the legal right to organize their own state governments (with the Dakota Territory being split into two separate states) and apply for admission to the United States as new states.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act granted permission for the people of the Indian Territory and the State of Oklahoma to join the Union as a single state, and the New Mexico and Arizona Admission Act granted similar permission for the people of those territories to join the Union as individual states. calling for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be combined into one state.
• The Alaska Statehood Act, which officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Connections outside the text [ edit ]

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