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. Because of the division 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 fifty states are the main administrative divisions of the USA. It gives them authority over everything the federal government doesn't have, including everything the Constitution expressly forbids them from doing. Concerns such as intrastate commerce, elections, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and the construction and maintenance of non-federal roads are generally under the purview of state governments. 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]

Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and it includes representatives from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. There are two senators and at least one representative from each state, with the size of each state's delegation in the House of Representatives determined by that state's population as of the last 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. U.S. statehood has increased from its original 13 in 1776 to its current 50. All newly admitted states have been given full voting rights. [5]

Here's a handy table with all 50 states and the days they became independent. After signing on to the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the first 13 states officially became independent nations in their own right and, between 1777 and 1781, ratified the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States. (See below for a table detailing the timeline of Acts of Consecration) 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
(accepted or confirmed) Shaped by 1   Delaware Sunday, December 7th, 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Yesterday, on the 12th of December, 1787 [10]
(ratified) The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a Proprietary State 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 January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) New England's Crown Colony 6   Massachusetts 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) State of Massachusetts Bay, a British Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Maryland Colony was a private colony. 8   An Acronym for the State of South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Originally, South Carolina was a British colony. 9   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a British Crown Colony 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Royal Colony and Dominion 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Colony Under the Crown 12   In the state of North Carolina1 On this date in 1789, November 21st, [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   Specifically, the state of Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) Vermont's [c]Republic 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) Northern Virginia (including nine counties in its District of Kentucky[d]) 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) The Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) A section of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Region of Orleans 19   Indiana This day in 1816, on December 11
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi On this day in 1817, December 10: [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois Sunday, December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Regional Illinois 22   Alabama Yesterday, on the 14th of December, 1819 [24]
(admitted) This is Alabama Country. 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Arkansas State 26   Michigan The 26th of January, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Region 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, December
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) Partial Wisconsin Territory 31   California The Nineteenth Day of September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Cession to Mexico[g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) The State of Minnesota and Adjacent Lands 33   Oregon Day of the Week: 14 FEBRUARY 1859
(admitted) A portion of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   Mountain State of West Virginia1 June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada October 31st, 1864
(admitted) Land of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Its Name for the State of Nebraska 38   Colorado Time Period: 1876-08-01 [37]
(admitted) Land of Colorado 39   The Badlands of North Dakota1 The Date Was 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 The Date Was November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Montana, the Wild West 42   Washington Wednesday, November 11th, 1889 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) A Land Called Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico This day in 1912, on January 6
(admitted) State of New Mexico 48   Arizona Today in History (February 14th, 912)
(admitted) The State of Arizona. 49   Alaska On this day in 1959, January 3
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii Day of the Moon, August 21, 1959
(admitted) The Hawaiian Islands as a Territorial Unit

Events surrounding the ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On this day in 1777, the Second Continental Congress recommended to the states that they ratify the Articles of Confederation. After being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation became effective on March 1, 1781. It was on March 4, 1789, that the Articles of Confederation were formally dissolved and the present Federal Constitution came into effect. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia In the year 1777, on December 16th, 2 In the state of South Carolina On this day in 1778, February 5: 3 New York Sixteen years ago today, on February 6th, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Nineteen Seventy-Eighth Day, February 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia February 26th, 1778 7 Granite State, New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 Geographical Indication: North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey On this date in 1778, November 19 12 Delaware Sunday, February 1st, 1779 13 Maryland As of today, February 2, 1781

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was a part of the Compromise of 1850, a set of legislative acts passed by Congress.
• 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 right to organize their own governments and seek admission to the Union as individual states (the Dakotas were to be split in half).
• New Mexico and Arizona Territories Enabling Act, allowing residents of those territories to organize a state government and seek admission to the Union as a new state; and the Oklahoma Enabling Act, allowing residents of Oklahoma and the Indian Territories to organize a state government and seek admission to the Union as a new state. mandating a vote to establish whether or not the two areas should be united as one state
• Effective January 3, 1959, Alaska officially became the 49th state in the Union thanks to the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Related Sites [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 States" History com
• Timelines of nation-state formation 50states com