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. Due to the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. To distinguish themselves from other states, the official names 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 isn't specifically given to or forbidden to the federal government by the United States Constitution. Generally speaking, matters of local concern are under the purview of state governments, including but not limited to: intrastate commerce regulation, election administration, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and the construction and maintenance of roads that are not funded by the federal government. Each of the fifty states is governed by a separate government with its own executive, legislative, and judicial branches, as outlined in a state constitution based on republican principles. [2]

Congress is a bicameral legislature, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, in which all states and their citizens have a voice. 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. 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 Constitution specifically gives Congress the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1. The original 13 states of the United States have been joined by 47 others since 1776. All newly admitted states have been given full voting rights. [5]

In the table below, you'll find information about when each of the 50 states became independent. 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. (See below for a separate table detailing the ratification dates of the AoC.) In the order in which they joined the new (and current) federal government after ratifying the Constitution in 1787, these states are listed below. Each subsequent state's admission date is a statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
accept(ed) or (approved) Based on 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania On this day in 1787, December 12 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey Wednesday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) The New Jersey Crown Colony 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut The Nineteen Eighty-First Day of the Year, 1788 [12]
(ratified) The Connecticut Colony, a British Crown Colony 6   Massachusetts Day of the Frog, February 6, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Province of Massachusetts Bay, British Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   Carolina del Sur 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 under the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominated Colony of the British Empire 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, the Queen's Most Favored Colony 12   A Place Called North Carolina1 On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony. 13   Location: Providence, Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Known as the Crown Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) Republican State 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) The Northwest Territories, Fractional 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) Its Location: The Indiana Territory1 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois On this day in 1818 — December 3 [23]
(admitted) Regional Illinois 22   Alabama Instance created: 14 December 1819 [24]
(admitted) Locational Clues: The State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri When: August 10, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Specifically, the Arkansas Valley. 26   Michigan On this day in 1837, January 26 [28]
(admitted) Region of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) In the Florida Panhandle 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) The Texas Republic 29   Iowa On this day in 1846, December 28th,
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) Section of Wisconsin 31   California Monday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Disordered Lands / The Mexican Cession, Part (g) 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) State of Minnesota and Adjacent Lands 33   Oregon On this day in 1859, February 14th, the world changed.
(admitted) Partial Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) The State of Kansas, or a Portion of It 35   "West Virginia1" June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) The Commonwealth of Virginia (all fifty counties in the Trans-Allegheny area[h]). 36   Nevada Date: October 31, 1864
(admitted) Geographical Location: Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Area 39   The State of North Dakota1. When: Tuesday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   Dakota (State) It all started on November 2nd, 1889. [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana Earlier this week, on November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Location: Montana 42   Washington 11 November 1889 [42]
(admitted) It's in Washington State. 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of 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 6 January 1912
(admitted) Aspects of New Mexico State and Territory 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) In the Territory of Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii Friday, August 21st, 1959
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

The ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On November 15, 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 Articles of Confederation were abolished and replaced by the present Constitutional government on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia On this day in 1777 2 " South Carolina" 05 Février 1778 3 New York Dated: February 6th, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Friday, February 9, 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia Sunday, February 26th, 1778 7 This New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 A Place Called North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware As of today, February 1, 1779 13 Maryland On this day in 1781, February 2

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.
• When Kansas Territory was still a territory, between 1854 and 1861, a series of violent conflicts broke out between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups, coming to be known as "Bleeding Kansas."
• 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.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act gave the people of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory the right to organize a state government and gain admission to the Union as a single state. The New Mexico and Arizona Admission Acts did the same for the people of those territories. calling for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be combined into one state.
• On January 3, 1959, Alaska was officially admitted to the Union as a result of the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 United States" History com
• "Independence Day" 50states com