Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

For those unfamiliar, a state is one of the 50 individual entities that together make up the United States and share sovereignty with the federal government. As a result of the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, all U.S. citizens hold dual citizenship. Four U.S. states—Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia—have commonwealth in their official names instead of state.

In the United States, the individual states are the most basic political entities. When it comes to authority, they have everything the federal government doesn't and can't. Concerns 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. Each state has its own constitution grounded in republican principles, and government consisting of executive, legislative, and judicial branches [2]

U.S. citizens and residents from every state have a voice in the Senate and House of Representatives that make up the federal Congress. Each state is guaranteed a minimum of two senators and a maximum of its number of representatives in the House of Representatives as determined by 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]

Congress has the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union per 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]

Below is a table with information about when each of the 50 states became independent. After signing on to the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the first 13 states formally became independent nations in their own right and, between 1777 and 1781, ratified the Articles of Confederation to form the first United States of America. (See below for a separate table detailing the ratification dates of the AoC.) These states are listed in the order in which they joined the new (and current) federal government upon ratification of the Constitution in 1787. Each subsequent state's admission date is a statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted or approved) Based on 1   Delaware On this day in 1787: [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Friday, December 12th, 1787 [10]
(ratified) Kingdom of Pennsylvania Colony 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) During the time of the British, Georgia was a crown colony. 5   Connecticut Day of the Year: January 9, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) English: South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Dominion of New Hampshire 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominion of the Crown and Imperial Colony 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) Province of New York under the Crown 12   A Place Called North Carolina1 On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) Kingdom of North Carolina 13   This is the state of Rhode Island1. May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Providence Plantations and the State of Rhode Island and Connecticut, British North America 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The 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) The Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Area of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) French for "Orange Land"; the Orleans Region 19   Indiana Sunday, December 11th, 1816
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Tuesday, December 10, 1817 [22]
(admitted) Geographical Region of Mississippi 21   Illinois Time: Wednesday, December 3, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Region of Illinois 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) States of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri Tuesday, August 10, 1821 [26]
(admitted) The State of Missouri and Adjacent Areas 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Locale of Arkansas 26   Michigan On this day in 1837: [28]
(admitted) State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) TX Republic 29   Iowa Dated: December 28th, 1846
(admitted) Specifically, the portion of Iowa's territory that is called 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) An Area of Wisconsin 31   California The Nineteenth of September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Part of the Mexican Cession, an area of disorganization[g]. 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) This section of Minnesota is called the Minnesota Territory. 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Monday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) This portion of Kansas Territory 35   We're in the Mountain State. June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada Instance Date: October 31, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Territorial Status: Nebraska 38   Colorado Starting on August 1st, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   The State of North Dakota1 Monday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   The State of South Dakota1 Sunday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Montana, the Wild West 42   Washington Dated: November 11th, 1889 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The Idaho Panhandle 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Wyoming, the Territories 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) Utah Territory 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 14 February 1912
(admitted) Pardon my ignorance, but I wasn't aware that Arizona was 49   Alaska Time: Wednesday, January 3, 1959
(admitted) Alaska, a territory 50   Hawaii Sunday, August 21st, 1959
(admitted) Located in Hawaii's territorial waters

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

On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were formally approved for ratification by the individual states by the Second Continental Congress. On March 1, 1781, after being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation entered into force. The current federal government, established under the Constitution, succeeded the general government under the Articles on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia On this day in 1777, December 16 2 To the South It was on this day in 1778, February 5th, that 3 New York Dated: February 6th, 1778 4 That place called Rhode Island Thursday, February 9, 1778 5 Connecticut Sunday, February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia Monday, February 26th, 1778 7 A New England State: March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 Specifically, the state of North Carolina. April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey On this date in 1778, November 19 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland The date was February 2, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• One of the acts included in the "Compromise of 1850" legislation package was one that allowed California to join the Union.
• 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.
• 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 gave the people of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory the legal right to organize a state government and seek admission to the Union as a single state. A similar law gave the people of New Mexico and Arizona the legal right to organize a state government and seek admission to the Union as separate states. calling for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be combined into one state.
• On January 3, 1959, Alaska officially became a state thanks to the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

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