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. Because of 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."

United States administrative divisions are called "states." They have all the authority the US Constitution does not give to the federal government or specifically forbids them from exercising. 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. A republican form of government, with separate executive, legislative, and judicial branches, exists in each of the 50 states, all of which are governed by their own constitutions. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of the Senate and the House of 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. The Electoral College is the body that votes for President and Vice President of the United States. [3] Each state has the right to send a number of electors to the Electoral College equal to the sum of its congressional deputies and senators. [4]

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

See below for a chronological listing of 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.) States are listed in the order in which they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed (and still existing) federal government. Each subsequent state's admission date is an official, statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted; confirmed) Constructed from 1   Delaware On this day in 1787, December 7: [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Kingdom of Pennsylvania Colony 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787, December 18 [11]
(ratified) Colony of the British Crown in North America 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) Royal Georgian Colony 5   Connecticut Nineteen Eighty-Eighth Day, January [12]
(ratified) Kingdom of Connecticut 6   Massachusetts Thursday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Massachusetts Bay Colony, a British Possession 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Carolina was a crown colony at the time. 9   In the state of New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under British Rule 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominated Colony of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   A Place Called North Carolina1 Friday, November 21st, 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, the Crown Colony 13   Location: Providence, Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Providence Plantations and the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, British Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The Republic of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) State of Virginia (which includes nine counties in its District of Kentucky[d]). 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) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana The Eleventh of December, 1816
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Sunday, December 10th, 1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois The date was December 3, 1818. [23]
(admitted) Part of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama This day in 1819, on December 14 [24]
(admitted) This is Alabama Country. 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri Sunday, August 10th, 1821 [26]
(admitted) The State of Missouri and Adjacent Areas 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Land of Arkansas 26   Michigan Friday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas The 29th of December, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Independence, Texas 29   Iowa On this day in 1846, December
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A section of Wisconsin 31   California The Nineteenth Day of September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Cession to Mexico 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Part of Minnesota 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Sunday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   Western Virginia June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Commonwealth of Virginia (all fifty counties in the Trans-Allegheny area [h]). 36   Nevada Instance Date: October 31, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) In the State of Nebraska 38   Colorado On this day in 1876, August 1. [37]
(admitted) To the west, in the Colorado Territory1 39   The State of North Dakota1 Monday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Partial Dakota Territory 40   Geographical Indicator: South Dakota1 Instance Date: November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) State of Dakota (in part) 41   Montana Day that November 8th, 1889, Began [41]
(admitted) Region of Montana 42   Washington 11 November 1889 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Located in Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: January 4 [43]
(admitted) State of Utah 46   Oklahoma The date was November 16th, 1907. [44]
(admitted) It's both Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory. 47   New Mexico The sixth of January, 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona Monday, February 14, 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska The date was January 3, 1959.
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii When: 21 August 1959
(admitted) Hawaiian 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 current federal government, established under the Constitution, succeeded the general government under the Articles on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia Saturday, December 16th, 1777 2 Southeastern United States, Specifically, the State of South Carolina 05 Février 1778 3 New York Date: February 6, 1778 4 In the state of Rhode Island The Nineteenth of February, 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia The date was February 26, 1778. 7 This 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 A Date: Tuesday, November 19, 1778 12 Delaware First day of February, 1779 13 Maryland Wednesday, February 2nd, 1781

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was a provision of the Compromise of 1850, a set of legislative acts passed by Congress.
• 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, Montana, and Washington territories the legal authority to organize state governments (with Dakota being split into two states) 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 seek 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 jurisdictions should be united into one state.
• The Alaska Statehood Act, which officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Web Resources [ edit ]

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