Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

One of the fifty entities that make up the United States and share sovereignty with the federal government is a state. Since the federal government and the individual states share power, 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 50 states are the main administrative divisions in the USA. They have all the authority that is not specifically given to or forbidden to the federal government by the United States Constitution. 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. Republican principles form the basis for each state's constitution and government, which is made up of an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. [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. Two senators and one representative are guaranteed to each state by the Constitution; the number of representatives each state has in the House of Representatives is determined by the population of the state as of the most recent decennial census. 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 specifies that Congress has the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1. The United States' total number of states has grown from the original 13 in 1776 to the current 50. All newly admitted states have been given full voting rights. [5]

Presented below is a table detailing the official admission of each of the 50 states into the Union. After signing on to the 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.) Each state is listed in the order in which it ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became a part of the newly formed (and still existing) federal government. Each subsequent state's admission date is a statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
approved of or allowed in Developed from 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) Province of Delaware[b] 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Province of Pennsylvania that is under Proprietary Rule 3   New Jersey Thursday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) Empire of the Crown: Georgia 5   Connecticut This day in 1788, January 9 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) Commonwealth of Massachusetts Bay, a British Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Maryland Colony was a private colony. 8   Specifically, the state of South Carolina1. May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a former British colony 9   A New England State: June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under British Rule 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominion and Royal Colony 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   Carolina del Norte Thursday, November 21st, 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former 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) 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) Territories to the Southwest 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) A Portion of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Places Located in the Province of Orleans 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi This day in 1817, on the 10th, [22]
(admitted) Specifically, the Mississippi Delta region 21   Illinois Sunday, December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Territory in Illinois, Part 22   Alabama Yesterday, on the 14th of December, 1819 [24]
(admitted) Locales in Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Specifically, a section of Missouri. 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Arkansas State 26   Michigan It's the 26th of January, 1837. [28]
(admitted) Geographical Region of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa On this day in 1846:
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) Regional portion of Wisconsin 31   California The Nineteen Fifteenth of September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Cession to Mexico 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Section of Minnesota Territory 33   Oregon The 14th of February, 1859
(admitted) Piece of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861, January 29 [33]
(admitted) Some 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 October 31st, 1864
(admitted) Locale of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) A Land Named Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) Location of Colorado's Territory 39   In the state of North Dakota1 It all started on November 2nd, 1889. [38][i]
(admitted) This portion of Dakota Territory 40   The State of South Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) Region of Dakota 41   Montana Dated: November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Located in the state of Montana. 42   Washington Day that marks the 11th of November, 1889 [42]
(admitted) The State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) 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 Tuesday, November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico 6 January 1912
(admitted) New Mexico Territory 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959:
(admitted) In Alaska's case, this means the territory itself. 50   Hawaii On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

Moments in time when the Articles of Confederation were ratified [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Second Continental Congress voted to send the Articles of Confederation to the individual states for ratification. Following ratification by the required 13 states, the Articles of Confederation entered into force on March 1, 1781. The Articles of Confederation, the predecessor to the present Constitution, were abolished on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia Time: Tuesday, December 16, 1777 2 State of South Carolina Five of February, 1778 3 New York Monday, February 6th, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut Dated: February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia February 26th, 1778 7 Primarily Used in: New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 This is the state of North Carolina. April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware Initial usage: 2/1/1779 13 Maryland The date was February 2, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was a provision of the Compromise of 1850, a set of congressional acts.
• 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 Dakota Appropriations Act of 1889 gave the people of the Dakota Territory the legal right to organize a state government (the state of Dakota was to be split in half) and apply for admission to the United States as a new state.
• It was the Oklahoma Enabling Act that gave the people of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory the legal right to organize a state government and gain admission to the Union as a single state. It was the New Mexico and Arizona Admission Act that gave the people of those territories the legal right to organize a state government and gain admission to the Union as separate states. forcing a vote on whether or not the two areas should be united as a single state
• The Alaska Statehood Act, which officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Hyperlinks to other sites [ edit ]

• US State Videos History com
• "Independence Day" 50states com