Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

An American state is one of the 50 individual entities that, along with the federal government, makes up the United States' total sovereign territory. As a result of the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, all U.S. citizens 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."

To better understand the United States, it is helpful to break it down into its constituent parts, which are called They have all the authority that is not specifically given to or forbidden to the federal government by the United States Constitution. Local matters, 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. Republican principles form the basis for each state's constitution and government, which consists of an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of senators and representatives from all 50 states. 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 clearly gives Congress the power to decide whether or not to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1. 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]

Presented below is a table detailing the official admission of each of the 50 states into the Union. 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.) 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 legally binding statute. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(approved by allowing it to stand) Produced by 1   Delaware Monday, December 7th, 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania The 12th of December, 1787 [10]
(ratified) Province of Pennsylvania that is under Proprietary Rule 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a Crown Colony 4   Georgia First Day of the Year, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut The Nineteen Eighty-First Day of the Year, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former Crown Colony 6   Massachusetts Earlier this year, on February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Province of Maryland that is currently under private ownership 8   In the state of South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominion of the Crown and Imperial Colony 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Crown Colony 12   Carolina del Norte On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) Colony of the British Crown in North Carolina 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Officially, the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations were a crown colony. 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The Republic of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (Kentucky is represented by nine counties in Virginia) 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Lands to the West of the Mississippi 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Canada's Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) This is Indiana State 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Valley 21   Illinois On this day in 1818, December 3: [23]
(admitted) Part of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Today in History (December 14th, 819) [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) State of Massachusetts (Maine(f) District). 24   Missouri The tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) The State of Missouri and Adjacent Areas 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The Florida Peninsula and Adjacent Lands 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) TX Republic 29   Iowa Thursday, December 28th, 1846
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) Part of Wisconsin was once known as the 31   California Saturday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Cession to Mexico 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Partial Minnesota Territory 33   Oregon On this day in 1859 — February 14
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) The State of Kansas, or a Portion of It 35   A state located in western Virginia. June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada October 31st, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado On this day in 1876, August 1: [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   The state of North Dakota1 Tuesday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Partial Dakota Territory 40   A State in the Midwestern U.S. This day in 1889, November [38][i]
(admitted) Part of the Dakota Territory 41   Montana On this day in 1889, November 8 [41]
(admitted) Places in Montana 42   Washington On this day in 1889, November 11 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Idaho is a territory in the United States. 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) A Land Called Wyoming 45   Utah The date of January 4, 1896 [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 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 Today in History (February 14th, 912)
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska Starting on January 3rd, 1959
(admitted) The Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Hawai'ian Acquired Territory

The ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Second Continental Congress voted to send the Articles of Confederation to the individual states for ratification. After being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation 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 On this day in 1777 2 Citing South Carolina 05 Février 1778 3 New York Specifically: Sixteen days in February, 1778 4 There's no place like Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut A Precise Date: February 12, 1778 6 Georgia A Date in 1778: February 26 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 Thursday, November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware As of today, February 1, 1779 13 Maryland On this day in 1781, February 2

See also [ edit ]

• To admit California to the Union, Congress passed the Compromise of 1850.
• There were a number of violent conflicts in Kansas Territory between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups in the years 1854-1861. This period is known as "Bleeding Kansas."
• The Enabling Act of 1889 gave the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories the legal right to organize state governments (the Dakotas were to be split into two separate states) and apply for admission to the Union as new states.
• 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. needing a vote from the people to decide if the two areas should be united as one state
• With the passage of the Alaska Statehood Act on December 21, 1958, Alaska was officially admitted to the Union as the 49th state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Connections outside the text [ edit ]

• Watch videos from each state in the United States. History com
• Indicators of Statehood Dates 50states com