Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

A state is one of the fifty individual entities that together make up the United States of America and share sovereignty with the central government. Due to the separation of powers between the federal government and the individual states, all U.S. citizens are considered citizens of both the federal republic and the state in which they currently reside. [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 make up the main divisions of the USA. They have all the authority that is not specifically given to or forbidden to the federal government by the United States Constitution. For the most part, matters of local concern are left to the jurisdiction of individual states, such as the management of intrastate trade, the conduct of elections, the formation of municipal governments, the direction of public education, and the building and maintenance of roads not funded by the federal government. Each of the fifty states has a government that consists of an executive, legislative, and judicial branch, and a constitution based on republican principles. [2]

The U.S. Congress is a bicameral legislature, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, that includes representatives from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. 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 power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union is delegated to Congress by Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution. 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]

Below is a table with information about when each of the 50 states became independent. By signing on to the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the first 13 states were officially established, and from 1777 to 1781, they all became part of the original Union of States by ratifying the Articles of Confederation. (The dates of AoC ratification are listed in a separate table below.) These states are listed in the order in which they joined the new (and current) federal government upon ratification of the Constitution in 1787. The admission date shown for each succeeding state is the legally mandated date. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(acknowledged or confirmed) Developed from 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) Settlement in Delaware [b] 2   Pennsylvania Thursday, December 12th, 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Proprietary Province 3   New Jersey Saturday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia Time: Tuesday, January 2, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut Tuesday, January 9, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British 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) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   An Acronym for the State of South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colonial 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, Dominated Colony of the British Empire 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) Imperial New York 12   Specifically, the state of North Carolina1. 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) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) There is a republic in Vermont. 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) Northern Virginia (including nine counties in its District of Kentucky[d]) 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Aspects of the South-Western Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Northern Provinces 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) A Place Called Orleans 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) Geographical Region of Mississippi 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) This is a section of Illinois Territory. 22   Alabama Wednesday, December 14, 1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan As of today, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) In the Florida Panhandle 28   Texas Friday, December 29th, 1845 [29]
(admitted) The State of Texas as a Democratic Republic 29   Iowa On this day in 1846:
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) Section of Wisconsin 31   California Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Ungoverned land / Mexican Cession (part)[g]. 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) State of Minnesota and Adjacent Lands 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) State of Oregon and Adjacent Areas 34   Kansas On this day in 1861, January 29: [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   "West Virginia1" June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) 50 counties in the state of Virginia that are located in the Trans-Allegheny region. 36   Nevada October 31st, 1864
(admitted) Locale of 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 Great Land of North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   Geographical Indicator: South Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of the Dakotas 41   Montana This day in 1889, November 8 [41]
(admitted) Western United States region encompassing Montana. 42   Washington The Eleventh Day of November, 1889 [42]
(admitted) Western Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Location: Idaho, in the Territory 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) State of Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) A Land Named Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico Initially published: January 6, 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) Territorial Status: Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Island

Conventions to ratify 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. After being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation took effect 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 The 16th of December, 1777 2 A State in the Southeastern United States 05 Février 1778 3 New York Tuesday, February 6th, 1778 4 It's in Rhode Island. Nineteen Seventy-Eighth Day, February 5 Connecticut Wednesday, February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia February 26th, 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 November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware Day of the Sun, February 1, 1779 13 Maryland The date was February 2, 1781.

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.
• 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 between pro- and anti-slavery groups in the territory.
• This was made possible by the Enabling Act of 1889, which gave the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories the right to organize themselves into states (with Dakota being split into two separate states) and apply for admission to the Union.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act granted 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. necessitating a vote in a referendum to decide whether or not the two areas should be united as a single state
• Act of Statehood for Alaska, formally admitting that state to the Union as of January 3, 1959

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Web Resources [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 States" History com
• Definition of Terms: "Date of Statehood" 50states com