Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

In the United States, each of the 50 individual states is a sovereign nation in its own right, with limited federal control. Due to the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. Some states' official names include the word "commonwealth" rather than "state," such as in Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

The 50 states make up the main divisions of the USA. They have all the authority that isn't given to or restricted to the federal government. Local matters, such as intrastate commerce, elections, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and non-federal road construction and maintenance, are generally under the purview of state governments. Each of the fifty states has a government that includes an executive, legislative, and judicial branch, and a constitution based on republican principles. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, both of which are elected by the citizens of their respective states. There are two senators for every state and at least one representative, with the size of a state's delegation to 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]

As stated in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution, Congress has the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union. There are now fifty states, up from the original thirteen that existed when the United States was founded in 1776. There has been no discrimination against any of the new states in their admission. [5]

The table below details the official statehood dates for each of the 50 US states. After signing on to the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the original 13 states entered the Union of States in the years between 1777 and 1781 and ratified the Articles of Confederation. Dates of AoC ratification are listed in a separate table below.) [6] This list of states is presented in the order in which they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed and currently functioning federal government. 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) Constructed from 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) Province of Delaware[b] 2   Pennsylvania Monday, December 12th, 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey Friday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey was a royal colony. 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) During the time of the British, Georgia was a crown colony. 5   Connecticut 9 January 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts Thursday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   Southeastern United States, Specifically, the State of South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) British possession in the American colony of South Carolina 9   Primarily Used in: New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Commonwealth of Virginia, British Dominions 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, the Queen's Colony 12   Here in good ol' NC The date of November 21, 1789 [14]
(ratified) The North Carolina Colony was a crown colony. 13   Providence, Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) Republic of Vermont (Vermont) 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (Kentucky is represented by nine counties in Virginia) 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Aspects of the South-Western Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) The Northern and Western Areas of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana Thursday, December 11th, 1816
(admitted) The State of Indiana 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 On this day in 1819, December 14 [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) Its Namesake State of Arkansas 26   Michigan Saturday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Michigan State 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Those Parts of the United States That Are Currently 28   Texas Tuesday, December 29th, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa Monday, December 28th, 1846
(admitted) Area of Iowa That Was Once Known As Iowa 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) Part of Wisconsin was once known as the 31   California Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Chaos-stricken regions / the Mexican Cession, Part (g) 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Split off of Minnesota 33   Oregon Today in History (February 14th, 1859)
(admitted) It's true that Oregon only makes up a portion of the territory 34   Kansas Sunday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   Appalachia's West Virginia1 June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in the state of Virginia that are part of the Trans-Allegheny metropolitan area. 36   Nevada Sunday, October 31st, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Expansion of the Nebraska Territory1 38   Colorado On this day in 1876, August 1. [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   It's in North Dakota1. Sunday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Partial Dakota Territory 40   Dakota (State) On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) That Part of the Country Known as Montana 42   Washington On this day in 1889, November 11: [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) In the state of Wyoming. 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma The Date Is November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico January 6th, 1912
(admitted) A portion of the state of New Mexico 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) Land of Arizona 49   Alaska Wednesday, January 3, 1959
(admitted) Region of Alaska 50   Hawaii When: 21 August 1959
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

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 Articles of Confederation were abolished on March 4, 1789, and the present Constitutional Government was ratified. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia On this day in 1777, December 16 2 Carolina del Sur Five of February, 1778 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 Place Name: Rhode Island Thursday, February 9, 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 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 The date was November 19th, 1778. 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland Initially published: 2 February, 1781

See also [ edit ]

• In the Compromise of 1850, a group of bills was passed by Congress; one of these bills guaranteed California's entry into 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.
• The Enabling Act of 1889 gave the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories the right to organize their own governments and seek admission to the Union as individual states (the Dakotas were to be split in half).
• Statehood for Oklahoma and Indian Territory Citizens Act; New Mexico and Arizona Admission Act; and the Oklahoma Enabling Act, which granted statehood to Oklahoma and Indian Territory citizens and admitted the new state to the Union as a whole. calling for a vote to decide if the two areas should be united as one state.
• This was made possible by the Alaska Statehood Act, which officially made January 3, 1959, the day Alaska was admitted to the Union as the 49th state.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Web Resources [ edit ]

• U.S. State Video Collection History com
• "Independence Day" 50states com