Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

A state is one of the 50 individual entities that make up the United States and share sovereignty with the federal government. As a result of the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, all U.S. citizens hold dual citizenship. [1]In their official state names, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Commonwealth of Virginia use the term commonwealth rather than state.

The 50 states are the most basic administrative divisions of the USA. Any authority not specifically granted to or denied to the federal government by the United States Constitution is implicitly granted to the states. Concerns 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. Government in each state is divided into an executive, a legislature, and a judiciary, and is based on a unique set of constitutional safeguards based on republican ideals. [2]

Congress, the federal legislature, consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives, two houses that each have members elected from all 50 states and their residents. The number of representatives each state has in the House of Representatives is based on the population count from 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]

Constitutional law states that Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 gives Congress the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states to the Union. The original 13 states that made up the United States in 1776 have since been joined by another 39. New states have been admitted on an equal footing with the rest. [5]

The table below details the official statehood dates for each of the 50 US states. Each of the original 13 states ratified the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, and thus became a state in July 1776 after agreeing to the United States Declaration of Independence. (See below for a table detailing the timeline of Acts of Consecration) These states are listed in the order in which they joined the new (and current) federal government upon ratification of the Constitution in 1787. Each succeeding state's admission date is a legally binding deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted; confirmed) Based on 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Colonized Pennsylvania Province 3   New Jersey Dated: December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former Crown colony 4   Georgia Two Hundred and Eighty-Eighth Day of the Year [8]
(ratified) During the time of the British, Georgia was a crown colony. 5   Connecticut Nineteen Eighty-Eighth Day, January [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts Monday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   Carolina del Sur 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, Dominant Colony of the British Empire 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   This is the state of North Carolina1. On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former Crown Colony 13   Here in Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Kingdom of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The Republic of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (9 counties in its District in Kentucky[d]) Virginia. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) In the South-Western Part of the Country 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Province of the Northwest 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Louisiane's Territories 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi As of today, December 10th, 1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Valley 21   Illinois This day in 1818, on December 3rd, [23]
(admitted) Part of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri The Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 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) Florida's Homestead 28   Texas The 29th of December, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Independence, Texas 29   Iowa It's the 28th of December, 1846
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) This is a section of Wisconsin. 31   California The Nineteen Fifteenth of September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Ungoverned regions / Mexican Cession (part)[g]. 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Split off of Minnesota 33   Oregon Tuesday, February 14, 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas The Day That Began the Year 1861, January 29 [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   There's no place like West Virginia1 June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Specifically, the fifty counties that make up Virginia's Trans-Allegheny region. 36   Nevada Observed on October 31st, 1864
(admitted) It's in Nevada! 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado It all started on August 1st, 1876. [37]
(admitted) This is Colorado Country. 39   Location: North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) This portion of Dakota Territory 40   The State of South Dakota1 Sunday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana This day in 1889, November 8 [41]
(admitted) State of Montana 42   Washington The Eleventh of November, 1889 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Idaho, the Territorial State 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Located in Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) Locale of Utah 46   Oklahoma The Date Was Tuesday, November 16, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Including both Oklahoma and Indian Country as their own separate territories. 47   New Mexico The sixth of January, 1912
(admitted) There's a lot of new territory in New Mexico. 48   Arizona Sunday, February 14th, 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska Starting on January 3rd, 1959
(admitted) Province of Alaska 50   Hawaii Tuesday, August 21, 1959
(admitted) Aloha! Hawaii!

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. After being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation became effective on March 1, 1781. The current federal government under the Constitution replaced the general government under the Articles on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia In the year 1777, on December 16th, 2 Specifically, the state of South Carolina. 05 Février 1778 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 Providence, Rhode Island The Nineteenth of February, 1778 5 Connecticut Dated: February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia On this day in 1778, February 26 7 This New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 The state of North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey Thursday, November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware On this day in 1779: 13 Maryland Wednesday, February 2nd, 1781

See also [ edit ]

• It was included in the Compromise of 1850, a set of legislative acts passed by Congress, that California was finally admitted to the Union.
• Violence between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups in Kansas Territory occurred frequently between 1854 and 1861, a period 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.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act gave the people of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory the right to organize a state government and gain 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.
• Laws passed on December 2, 1958, and signed into law by President Eisenhower on January 3, 1959, officially admitted Alaska to the Union as the 49th and latest state

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 States" History com
• Constitutional ratification and statehood formation dates 50states com