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. Due to the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. (First) the full official names 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 "states They have all the authority that is not specifically given to or forbidden to the federal government by the United States Constitution. The federal government does not have jurisdiction over local issues, so it is up to the states to handle things like intrastate commerce, elections, new municipalities, public school policy, and non-federal road building and maintenance. A republican form of government, with separate executive, legislative, and judicial branches, exists in each of the 50 states, all of which are governed by their own constitutions. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. 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. In addition, the Electoral College, the body that chooses the President and Vice President of the United States, grants each state a number of electors equal to the sum of its congressional deputies and senators. [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 that made up the United States in 1776 have since been joined by another 39. All new states have been granted full membership with no special treatment. [5]

See below for a chronological listing of when each of the 50 states became independent. After signing on to the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the first 13 states formally entered the Union of States in the years between 1777 and 1781 by ratifying the Articles of Confederation. (A separate table with dates of AoC ratification is provided below.) These states are listed in the order in which they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed and currently functioning federal government. In the following sections, each state's admission date is the statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
Accepted or confirmed Shaped by 1   Delaware On this day in 1787, December 7 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a Proprietary Province 3   New Jersey This day in 1787, on the 18th, [11]
(ratified) New Jersey was a royal colony. 4   Georgia Starting on January 2nd, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Georgian Colony was a Crown Colony. 5   Connecticut 9 January 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts Saturday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Maryland Colony as a Colonial Possession 8   State of South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   The State of New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Kingdom and Dominion of Virginia 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Colony of the Crown 12   In the state of North Carolina1 On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a British Crown Colony. 13   Providence, Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The Republic of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) It has nine counties in its District of Kentucky[d] and is located in Virginia. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) The Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Canada's Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Louisiane's Territories 19   Indiana Dated: 12-11-1816
(admitted) Location: Indiana Territory1 20   Mississippi It's the 10th of December, 1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Area 21   Illinois The Third of December, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Section of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Thursday, December 14th, 1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri Monday, August 10, 1821 [26]
(admitted) An Area of Missouri 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) In the Arkansas Territory1 26   Michigan January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Province of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Florida's Homestead 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) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Monday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Cession to Mexico 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon The 14th of February, 1859
(admitted) Partial Oregon Territory 34   Kansas The Day That Began the Year 1861, January 29 [33]
(admitted) A Section of Kansas 35   Mountain State of West Virginia1 June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) A state in which 50 counties are located in the Trans-Allegheny area (Virginia). 36   Nevada A Date Certain: October 31, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Location: Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   The State of North Dakota1 Earlier today, on November 2nd, 1889, [38][i]
(admitted) A Section of Dakota Territory 40   Dakota (State) On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) The State of Dakota, etc. 41   Montana Earlier this week, on November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington 11 November 1889 [42]
(admitted) A Territorial Statement for Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Locale of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah Tuesday, January 4th, 1896 [43]
(admitted) Places in Utah 46   Oklahoma Dated: November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico A Date: January 6, 1912
(admitted) An Area Now Part of New Mexico 48   Arizona Wednesday, February 14th, 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska Day of the Year: January 3, 1959
(admitted) Arctic Alaskan Territories 50   Hawaii On this date in 1959, August 21st,
(admitted) Hawaiian Home Islands

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. When the Articles of Confederation were finally ratified by all 13 states on March 1, 1781, the new government was officially established. 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, December 16 2 Carolina del Sur Dated: February 5th, 1778 3 New York Adopted: February 6th, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island On this day in 1778, February 9: 5 Connecticut Initially published: 12 February 1778 6 Georgia Tuesday, February 26th, 1778 7 The State of 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 It's the 19th of November in the year 1778. 12 Delaware Dated: February 1st, 1779 13 Maryland The date was February 2, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• To admit California to the Union, Congress passed the Compromise of 1850.
• The years 1854–1861, just before Kansas became a state, were marked by a string of violent conflicts in the Kansas Territory between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups.
• In 1889, Congress passed the Enabling Act, which allowed the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories to organize themselves politically as 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 granted the people of those territories the same rights. necessitating a vote in a referendum to decide whether or not the two areas should be united as a single state
• The Alaska Statehood Act, which officially made January 3, 1959, the date Alaska joined the Union, was passed.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• Watch videos from each state in the United States. History com
• "Independence Day" 50states com