Statehood admission dates are listed in order for the 50 United States.

A state is one of the 50 individual entities that make up the United States and share sovereignty with the federal government. Due to the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans 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."

United States administrative divisions 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. In most cases, state governments are vested with the authority to oversee matters of local significance, such as the management of intrastate commerce, the conduct of elections, the formation of local governments, the direction of public schools, and the construction and maintenance of roads that are not funded by the federal government. Each state's government is structured similarly to the federal government, with an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. However, each state's constitution is based on republican principles. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature, composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives, from which citizens of all 50 states and the District of Columbia can elect their own 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 last 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]

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 separate table detailing the ratification dates of the AoC.) The order in which these states are listed reflects the order in which they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed (and still existing) United States of America. Every subsequent admission date is a statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted or confirmed) Constructed from 1   Delaware On this day in 1787: [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Colonial Possession 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) The New Jersey Crown Colony 4   Georgia On this day in 1788, January 2 [8]
(ratified) A British Colony in the State of Georgia 5   Connecticut 9 January 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Province of Maryland as a Private Property 8   To the South May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Kingdom of the South Carolina Colonies 9   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under British Rule 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Royal Colony and Dominated State 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   Carolina del Norte The date of November 21, 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Providence Plantations and the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, British Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) (c)The Vermont Republic 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (Kentucky is represented by nine counties 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) The Province of Orleans 19   Indiana Instance created: December 11, 1816
(admitted) State of Indiana 20   Mississippi When: December 10th, 1817 [22]
(admitted) Mississippi Country 21   Illinois Sunday, December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Region of Illinois 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Region of Maine(f): Massachusetts 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Locale of Arkansas 26   Michigan It's the 26th of January, 1837. [28]
(admitted) Formerly Known as: Michigan Territory1 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The Florida Peninsula and Surrounding Area 28   Texas On this date in 1845: [29]
(admitted) Independent Texas 29   Iowa Thursday, December 28th, 1846
(admitted) Region of Iowa 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) Section of Wisconsin 31   California Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Disorganized land / the Mexican Cession, part [g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) The State of Minnesota, or a Portion of It 33   Oregon On this day in 1859 — February 14
(admitted) Segment of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Thursday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) The State of Kansas, or Part of It 35   The Mountain State, or West Virginia1. June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Specifically, the fifty counties that make up Virginia's Trans-Allegheny region. 36   Nevada After midnight on October 31, 1864
(admitted) Located in the state of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Expansion of the Nebraska Territory1 38   Colorado One August Day in 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   To the north: North Dakota1 Tuesday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) This portion of Dakota Territory 40   States of America: South Dakota1 Wednesday, November 2nd, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of the Dakotas 41   Montana It all started on November 8th, 1889. [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington 11 November 1889 [42]
(admitted) Place Name: Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Geographical Region Called Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) Utah, the Territories 46   Oklahoma The Date Was November 16, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Bordering Oklahoma is Indian Territory. 47   New Mexico 6 January 1912
(admitted) Region of New Mexico 48   Arizona On this day in 1912, February 14th,
(admitted) Arizona State 49   Alaska The date January 3, 1959
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii Today in History (August 21st, 1959)
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

Moments in time when the Articles of Confederation were ratified [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved for ratification by the states by the Second Continental Congress. On March 1, 1781, after ratification by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation took effect. The Articles of Confederation were abolished and replaced by the present Constitutional government on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia Friday, December 16th, 1777 2 The State of South Carolina. On this day in 1778 — February 5 — 3 New York The sixth of February, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Earlier today, on February 9th, 1778, 5 Connecticut As of this date in 1778: February 12 6 Georgia Friday, February 26th, 1778 7 This New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 In the state of North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey Saturday, November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware On this day in 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 in the territory between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups.
• Federal legislation passed in 1889 that made it possible for citizens of the Dakota (later split into two states), Montana, and Washington territories to organize state governments and apply for admission to the Union.
• 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 on whether or not the two areas should be combined into one state.
• Legislation that officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

References outside the text [ edit ]

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