The order in which the states 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. Since the federal government and the individual states share power, 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."

For the most part, the United States can be broken down into its individual 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 responsible for overseeing activities that affect only their respective territories, such as intrastate commerce regulation, election administration, municipal formation, public school policy, and the building and upkeep of roads that are not funded by the federal government. Republican principles form the basis for each state's constitution and government, which is made up of an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of senators and representatives from all 50 states. 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]

This 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 United States was founded in 1776, and since then the number of states has grown from 13 to the current 50. All newly admitted states are treated on par with the others. [5]

Below is a table with information about 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 between 1777 and 1781 by ratifying the Articles of Confederation. (See below for a separate table detailing the ratification dates of the AoC.) 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
(approved or permitted) Prompted by 1   Delaware Tuesday, December 7th, 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania The Twelveth of December, 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony that became a state in the United States 4   Georgia Day of the Year 1788, January [8]
(ratified) The Georgia Colony was a Crown Colony. 5   Connecticut 9 January 1788 [12]
(ratified) State of Connecticut, Royal Colony 6   Massachusetts 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) Commonwealth of Massachusetts Bay, a British Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Province of South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   State of New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under British Rule 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colonial Virginia, Now a Dominion 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   A Place Called North Carolina1 On this day in 1789, November 21st, [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) The Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a British colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) Republic of Vermont (Vermont) 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (9 counties in its District in Kentucky[d]) Virginia. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) The Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Northwest Territories (portion of) 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) To the West of the Mississippi River 21   Illinois As of today, December 3rd, 1818 [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 Observed on August 10th, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Section of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan As of today, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Location: Michigan, USA 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa On this day in 1846:
(admitted) The Iowa Territory, Part 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) Separate Section of Wisconsin 31   California Date: September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Mexican Cession[g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas The Day That Began the Year 1861, January 29 [33]
(admitted) An Area of Kansas 35   A state located in western Virginia. June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) One hundred and fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny region. 36   Nevada Date: October 31, 1864
(admitted) In the State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) To the west, in the Colorado Territory1 39   The State of North Dakota1 Day of the Dead, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   States of America: South Dakota1 It all started on November 2nd, 1889. [38][i]
(admitted) Area Including the State of Dakota 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington Wednesday, November 11th, 1889 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Located in Wyoming 45   Utah Wednesday, January 4th, 1896 [43]
(admitted) Locale of Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Oklahoma and Indian Land 47   New Mexico A Date: January 6, 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska As of this date in 1959:
(admitted) Anchorage, Alaska 50   Hawaii Today in History (August 21st, 1959)
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

Dates for ratifying the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved for ratification by the states by the Second Continental Congress. All 13 states had to ratify the Articles of Confederation for them to become effective, and that didn't happen until March 1. The current federal government, established by the Constitution, succeeded the general government under the Articles on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia Dated: December 16th, 1777 2 Columbia, South Carolina Day of the Week: February 5, 1778 3 New York Adopted: February 6th, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia February 26th, 1778 7 To 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 Dated: November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland The date is 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.
• Battles between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups in Kansas Territory broke out in the years leading up to Kansas's statehood in 1854–1861.
• 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 did the same for the people of those territories. forcing a vote on whether or not the two areas should be united as a single state
• The Alaska Statehood Act officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 States" History com
• "Birth of a Nation" 50states com