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. People in the United States are citizens of both the federal republic and the state in which they currently reside. Unlike other states, [1]Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all have "commonwealth" in their official state names.

The 50 states make up the main divisions of the USA. They hold all authority not specifically granted to or prohibited by the United States federal government in the Constitution. Concerns such as intrastate commerce, elections, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and non-federal road construction and maintenance fall under the purview of state governments. 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 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]

According to the Constitution, Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 gives Congress the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union. A total of 50 states now make up the United States, up from the original 13. All new states have been granted full membership with no special treatment. [5]

Presented below is a table detailing the official admission of each of the 50 states into the Union. After signing on to the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the first 13 states formally became independent nations in their own right in July 1777 and July 1781, respectively, and formally joined the Union of States by ratifying the Articles of Confederation, the country's first constitution, in each of those years. (A separate table detailing dates of AoC ratification is provided below.) 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. Dates of admission for subsequent states are those officially recognized by law. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted or approved) Developed from 1   Delaware On this day in 1787: [8]
(ratified) The State of Delaware as a Colony[b]. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Colonized Pennsylvania Province 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia It all began on January 2nd, 1788. [8]
(ratified) Queen Anne's Georgian Colony 5   Connecticut It all started on January 9th, 1788. [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Royal Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   For the state of New Hampshire1, see: June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a British Crown Colony. 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominated Colony of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, the Queen's Colony 12   Geographical Indication: North Carolina1 Monday, November 21st, 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a British Colony 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Known as the Crown 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) (Kentucky is represented by nine counties in Virginia) 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Area Located To The Southwest 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Territories in the Northwest 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) The Region of Orleans 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Sunday, December 10th, 1817 [22]
(admitted) To the West of the Mississippi River 21   Illinois This day in 1818, on December 3rd, [23]
(admitted) Part of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama The date is December 14th, 1819. [24]
(admitted) Located in Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Maine[f] District). 24   Missouri Date: August 10, 1821 [26]
(admitted) An Area of Missouri 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Territorial Government of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Affirmative: Florida's Home State 28   Texas It's the 29th of December, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa On this day in 1846, December
(admitted) Part of Iowa was once known as the Iowa Territory. 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Date: September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Cession to Mexico 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) The State of Minnesota, or a Portion of It 33   Oregon Thursday, February 14th, 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861, January 29: [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   Situated in western Virginia June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) The Commonwealth of Virginia (all 50 counties in the Trans-Allegheny area[h]). 36   Nevada Date: October 31, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado A Day in History: August 1st, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   In the state of North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) State of Dakota (in part) 40   This is South Dakota1. Two thousand and eleven on November [38][i]
(admitted) Part of the Dakota Territory 41   Montana The Date Was November 8, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Region of Montana 42   Washington On this date in 1889 [42]
(admitted) In the State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Territory of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Located in Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) Locale of Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Including both Oklahoma and Indian Country as their own separate territories. 47   New Mexico Sunday, January 6th, 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) This is Arizona State Land 49   Alaska Dated: January 3rd, 1959
(admitted) The Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii Today in History (August 21st, 1959)
(admitted) Hawai'ian Acquired Territory

When the Articles of Confederation were ratified [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved by the Second Continental Congress for submission to state legislatures for ratification. All 13 states had to ratify the Articles of Confederation for them to become effective, and that didn't happen until March 1. The Articles of Confederation, the precursor to the present United States Constitution, were formally abolished on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia Dated: December 16th, 1777 2 Carolina del Sur 05 Février 1778 3 New York Adopted: February 6th, 1778 4 It's in Rhode Island. On this day in 1778, February 9: 5 Connecticut Monday, February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia February 26th, 1778 7 This New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 It's in the Tar Heel State, or North April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware First day of February, 1779 13 Maryland This day in 1781, on February 2nd,

See also [ edit ]

• One of the acts included in the "Compromise of 1850" legislation package was one that allowed California to join the Union.
• The years 1854–1861, just before Kansas became a state, were marked by a string of bloody conflicts in the Kansas Territory between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups.
• The Enabling Act of 1889 gave the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories the legal right to organize themselves into states (with Dakota being split into two separate states) and to apply for admission to the Union.
• It was the Oklahoma Enabling Act that gave the people of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory the legal right to organize a state government and gain admission to the Union as a single state. It was the New Mexico and Arizona Admission Act that gave the people of those territories the legal right to organize a state government and gain admission to the Union as separate states. a vote on whether or not the two areas should be united as a single state is needed.
• Upon passage of the Alaska Statehood Act on December 2, 1958, Alaska was officially admitted to the Union as the 49th state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

A look at the world outside [ edit ]

• American State Videos History com
• "Birth of the States" 50states com