The order in which the states joined the United States

A state is one of the fifty individual entities that together make up the United States of America and share sovereignty with the federal government. In light of the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, all U.S. citizens hold dual citizenship. (First) the full official names of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all include the word "commonwealth" rather than "state."

The 50 states make up the main divisions of the USA. 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. Each state has a government that includes an executive, legislative, and judicial branch, and a constitution based on republican principles. [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]

The Constitution specifically gives Congress the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1. From its original thirteen in 1776 to its current fifty, the United States has undergone tremendous growth since its inception. All newly admitted states have been given full voting rights. [5]

The table below details the official statehood dates for all 50 US states. After signing on to the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the original 13 states entered the Union of States in the years between 1777 and 1781 and ratified the Articles of Confederation. (An AoC ratification timeline is provided in a separate table below.) They are listed here in the order in which they joined the new (and current) federal government after ratifying the Constitution in 1787. Dates of admission for subsequent states are those officially recognized by law. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted or confirmed) Formed by 1   Delaware The Seventh of December, 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia Time: Tuesday, January 2, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Georgian Colony was a Crown Colony. 5   Connecticut It all started on January 9th, 1788. [12]
(ratified) The Connecticut Colony, a British Crown Colony 6   Massachusetts 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a 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 as 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) Commonwealth of Virginia, Dominion of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) Kingdom of New York 12   The state of North Carolina1 When: Tuesday, November 21, 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   Specifically, the state of 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) A total of nine counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia's District in the state of Kentucky[d]. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) The Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) North West Territories, Segment 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) French for "Orange Land"; the Orleans Region 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Substantial Area of Illinois 22   Alabama Wednesday, December 14, 1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Maine(f] District) Massachusetts 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) This portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Location: Arkansas, USA 26   Michigan On this day in 1837, January 26th: [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) In the Florida Panhandle 28   Texas Saturday, December 29th, 1845 [29]
(admitted) The State of Texas as a Separate 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 Dated: September 9th, 1850 [31]
(admitted) A portion of the Mexican Cession that is disorganized[g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) The State of Minnesota and Adjacent Lands 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) Regional Kansas 35   Western Virginia June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) One hundred and fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny region. 36   Nevada Monday, October 31st, 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   This state is located in the northern part of the United States. Dated: November 2nd, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Part of the Dakota Territory 40   "South Dakota1" As of today's date, November 2nd, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) This portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana Earlier this week, on November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Region of Montana 42   Washington Monday, November 11, 1889 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Location: Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: January 4 [43]
(admitted) Utah, the Territories 46   Oklahoma Saturday, November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico Sixteen hundred and twelve: January 6th, 1912
(admitted) There's a lot of new territory in New Mexico. 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska Three days into 1959
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii Dated: August 21st, 1959
(admitted) Hawaii's 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. After being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation took effect 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 On this day in 1777 2 The State of South Carolina 05 Février 1778 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 It's in Rhode Island. 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia Saturday, February 26th, 1778 7 To the State of New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 Here in good ol' NC April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey This day in 1778, November 19 12 Delaware The First of February, 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.
• 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.
• 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 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 to decide if the two areas should be united as one state.
• On January 3, 1959, Alaska officially became a state thanks to the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Hyperlinks to other sites [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 States" History com
• ''Early states'' 50states com