The states that made up the United States and the year they were admitted to the union are listed below.

A state is one of the 50 individual entities that together make up the United States and share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. As for the full official names, [1]Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all use the term commonwealth rather than state.

The fifty states are the most basic political units in America. They have all the authority that is not given to or prohibited by the federal government in the United States 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. 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 the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are two senators and at least one representative from each state, with the size of each state's delegation in the House of Representatives determined by that state's population as of the most recent decennial census required by the Constitution. Furthermore, the Electoral College, the body that elects the President and Vice President of the United States, allows each state to choose a number of electors to vote in the Electoral College equal to the sum of the state's representatives and senators in Congress. [4]

Congress has the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union according to Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution. There are now fifty states, up from the original thirteen that existed when the United States was founded in 1776. All new members have been granted full membership with all other states. [5]

The table below details the official statehood dates for each of the 50 US states. 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 the separate table below for the exact dates each AoC was ratified.) These states are listed in the order in which they joined the new (and current) federal government upon ratification of the Constitution in 1787. Each subsequent state's admission date is a statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
accepted; confirmed Shaped by 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania On this day in 1787 (December 12), [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey Sunday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a Crown Colony 4   Georgia On this day in 1788, January [8]
(ratified) Former British Crown Colony in the South 5   Connecticut January 9th, 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) State of Maryland, a Private Colony 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Kingdom of the South Carolina Colonies 9   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The State of New Hampshire as a Royal Colony 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 Tuesday, November 21st, 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   Location: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The Republic of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) District of Kentucky[d] (consisting of nine counties) in the Commonwealth of Virginia. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) The Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) A Portion of the Northwest Territories 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) Mississippi Country 21   Illinois Three Days After Christmas, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Part of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama On this day in 1819, December 14 [24]
(admitted) Locational Clues: The State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri Date: August 10, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) To the East of the Mississippi River, Arkansas 26   Michigan January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Land of Florida 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) Independent Texas 29   Iowa Monday, December 28th, 1846
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) Partial Wisconsin Territory 31   California Dated: September 9th, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Frontiers without government oversight / Mexican Cession (Part)[g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Segment of Minnesota 33   Oregon The 14th of February, 1859
(admitted) This portion of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Dated: January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) The State of Kansas and Adjacent Areas 35   Western Virginia June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada Date: October 31, 1864
(admitted) Location: Nevada, USA 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) In the State of Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) This is Colorado Country. 39   There's a lot of room in North Dakota1 The date of November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) South Dakota Section 40   States of America: South Dakota1 It all started on November 2nd, 1889. [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Geographical Region Including Montana 42   Washington 11 November 1889 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Boise, Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) States Constituting Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: January 4 [43]
(admitted) Places in Utah 46   Oklahoma Thursday, November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Territories of Oklahoma and Indians in Oklahoma 47   New Mexico It all started on January 6th, 1912
(admitted) Region of New Mexico 48   Arizona A Date: February 14, 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska Time: Wednesday, January 3, 1959
(admitted) Region of Alaska 50   Hawaii On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Island

Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved by the Second Continental Congress and submitted to the individual states for ratification. On March 1, 1781, the Articles of Confederation became active after being ratified by all 13 states. The Articles of Confederation, the precursor to the present United States Constitution, were formally abolished on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia On this day in 1777 2 Carolina del Sur On this day in 1778 — February 5 — 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 That place called Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 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 Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware On this day in 1779, February 1st, 13 Maryland Wednesday, February 2nd, 1781

See also [ edit ]

• A set of laws passed by Congress in 1850 known as the "Compromise of 1850" included a clause guaranteeing California's entry into the Union.
• Kansas Territory was the site of a series of bloody conflicts between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups known as Bleeding Kansas from 1854 to 1861.
• Enabling Act of 1889, allowing citizens of the Dakota (to be split into two states), Montana, and Washington territories to organize state governments and apply for admission to the Union.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act gave the people of Oklahoma and 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. call for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be united as a single state
• On January 3, 1959, Alaska officially became a state thanks to the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Inbound links [ edit ]

• A Collection of Videos Representing Each State in the United States History com
• "Independence Day" 50states com