This is a timeline of the states' admission to the United States.

The 50 individual states that make up the United States are co-sovereign entities with the central government. Being a resident of the United States means that you are a citizen of both the federal republic and the state in which you currently reside. Four U.S. states—Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia—have commonwealth in their official names instead of state.

The 50 states are the most basic administrative 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. Generally, matters of local concern are under the purview of state governments, including but not limited to: intrastate commerce regulation, election administration, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and the construction and maintenance of roads that are not funded by the federal government. Government in each state is divided into an executive, a legislature, and a judiciary, and is based on a unique set of constitutional safeguards based on republican ideal [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and it includes representatives from every state and every citizen. 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. In addition, the number of electors a state can choose to represent it in the Electoral College, the body responsible for electing the President and Vice President of the United States, is equal to the sum of the number of its congressional deputies and senators. [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. 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]

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 in the years 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
Accepted or confirmed Developed from 1   Delaware Monday, December 7th, 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania On this day in 1787, December 12: [10]
(ratified) State of Pennsylvania as a Private Colony 3   New Jersey Tuesday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Georgia Colony Was a Crown Possession 5   Connecticut Monday, January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) New England's Crown Colony 6   Massachusetts On this day in 1788, February 6th, [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colonial Maryland 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) State of South Carolina, a British Crown Colony 9   State of New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Kingdom of New Hampshire 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominated Colony of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) Province of New York under the Crown 12   A Place Called North Carolina1 On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   Providence, Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) Vermont's [c]Republic 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (Kentucky is represented by nine counties in Virginia) 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Lands to the West of the Mississippi 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Part of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana On this day in 1816 (December 11)
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Tuesday, December 10, 1817 [22]
(admitted) Places in the Mississippi Valley 21   Illinois Time: Wednesday, December 3, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Regional Illinois 22   Alabama Friday, December 14, 1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) To be specific, the District of Maine[f] in Massachusetts. 24   Missouri The tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Regional Term for Arkansas 26   Michigan Wednesday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Territorial Government of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Those Parts of the United States That Are Currently Cal 28   Texas Today in 1845 (December 29) [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa Dated: 12/28/1846
(admitted) Region of Iowa 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Saturday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Disordered Lands / The Mexican Cession, Part (g) 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Area Including the State of Minnesota 33   Oregon Day of the Week: 14 FEBRUARY 1859
(admitted) Part of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Sunday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   Western Virginia June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) A state in which 50 counties are located in the Trans-Allegheny area (Virginia). 36   Nevada On this day in 1864, October 31st,
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Location: Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The State of Colorado 39   The State of North Dakota1 The date of November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   Dakota (State) On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) Region of Dakota 41   Montana Thursday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Region of Montana 42   Washington Wednesday, November 11th, 1889 [42]
(admitted) It's in Washington State. 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) A Territorial Statement for Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Located in Wyoming 45   Utah Initially published: January 4, 1896 [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) State of Oklahoma and Native American Lands 47   New Mexico Sunday, January 6th, 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona Today in History (February 14th, 912)
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska The date January 3, 1959
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii The date of August 21, 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, established under the Constitution, succeeded the general government under the Articles on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia On this day in 1777 2 Carolina del Sur Five of February, 1778 3 New York Friday, February 6th, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Saturday, February 9th, 1778 5 Connecticut February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia Specifically on: February 26th, 1778 7 This New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 A Place Called North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey Dated: November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware Initial usage: 2/1/1779 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 a territory rather than a state, a series of violent conflicts broke out in the 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.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act gave citizens of the Oklahoma Territory and the Indian Territory the legal right to organize a state government and seek admission to the Union as a single state. Similar legislation gave citizens of the New Mexico and Arizona Territories the legal right to organize a state government and seek admission to the Union as separate states. calling for a vote to decide 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 ]

Connecting to the Outside World: Some Useful Resources [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 States" History com
• "Independence dates" 50states com