Timeline of U.S. state admissions

A state is one of the fifty individual entities that together make up the United States of America and share sovereignty with the central government. Due to the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, 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."

Individual 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. Local matters, such as intrastate commerce, elections, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and non-federal road construction and maintenance, are generally 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 senators and representatives from all 50 states. The number of representatives each state has in the House of Representatives is based on the population count from the most recent decennial census required by the Constitution. In addition, the Electoral College, the body that chooses the President and Vice President of the United States, grants each state a number of electors equal to the sum of its congressional deputies and senators. [4]

The Constitution specifies that Congress has the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1. 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]

The table below details the official statehood dates for each of the fifty 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 in the years between 1777 and 1781 by ratifying the Articles of Confederation. (An additional table with dates of AoC ratification is provided below.) Each of these states is listed in the order in which it ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became a part of the fledgling (and now established) United States of America. Each subsequent state's admission date is a legally binding 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) Province of Delaware[b] 2   Pennsylvania Monday, December 12th, 1787 [10]
(ratified) State of Pennsylvania as a Private Colony 3   New Jersey Saturday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia Day of the Year 1788, January [8]
(ratified) The Kingdom of Georgia 5   Connecticut Tuesday, January 9, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, the Royal Colony 6   Massachusetts 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Royal Province 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   To the South May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Kingdom of the South Carolina Colonies 9   That State of New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Royal New Hampshire Colony 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominated Colony of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) The New York Crown Colony 12   Carolina del Norte On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, the Crown Colony 13   In the state of Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) Democratic Socialist State of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) Nine counties in Virginia's District in Kentucky(d) 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Territory to the Southwest 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Region of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Located in the Orleans Territory 19   Indiana On this day in 1816 (December 11)
(admitted) Region of Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Region of Illinois 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) Locales in Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) In the state of Massachusetts (Maine[f] District). 24   Missouri Date: August 10, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan Thursday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas Saturday, December 29th, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa On this day in 1846:
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) An Area of Wisconsin 31   California Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Cession to Mexico 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A section of Minnesota 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) The State of Kansas, or Part of It 35   A state located in western Virginia. June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada October 31st, 1864
(admitted) Region of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Geographical Region Known As Nebraska 38   Colorado Initial use: August1st, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   The State of North Dakota1 Wednesday, November 2nd, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) South Dakota Section 40   Dakota (State) The date was November 2, 1889. [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana This day in 1889, November 8 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington The Eleventh of November, 1889 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah Tuesday, January 4th, 1896 [43]
(admitted) Places in Utah 46   Oklahoma It was on November 16th, 1907, that the first American [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico January 6th, 1912
(admitted) It's the State of New Mexico! 48   Arizona Day of the Moon (February 14), 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

A timeline of the 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 Articles of Confederation, which governed the states, were abolished on March 4, 1789, and the present Constitution, which governs the federal government, was adopted. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia Wednesday, December 16th, 1777 2 A State in the Southeastern United States 05 Février 1778 3 New York On this day in 1778 — February 6 — 4 Specifically, the state of Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia As of today (26 February) in 1778 7 This 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 November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware On this day in 1779: 13 Maryland The date was February 2, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was one of the provisions of the Compromise of 1850, a set of legislative acts passed by Congress.
• During the years 1854–1861, when Kansas was still considered part of the territory rather than a state, a series of violent conflicts broke out in the territory between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups.
• It was the passage of the Enabling Act of 1889 that allowed the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories to organize their own governments and eventually join the Union as individual states (the Dakotas were split in half).
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act gave 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. calling for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be combined into one state.
• On January 3, 1959, Alaska officially became the 49th state in the Union thanks to the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

References outside the text [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 States" History com
• Timelines of nation-state formation 50states com