Timeline of U.S. state admissions

The 50 individual states that make up the United States are co-sovereign entities 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. Some states' official names include the word "commonwealth" rather than "state," such as in Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

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. Local matters, such as intrastate commerce, elections, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and the construction and maintenance of roads not funded by the federal government, are generally under the purview of the respective state's government. 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. A minimum of one senator and one representative from each state are guaranteed by the Constitution; the number of representatives each state has in the House of Representatives is determined by the state's population as of the last decennial census. 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 power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union is delegated to Congress by Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution. In the 240 years since the United States' founding in 1776, the number of states has increased from its original 13. 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 between 1777 and 1781 by ratifying the Articles of Confederation, the country's first constitution. (An additional table with dates of AoC ratification is provided below.) In the order in which they joined the new (and current) federal government after ratifying the Constitution in 1787, these states are listed below. Each subsequent state's admission date is a statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted or approved) Formed by 1   Delaware On this day in 1787, December 7 [8]
(ratified) "Delaware Colony" 2   Pennsylvania Friday, December 12th, 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) Originally, New Jersey was a British colony. 4   Georgia Tuesday, January 2, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut Sunday, January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) The Connecticut Colony, a British Crown 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   Columbia, South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colonial South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   State of New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Royal Colony and Dominion of Virginia 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   Carolina del Norte When: Tuesday, November 21, 1789 [14]
(ratified) Colonial North Carolina, a Crown Colony 13   State of Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The Republic of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) With nine counties in its District of Kentucky[d], Virginia is a large state. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) The Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Canada's Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Louisiana's Orleans Province 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Valley 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) A Section of Illinois 22   Alabama Thursday, December 14, 1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Section of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) In the Arkansas Territory1 26   Michigan Sunday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas This day in 1845, on December 29th, [29]
(admitted) The State of Texas, Republika 29   Iowa When: Sunday, December 28, 1846
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Wednesday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Disorganized land / the Mexican Cession, part [g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Piece of Minnesota Territory 33   Oregon The 14th of February, 1859
(admitted) Piece of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Thursday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) Specifically, a section of Kansas. 35   "West Virginia1" June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Forty-five counties in the Greater Pittsburgh Area in Virginia. 36   Nevada After midnight on October 31, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Frontier State of Nebraska 38   Colorado On this day in 1876, the world changed. [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   The state of North Dakota1 Monday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   The State of South Dakota1 Wednesday, November 2nd, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) North Dakota (a portion of) 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington The Eleventh of November, 1889 [42]
(admitted) In the State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) States Constituting Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) The Utah Region 46   Oklahoma The date was November 16th, 1907. [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico The date was January 6th, 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona Tuesday, February 14, 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona. 49   Alaska On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Arctic Alaskan Territories 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. All 13 states had to ratify the Articles of Confederation for them to become effective, and that didn't happen until March 1. 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 State of South Carolina Sunday, February 5th, 1778 3 New York Adopted: February 6th, 1778 4 Place Name: Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut Sunday, February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia Monday, February 26th, 1778 7 The state of New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 State of North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland Sunday, February 2nd, 1781

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was one of the provisions of the Compromise of 1850, a collection of acts passed by Congress.
• In the years 1854–1861, just before Kansas became a state, anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups engaged in a series of violent conflicts in Kansas Territory.
• This was made possible by the Enabling Act of 1889, which allowed the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories to organize themselves politically as states (with Dakota being split in half) and apply for admission to the Union.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act gave the people of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory the legal 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.
• Alaska became the 49th state on January 3, 1959, thanks to the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Related Sites [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 States" History com
• Terms for the Establishment of States 50states com