Timeline of U.S. state admissions

The 50 individual states that make up the United States are co-sovereign entities with the central government. As a result of the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, all U.S. citizens hold dual citizenship. Only four states—Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia—have commonwealth in their official names rather than state.

The 50 states make up the main divisions of the USA. They have all the authority that isn't 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 typically under the purview of state governments. 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 ideals. [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. 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]

Congress has the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union per 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 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. (See below for a separate table detailing the ratification dates of the AoC.) The order in which these states are listed indicates the order in which they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed (and still existing) 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; confirmed) Originating from 1   Delaware Monday, December 7th, 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania As of today (12 December 1787) [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey Yesterday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut Dated: January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Massachusetts Bay Colony, a crown colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Located in the Northeastern United States, Maryland is a colony. 8   "South Carolina1" May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Kingdom of the South Carolina Colonies 9   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominion of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   Carolina del Norte This day in 1789, November 21 [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) There is a republic in Vermont. 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) State of Virginia (which includes nine counties in its District of Kentucky[d]). 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Southwestern Acreage 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Area of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) State or Province Forming Part of the Province of Orleans 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) Those Parts of the United States That Are Currently Cal 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois Wednesday, December 3, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Regional Illinois 22   Alabama Wednesday, December 14, 1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) State of Massachusetts (Maine(f) District). 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 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 Initially published: January 26, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Province of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Places in Florida 28   Texas It's the 29th of December, 1845 [29]
(admitted) State of Texas as a Republic 29   Iowa Tuesday, December 28th, 1846
(admitted) The State of Iowa and Adjacent Lands 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Saturday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Disordered Lands / Mexican Cession (Part)[g]. 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas The 29th of January, 1861 [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   Western Virginia June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) In Virginia (all 50 counties in the Trans-Allegheny area [h]), 36   Nevada October 31st, 1864
(admitted) State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Territory of Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) To the west, in the Colorado Territory1 39   State of North Dakota1 Day of the Dead, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) State of Dakota (in part) 40   Dakota (State) On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) South Dakota Section 41   Montana On this day in 1889, November 8 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington Instance created: November 11th, 1889 [42]
(admitted) Territorial Government of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Location: Wyoming, USA 45   Utah On this day in 1896: January 4 [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Bordering Oklahoma is Indian Territory. 47   New Mexico January 6th, 1912
(admitted) This is the State of New Mexico 48   Arizona Today in History (February 14th, 912)
(admitted) Territorial Status: Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959, January 3
(admitted) State of Alaska 50   Hawaii On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Hawai'ian Acquired Territory

Rationality 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. When the Articles of Confederation were finally ratified by all 13 states on March 1, 1781, the new government was officially established. 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 On this day in 1777 2 Carolina del Sur Tuesday, February 5th, 1778 3 New York A Precise Date: February 6, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island The Nineteenth of February, 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia February 26th, 1778 7 State of 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 It's the 19th of November in the year 1778. 12 Delaware On this day in 1779: 13 Maryland The date was February 2, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• This was made possible by the Compromise of 1850, a set of legislative acts passed by Congress, one of which included a clause authorizing California's entry into the Union.
• 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.
• The Enabling Act of 1889 gave the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories the legal right to organize state governments (with Dakota being split into two separate 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 on whether or not the two areas should be combined into one state.
• State of Alaska officially joined the Union on January 3, 1959, thanks to the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 United States" History com
• "Birth of the States" 50states com