U.S. state membership timeline, ordered by their official entry into the Union

Each of the 50 states in the United States is a sovereign nation in its own right and shares power with the federal 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.

As the most basic administrative divisions, states play a crucial role in the United States. They have all the authority that is not specifically given to or forbidden to the federal government by the United States Constitution. In most cases, local matters that affect a state's citizens fall under the purview of that state's government. This includes things like intrastate commerce rules, election administration, municipal formation, public school policy, and the building and upkeep of roads that are not funded by the federal government. 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. 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. The Electoral College is the body that votes for President and Vice President of the United States. [3] Each state has the right to send a number of electors to the Electoral College equal to the sum of its congressional deputies and senators. [4]

As stated in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution, Congress has 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]

The table below details the official statehood dates for each of the 50 US states. After signing on to the 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.) 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. For each succeeding state, the on-list admission date represents the legally binding date established by legislation. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted or approved) Consisting of 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) The State of Delaware as a Colony[b] 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Kingdom of Pennsylvania Colony 3   New Jersey This day in 1787, on the 18th, [11]
(ratified) New Jersey was a royal colony. 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut Nineteen Eighty-Eighth Day, January [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts Tuesday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a Crown Colony 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   That State of New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Commonwealth of Virginia, Dominion of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   In the state of North Carolina1 Wednesday, November 21st, 1789 [14]
(ratified) Kingdom of North Carolina 13   Specifically, the state of Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a Colony of the British Crown 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) Vermont Republic[c] 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (9 counties in its District in Kentucky[d]) 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) The Province of Orleans 19   Indiana Friday, December 11th, 1816
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois Dated: December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) State of Illinois, Part 22   Alabama Monday, December 14, 1819 [24]
(admitted) Location: Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Land of Florida 28   Texas Sunday, December 29th, 1845 [29]
(admitted) The Texas Republic 29   Iowa On this day in 1846:
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Date: September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Cession to Mexico[g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Section of Minnesota Territory 33   Oregon Date: February 14, 1859
(admitted) It's true that Oregon only makes up a portion of the territory. 34   Kansas Thursday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) A Section of Kansas 35   Western Virginia June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada Sunday, October 31st, 1864
(admitted) This is Nevada Country. 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Territorial Status: Nebraska 38   Colorado First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   The state of North Dakota1 Wednesday, November 2nd, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   "South Dakota1" On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana Friday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) That Part of the Country Known as Montana 42   Washington On this date in 1889 [42]
(admitted) Location: Washington State 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Locale of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) A Land Called Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) Territorial Claims in Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Both Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory 47   New Mexico 6 January 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona Tuesday, February 14, 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska Wednesday, January 3, 1959
(admitted) State of Alaska 50   Hawaii On this day in 1959, August 21st,
(admitted) Hawaiian Home Area

A timeline of the ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

Articles of Confederation were approved for ratification by the states on November 15, 1777, after being approved by the Second Continental Congress. By March 1, 1781, all 13 states had ratified the Articles of Confederation, making them legally binding. The current federal government, established by the Constitution, succeeded the general government under the Articles on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia Wednesday, December 16th, 1777 2 Carolina del Sur 05 Février 1778 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Earlier today, on February 9th, 1778, 5 Connecticut Tuesday, February 12, 1778 6 Georgia February 26th, 1778 7 New Hampshire (state) March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 Carolina del Norte April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware The date was February 1st, 1779. 13 Maryland On this day in 1781, February 2

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 part of the territory rather than a state, a number of violent conflicts broke out between pro- and anti-slavery groups in the territory.
• The Enabling Act of 1889 gave the people of the Dakota Territory, the Montana Territory, and the Washington Territory the legal right to organize their own state governments (with the Dakota Territory being split into two separate states) and apply for admission to the United States as new states.
• Authorizing the people of the Indian Territory and the Oklahoma Territory to organize themselves into a single state and to seek admission to the Union as a single state via the Oklahoma Enabling Act; also authorizing the people of the New Mexico and Arizona Territories to organize themselves into a state government and to seek admission to the Union as a single state. calling for a vote to decide whether or not the two areas should be united as one state.
• This was made possible by the Alaska Statehood Act, which officially made January 3, 1959, the day Alaska was admitted to the Union as the 49th state.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• State-specific video content from the United States History com
• "Independence Day" 50states com