When they were admitted to the Union, the states of the United States are listed below.

Among the fifty nations that make up the United States, a state is one of the entities that holds some degree of independence but not complete autonomy. Due to the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. In their official state names, Commonwealth states like Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia distinguish themselves from other states by using the term "commonwealth."

The 50 states are the most basic administrative divisions of the USA. They have all the authority that is not given to or prohibited by the federal government in the United States Constitution. For the most part, matters of local concern are left to the jurisdiction of individual states, such as the management of intrastate trade, the conduct of elections, the formation of municipal governments, the direction of public education, and the building and maintenance of roads not funded by the federal government. Each state's government is structured similarly to the federal government, with an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. However, each state's constitution is based on republican principles. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, that includes representatives from all 50 states and their citizens. Two senators and at least one representative represent each state in the Senate, while the size of a state's delegation in the House of Representatives is determined by that state's population as of the most recent decennial census required by the Constitution. Furthermore, the Electoral College, the body that elects 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]

Constitutional law states that Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 gives Congress the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states to the Union. Since its founding in 1776, the United States has grown from its original 13 to its current 50 states. All newly admitted states have been given full voting rights alongside all other states. [5]

In the table below, you'll find 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. (An additional table detailing dates of AoC ratification is provided below.) States are listed in the order in which they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed (and still existing) federal government. Each succeeding state's admission date is a statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted or approved) Shaped by 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) Colonial Delaware[b]. 2   Pennsylvania Sunday, December 12th, 1787 [10]
(ratified) Province of Pennsylvania that is under Proprietary Rule 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia First Day of the Year, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut 9 January 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts On this day in 1788, February 6th, [8]
(ratified) Boston, Massachusetts, a Royal Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   In the state of South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Originally, South Carolina was a British colony. 9   The state of New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The New Hampshire colony was a crown colony. 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colonial Virginia, Now a Dominion 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   Carolina del Norte On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) Kingdom of North Carolina 13   This is the state of Rhode Island1. May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The Republic 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) The Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Area of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) District of Orleans 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) Geographical Region Including Indiana 20   Mississippi The 10th of December, 1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Part of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Wednesday, December 14, 1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) In the state of Massachusetts (Maine[f] District). 24   Missouri On this day in 1821, August 10: [26]
(admitted) The State of Missouri and Adjacent Areas 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) To the East of the Mississippi River, Arkansas 26   Michigan Wednesday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The Florida Peninsula 28   Texas Dated: December 29th, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Texas Confederate States 29   Iowa When: Sunday, December 28, 1846
(admitted) This portion of Iowa Territory is known as: 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Regions without government control / Mexican Cession (Part)[g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Section of Minnesota Territory 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) Regional Kansas 35   The Mountain State, or West Virginia1 June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada Instance Date: October 31, 1864
(admitted) This is Nevada Country. 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The State of Colorado 39   The State of North Dakota1 The date was November 2nd, 1889. [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   A State in the Midwestern U.S. On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of the Dakotas 41   Montana On this day in 1889, November 8 [41]
(admitted) State of Montana 42   Washington Adopted: 11 November 1889 [42]
(admitted) Territorial Government of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: January 4 [43]
(admitted) A Land Named Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Native American Lands in Oklahoma 47   New Mexico 6 January 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona A Date: February 14, 1912
(admitted) Location: Arizona 49   Alaska On this day in 1959, January 3
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii Wednesday, August 21, 1959
(admitted) Oahu, Hawaii

Moments in time when the Articles of Confederation were ratified [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved by the Second Continental Congress and sent to the individual states for ratification. As of March 1, 1781, the Articles of Confederation were in effect, having been ratified by all 13 states. The Articles of Confederation government was abolished on March 4, 1789, and the present Constitutional government was established. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia Tuesday, December 16, 1777 2 Southeastern United States, Specifically, the State of South Carolina Five of February, 1778 3 New York This day in history: February 6th, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Day of the Week: February 9, 1778 5 Connecticut Monday, February 12th, 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 Carolina del Norte April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland The date was February 2, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• One of the acts included in the "Compromise of 1850" legislation package was one that allowed California to join the Union.
• The years 1854–1861, just before Kansas became a state, were marked by a string of violent conflicts in the Kansas Territory between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups.
• The Enabling Act of 1889 granted the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories the right to organize themselves into new states and join the Union.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act granted 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 granted the people of those territories the same rights. calling for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be combined into one state.
• On January 3, 1959, Alaska officially became a state thanks to the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• United States of America Video Map History com
• "Independence Day" 50states com