Wednesday, February 26, 2014

From 13 to 51 states

This is a list of U.S. states by date of statehood, that is, the date when each U.S. state joined the Union. Although the first 13 states can be considered to have been members of the United States from the date of theDeclaration of Independence – July 4, 1776 – or from the date on which they ratified the Articles of Confederation, they are presented here as being "admitted" on the date each ratified the present United States Constitution; most other such lists, including the 50 State Quarters program, do the same.
The admission dates for later states were set by either the act of admission or a later resolution issued under that act, except for Ohio, whose date of admission was determined by act of Congress in 1953 as March 1, 1803, when its legislature first met because of a clerical error of omission—the original act omitted setting a date that the act took effect.[note 1]
This list does not account for the secession of 11 states during the American Civil War to form the Confederate States of America, the subsequent restoration of those states to representation in Congress (sometimes called "readmission") between 1866 and 1870, or the end of Reconstruction in those states. Since their secession was declared illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Texas v. White, they had never legally left the Union. The list also does not account for secessionist governments formed in two other states, as their Unionist governments generally remained in control.

Map[edit]

The order in which the original 13 states ratified the constitution, then the order in which the others were admitted to the union
U.S. states by date of statehood
  1776-1790
  1791-1799
  1800-1819
  1820-1839
  1840-1859
  1860-1879
  1880-1899
  1900-1950
  1950-1959

Table[edit]

#StateAdmissionPreceding Entity
1DelawareDelawareDecember 7, 1787Lower Counties on Delaware, i.e., the lower counties of Pennsylvania, then a sovereign State in Confederation[2]
2PennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaDecember 12, 1787Province of Pennsylvania, then sovereign state in Confederation.
3New JerseyNew JerseyDecember 18, 1787Province of New Jersey, then sovereign state in Confederation
4Georgia (U.S. state)GeorgiaJanuary 2, 1788Province of Georgia, then sovereign state in Confederation
5ConnecticutConnecticutJanuary 9, 1788Connecticut Colony, then sovereign state in Confederation[8]
6MassachusettsMassachusettsFebruary 6, 1788Province of Massachusetts Bay, then sovereign state in Confederation
7MarylandMarylandApril 28, 1788Province of Maryland, then sovereign state in Confederation
8South CarolinaSouth CarolinaMay 23, 1788Province of South Carolina, then sovereign state in Confederation
9New HampshireNew HampshireJune 21, 1788Province of New Hampshire, then sovereign state in Confederation
10VirginiaVirginiaJune 25, 1788Virginia Colony, then sovereign state in Confederation
11New YorkNew YorkJuly 26, 1788Province of New York, then sovereign state in Confederation
12North CarolinaNorth CarolinaNovember 21, 1789Province of North Carolina, then sovereign state in Confederation
13Rhode IslandRhode IslandMay 29, 1790Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, then sovereign state in Confederation
14VermontVermontMarch 4, 1791Province of New York and New Hampshire Grants(ownership disputed), the Republic of Vermont
15KentuckyKentuckyJune 1, 1792Kentucky CountyVirginia. Split off with consent of that state's legislature.
16TennesseeTennesseeJune 1, 1796Formed from western land donated to the Federal government by North Carolina, and first state to originate from a territory
17OhioOhioMarch 1, 1803[note 1]The Northwest Territory, land claims ceeded to the Federal government by the Eastern states such as Pennsylvania, Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York
18LouisianaLouisianaApril 30, 1812Territory of Orleans
19IndianaIndianaDecember 11, 1816Indiana Territory, formed from the Northwest Territory
20MississippiMississippiDecember 10, 1817Mississippi Territory, formed from land ceded to the Federal government by Georgia
21IllinoisIllinoisDecember 3, 1818Illinois Territory, formed from the Northwest Territory
22AlabamaAlabamaDecember 14, 1819Alabama Territory, formed from the Mississippi Territory, land ceded to the Federal government by the State of Georgia
23MaineMaineMarch 15, 1820Split off from Massachusetts with consent of the legislature that state (formerly called the District of Maine)
24MissouriMissouriAugust 10, 1821Missouri Territory, from the Louisiana Purchase
25ArkansasArkansasJune 15, 1836Arkansas Territory from the Louisiana Purchase
26MichiganMichiganJanuary 26, 1837Michigan Territory, formed from the Northwest Territory
27FloridaFloridaMarch 3, 1845Florida Territory, purchased from the Spanish Empire
28TexasTexasDecember 29, 1845The Republic of Texas, which voluntarily merged into the United States
29IowaIowaDecember 28, 1846Iowa Territory from the Louisiana Purchase
30WisconsinWisconsinMay 29, 1848Wisconsin Territory, formed from the Northwest Territory
31CaliforniaCaliforniaSeptember 9, 1850Admitted directly from the Mexican Cession[note 2]
32MinnesotaMinnesotaMay 11, 1858Minnesota Territory
33OregonOregonFebruary 14, 1859Oregon Territory
34KansasKansasJanuary 29, 1861Kansas Territory
35West VirginiaWest VirginiaJune 20, 1863Divided off from Virginia, with the "consent" of a pro-Union Virginia government in Wheeling unrecognized by that state's rebelling legislature in Richmond
36NevadaNevadaOctober 31, 1864Nevada Territory, with some adjacent parts of theArizona Territory and the partially from the Deseret Territory added later on
37NebraskaNebraskaMarch 1, 1867Nebraska Territory
38ColoradoColoradoAugust 1, 1876Colorado Territory created from portions of the Kansas,NebraskaNew Mexico, and Utah territories.
39North DakotaNorth DakotaNovember 2, 1889[note 3]Dakota Territory
40South DakotaSouth DakotaNovember 2, 1889[note 3]Dakota Territory
41MontanaMontanaNovember 8, 1889Montana Territory, partially from the Deseret Territory
42Washington (state)WashingtonNovember 11, 1889Washington Territory, formed from the Oregon Territory
43IdahoIdahoJuly 3, 1890Idaho Territory (1863), formed from the Deseret Territory
44WyomingWyomingJuly 10, 1890Wyoming Territory, partially from the Deseret Territory
45UtahUtahJanuary 4, 1896Utah Territory, from the Deseret Territory
46OklahomaOklahomaNovember 16, 1907Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory
47New MexicoNew MexicoJanuary 6, 1912New Mexico Territory
48ArizonaArizonaFebruary 14, 1912Arizona Territory
49AlaskaAlaskaJanuary 3, 1959Russian AmericaDepartment of AlaskaDistrict of Alaska, and then the Territory of Alaska
50HawaiiHawaiiAugust 21, 1959The Kingdom of Hawaii, the Republic of Hawaii, and then the Territory of Hawaii