List of U.S. states by date of statehood
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This is a list of U.S. states by date of statehood, or is it 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 the Declaration of Independence – Thursday, July 4, 1776 – 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 (see note below).
This list does not account for the secession during the American Civil War of 13 states, 11 of which formed the Confederate States of America, and 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.
States
| # |  |
State | Ratification‡ or Admission | Preceding Entity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Delaware | Friday, December 7, 1787 ‡ | Lower Counties on Delaware, then sovereign state in Confederation |
| 2 |  |
Pennsylvania | Wednesday, December 12, 1787 ‡ | Province of Pennsylvania, then sovereign state in Confederation |
| 3 |  |
New Jersey | Tuesday, December 18, 1787 ‡ | Province of New Jersey, then sovereign state in Confederation |
| 4 |  |
Georgia | Wednesday, January 2, 1788 ‡ | Province of Georgia, then sovereign state in Confederation |
| 5 |  |
Connecticut | Wednesday, January 9, 1788 ‡ | Connecticut Colony, then sovereign state in Confederation |
| 6 |  |
Massachusetts | Wednesday, February 6, 1788 ‡ | Province of Massachusetts Bay, then sovereign state in Confederation |
| 7 |  |
Maryland | Monday, April 28, 1788 ‡ | Province of Maryland, then sovereign state in Confederation |
| 8 |  |
South Carolina | Friday, May 23, 1788 ‡ | Province of South Carolina, then sovereign state in Confederation |
| 9 |  |
New Hampshire | Saturday, June 21, 1788 ‡ | Province of New Hampshire, then sovereign state in Confederation |
| 10 |  |
Virginia | Wednesday, June 25, 1788 ‡ | Virginia Colony, then sovereign state in Confederation |
| 11 |  |
New York | Saturday, July 26, 1788 ‡ | Province of New York, then sovereign state in Confederation |
| 12 |  |
North Carolina | Saturday, November 21, 1789 ‡ | Province of North Carolina, then sovereign state in Confederation |
| 13 |  |
Rhode Island | Saturday, May 29, 1790 ‡ | Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, then sovereign state in Confederation |
| 14 |  |
Vermont | Friday, March 4, 1791 | Province of New York and New Hampshire Grants (ownership disputed), Vermont Republic |
| 15 |  |
Kentucky | Friday, June 1, 1792 | Virginia (Kentucky County) |
| 16 |  |
Tennessee | Wednesday, June 1, 1796 | Province of North Carolina, Southwest Territory |
| 17 |  |
Ohio | Tuesday, March 1, 1803* | Northwest Territory |
| 18 |  |
Louisiana | Thursday, April 30, 1812 | Territory of Orleans |
| 19 |  |
Indiana | Wednesday, December 11, 1816 | Indiana Territory |
| 20 |  |
Mississippi | Wednesday, December 10, 1817 | Mississippi Territory |
| 21 |  |
Illinois | Thursday, December 3, 1818 | Illinois Territory |
| 22 |  |
Alabama | Tuesday, December 14, 1819 | Alabama Territory |
| 23 |  |
Maine | Wednesday, March 15, 1820 | District of Maine in Massachusetts |
| 24 |  |
Missouri | Friday, August 10, 1821 | Missouri Territory |
| 25 |  |
Arkansas | Wednesday, June 15, 1836 | Arkansas Territory |
| 26 |  |
Michigan | Thursday, January 26, 1837 | Michigan Territory |
| 27 |  |
Florida | Monday, March 3, 1845 | Florida Territory |
| 28 |  |
Texas | Monday, December 29, 1845 | Republic of Texas |
| 29 |  |
Iowa | Monday, December 28, 1846 | Iowa Territory |
| 30 |  |
Wisconsin | Monday, May 29, 1848 | Wisconsin Territory |
| 31 |  |
California | Monday, September 9, 1850 | California Republic |
| 32 |  |
Minnesota | Tuesday, May 11, 1858 | Minnesota Territory |
| 33 |  |
Oregon | Monday, February 14, 1859 | Oregon Territory |
| 34 |  |
Kansas | Tuesday, January 29, 1861 | Kansas Territory |
| 35 |  |
West Virginia | Saturday, June 20, 1863 | Virginia (divided up) |
| 36 |  |
Nevada | Monday, October 31, 1864 | Nevada Territory |
| 37 |  |
Nebraska | Friday, March 1, 1867 | Nebraska Territory |
| 38 |  |
Colorado | Tuesday, August 1, 1876 | Colorado Territory |
| 39 † |  |
North Dakota | Saturday, November 2, 1889 | Dakota Territory |
| 40 † |  |
South Dakota | Saturday, November 2, 1889 | Dakota Territory |
| 41 |  |
Montana | Friday, November 8, 1889 | Montana Territory |
| 42 |  |
Washington | Monday, November 11, 1889 | Washington Territory |
| 43 |  |
Idaho | Thursday, July 3, 1890 | Idaho Territory |
| 44 |  |
Wyoming | Thursday, July 10, 1890 | Wyoming Territory |
| 45 |  |
Utah | Saturday, January 4, 1896 | Utah Territory |
| 46 |  |
Oklahoma | Saturday, November 16, 1907 | Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory |
| 47 |  |
New Mexico | Saturday, January 6, 1912 | New Mexico Territory |
| 48 |  |
Arizona | Wednesday, February 14, 1912 | Arizona Territory |
| 49 |  |
Alaska | Saturday, January 3, 1959 | Russia and then Alaska Territory |
| 50 |  |
Hawaii | Friday, August 21, 1959 | Kingdom of Hawai'i, Republic of Hawai'i and then Hawaii Territory |
Notes and references
‡ Original 13 states. All became states on July 4, 1776. They are listed here, however, by their dates of ratifying the Constitution.
* Congress recognized the state of Ohio on February 19, 1803[1], but no formal date of statehood was set by the act of admission or a later resolution, as occurred with all other new states. On August 7, 1953, Congress passed a law retroactively setting the date of Ohio's statehood at March 1, 1803, the date when Ohio's first legislature convened.
† The actual statehood proclamations for North and South Dakota were intentionally shuffled so that no one actually knows which was admitted first; President Benjamin Harrison always refused to tell the order in which he signed the two statehood bills. However, North Dakota's proclamation was published first in the Statutes at Large (since it is first alphabetically).
- ^ "An act to provide for the due execution of the laws of the United States, within the state of Ohio", Seventh Congress, Session II, Chapter VII
- 50 State Quarter Program from the United States Mint (including dates of statehood) [Retrieved: January 19, 2006]
- Dates of statehood, via 50states.com (includes notes, retrieved January 19, 2006)
See also
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