This is a list of U.S. states by date of admission to 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 â€" July 4, 1776 â€" 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 omissionâ€"the original act omitted setting a date that the act took effect.
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, the federal government does not give legal recognition to their having 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
Table
Ratifications of the Constitution by the thirteen original states
The Constitution went into effect upon ratification by nine of the thirteen states. The status of the first eight as members of the federal Union in the form established by the Constitution did not exist until the ninth state, New Hampshire, ratified the Constitution in June 1788. None of the first thirteen states became states upon ratifying the Constitution, since all were already states before that.
Admissions of new states beyond the thirteen original colonies
- Notes
See also
- Enabling Act of 1802, for the formation of Ohio from the Northwest Territory
- Enabling Act of 1889, for the formation of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington
- Texas annexation of 1845 and the subsequent legal status of Texas
- Enabling Act of 1906 for the formation of Oklahoma from Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory
- Alaska Statehood Act (signed July 7, 1958) and the subsequent legal status of Alaska
- Hawaii Admission Act (enacted March 18, 1959) and the subsequent legal status of Hawaii
- 51st state
- District of Columbia statehood movement
- Puerto Rico (proposed state) and the political status of Puerto Rico
- Territories of the United States
- Territories of the United States on stamps
Footnotes
References
- "50 State Quarter Program". United States Mint. Retrieved January 19, 2006. (including dates of statehood)
- "Dates of statehood". 50states.com. Retrieved January 19, 2006. (includes notes)