# Dates of states joining the union **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 8, 2017, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dates-of-states-joining-the-union/803881 "2017-12-08T04:18:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Smudge777](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@Smudge777](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smudge777)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dates-of-states-joining-the-union/803881/1 "2017-12-08T04:18:16Z")
As a filthy foreigner, I was surprised to find out from another Cecil reply that Oklahoma only joined “the union” in the 20th century. This led me to wonder when each state joined, which I found at [http://www.ipl.org/div/stateknow/dates.html](http://www.ipl.org/div/stateknow/dates.html). How can it be that the second state to join the union did so 5 days after the first? In what sense was it a union for those first 5 days when Delaware was the only member? ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dates-of-states-joining-the-union/803881/2 "2017-12-08T04:24:22Z")
The chart you’re using is overly simplistic. The first thirteen states didn’t join the United States, they accepted the Constitution. It replaced the Articles of Confederation, the original constitution. Thus the United States existed before the current Constitution was ratified. ---
**Author:** ![Smudge777](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@Smudge777](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smudge777)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dates-of-states-joining-the-union/803881/3 "2017-12-08T04:32:44Z")
Then perhaps I ought to reword my question. To what do the mentioned dates refer, and what makes that occasion more significant than any other? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dates-of-states-joining-the-union/803881/4 "2017-12-08T04:36:55Z")
Those dates refer to when each state’s legislature ratified the Constitution. Lots more details here: > **[Constitution of the United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution)** > > The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the national frame and constraints of government. The Constitution's first three articles embody the doctrine of the separation of powers, whereby the federal government is divided into three branches: the legislative, consisting of the bicameral Congress (Article ... ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dates-of-states-joining-the-union/803881/5 "2017-12-08T04:44:02Z")
Those are the dates on which the original 13 states ratified the Constitution. They were already in a Union at the Constitutional Congress, they didn’t need to be admitted in the sense of the other states. They were all engaged to join in a polygamous marriage, they just didn’t all say ‘I do’ on the same day. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dates-of-states-joining-the-union/803881/6 "2017-12-08T04:46:01Z")
> [@Smudge777](#): > > How can it be that the second state to join the union did so 5 days after the first? In what sense was it a union for those first 5 days when Delaware was the only member? As said, the dates for the original states “joining the Union” are given as when each state ratified the Constitution. The Constitution didn’t become valid until the ratification by the ninth state, New Hampshire, on June 28, 1788, so before that there was technically no union to join. Virginia and New York joined before the official government first convened on March 4, 1789. Of the original 13 colonies, only North Carolina (November 1789) and Rhode Island (May 1790) actually “joined the Union” after it already had a functioning government under the Constitution. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dates-of-states-joining-the-union/803881/7 "2017-12-08T06:23:47Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > As said, the dates for the original states “joining the Union” are given as when each state ratified the Constitution. The Constitution didn’t become valid until the ratification by the ninth state, New Hampshire, on June 28, 1788, so before that there was technically no union to join. Virginia and New York joined before the official government first convened on March 4, 1789. Of the original 13 colonies, only North Carolina (November 1789) and Rhode Island (May 1790) actually “joined the Union” after it already had a functioning government under the Constitution. Is it inaccurate to call the pre-Constitutional US a “union”? The constitution’s pre-amble speaks of forming “a more perfect union”, which would seem to imply that there was already a union, if on that was less “perfect”. Also, the formal name of the Articles of Confederation was “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union”. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dates-of-states-joining-the-union/803881/8 "2017-12-08T07:21:01Z")
Also, places were often territories of the U.S. for a while before they became states. It’s not like Oklahoma was “foreign” land until 1906, when suddenly a bunch of Americans came and made it part of the country. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dates-of-states-joining-the-union/803881/9 "2017-12-08T07:42:36Z")
Here’s an expanded version of the table linked to in the OP: > **[List of U.S. states by date of admission to the Union](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_date_of_admission_to_the_Union)** > > A state of the United States is one of the 50 constituent entities that shares its sovereignty with the federal government. Americans are citizens of both the federal republic and of the state in which they reside, due to the shared sovereignty between each state and the federal government. Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names. > States are the primary subdivisions of the United States. They possess all powe... This also tells what the land of that state was part of (a territory, a British colony, a part of another state, an independent country, or whatever) just before they became states. Incidentally, note that the table linked to in the OP explicitly says that it’s a website devised for children. Furthermore, it explicitly says that it’s an old website that’s no longer kept up to date. In a case like that, I would recommend always Googling to see if there’s an equivalent Wikipedia article. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dates-of-states-joining-the-union/803881/10 "2017-12-08T08:25:37Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Is it inaccurate to call the pre-Constitutional US a “union”? The constitution’s pre-amble speaks of forming “a more perfect union”, which would seem to imply that there was already a union, if on that was less “perfect”. Also, the formal name of the Articles of Confederation was “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union”. It’s not inaccurate - the Confederation was a (rather loose, and ineffectual) union. But in common parlance “the Union” is used to differentiate the current Constitutional republic from the earlier Confederation, the Continental Congresses, and the later Confederacy during the Civil War. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dates-of-states-joining-the-union/803881/11 "2017-12-08T13:21:39Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **guizot** : > > Also, places were often territories of the U.S. for a while before they became states. It’s not like Oklahoma was “foreign” land until 1906, when suddenly a bunch of Americans came and made it part of the country. Though it is like that for Texas. Or more precisely, Texas was foreign land until a bunch of Americans came and made it a different foreign land, and then that different foreign land asked politely to become a US state. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dates-of-states-joining-the-union/803881/12 "2017-12-08T14:16:05Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Though it is like that for Texas. Or more precisely, Texas was foreign land until a bunch of Americans came and made it a different foreign land, and then that different foreign land asked politely to become a US state. CA, too. CA went from being part of Mexico to a US state rather quickly-- just a few years. There are some who claim that CA was its own country for a brief period of time, but my understanding is that is debatable. The rest of the territory that was contagiously part of Mexico later became the states of Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Nevada, but none of them became states until at least 10 years after CA became a state in 1850. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dates-of-states-joining-the-union/803881/13 "2017-12-08T14:42:26Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Is it inaccurate to call the pre-Constitutional US a “union”? Not at all. The Declaration of Independence speaks of the “United” States of America, and even before that there was a lot of work by Ben Franklin and others to convince the colonies that they should “hang together” or they would all hang separately. The idea of united American colonies was an important precursor to the Revolution, so while the idea came about gradually, I’d say there was definitely a “union” before independence was declared, and certainly afterwards. The union is what declared and fought for independence from Great Britain, so I’d say it predates the Articles of Confederation, let alone the Constitution. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dates-of-states-joining-the-union/803881/14 "2017-12-08T15:25:22Z")
> [@Smudge777](#): > > In what sense was it a union for those first 5 days when Delaware was the only member? As others noted, these are the dates that the individual states ratified the current constitution. Based on these acceptance dates, Delaware licence plates have the motto: [“The First State”](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/2013_Delaware_License_Plate.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dates-of-states-joining-the-union/803881/15 "2017-12-08T16:35:30Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > The rest of the territory that was contagiously part of Mexico later became the states of Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Nevada If only the US had exercised proper hygiene, it wouldn’t have been infected. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dates-of-states-joining-the-union/803881/16 "2017-12-08T17:41:17Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > As said, the dates for the original states “joining the Union” are given as when each state ratified the Constitution. The Constitution didn’t become valid until the ratification by the ninth state, New Hampshire, on June 28, 1788, so before that there was technically no union to join. Virginia and New York joined before the official government first convened on March 4, 1789. Of the original 13 colonies, only North Carolina (November 1789) and Rhode Island (May 1790) actually “joined the Union” after it already had a functioning government under the Constitution. Aha. This answers a question I had recently: why NH calls itself “Constitution State” on its license plates. I was long aware that Delaware was the first state to ratify and calls itself “The First State” on its plates. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dates-of-states-joining-the-union/803881/17 "2017-12-08T17:45:59Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > CA, too. CA went from being part of Mexico to a US state rather quickly-- just a few years. There are some who claim that CA was its own country for a brief period of time, but my understanding is that is debatable. The rest of the territory that was contagiously part of Mexico later became the states of Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Nevada, but none of them became states until at least 10 years after CA became a state in 1850. Many people don’t realize just how short a time the “Bear Flag Republic” lasted. Just 25 days. Not enough time for anything concerned with actually establishing a government to happen. Four days after Fremont showed up with the US army, the bear flag was taken down, and the stars and stripes run up. Makes a nice motif for the modern flag though, although it violates vexillological principle by having writing on it. Vermont was a “Reluctant Republic” for 14 years, had a constitution, and minted coinage. Different situation – before the revolution the area was contested, at times violently, by New York and New Hampshire who both claimed that it was part of their colonial grants (the “Green Mountain Boys” were originally a militia which protected the New Hampshire interests). Following the revolution, the US was not prepared to settle that squabble, having bigger fish to fry, and Quebec rejected overtures to have Vermont join them (most of Vermont’s population didn’t want to anyway). The Vermont constitution had abolished slavery, and the US didn’t admit them as a new free state, until slave state Kentucky could be admitted at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dates-of-states-joining-the-union/803881/18 "2017-12-08T19:38:52Z")
After the original thirteen, Vermont, California and Texas were all independent republics for varying lengths of time before becoming U.S. states, and Hawaii was a kingdom. > [@TriPolar](#): > > …They were already in a Union at the \*\*Constitutional \*\*Congress… Continental. > [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Aha. This answers a question I had recently: why NH calls itself “Constitution State” on its license plates… Connecticut is the Constitution State; New Hampshire is the Granite State but, in its motto and on its license plates, the “Live Free or Die” state. [![](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/10/75/6d/10756da5c61db617553b36ad9a52d63e.jpg) ](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/10/75/6d/10756da5c61db617553b36ad9a52d63e.jpg) [https://www.nhstateparks.org/uploads/images/Actual-Parks-Plate.jpg](https://www.nhstateparks.org/uploads/images/Actual-Parks-Plate.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2017, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dates-of-states-joining-the-union/803881/19 "2017-12-08T19:54:49Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Continental. Oops. At least they got the Continent ratified.