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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 be members of the United States from the date of the Declaration of Independence, 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).
The dates on this list do not account for the ostensible secession during the American Civil War of several states 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.
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Notes
Congress extended federal laws to Ohio on February 19, 1803, 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 making Ohio a state as of (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. However, North Dakota's was published first in the Statutes at Large (since it is first in the alphabet); hence, it is considered admitted first by most sources (including the 50 State Quarters program).
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