U.S. state Timeline of Events

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U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of commonwealth rather than state...

Timeline of Events

1890

7.10.1890

Wyoming is admitted as the 44th U.S. state.

1891

10.1.1891

In the U.S. state of California, Stanford University opens its doors.

1893

11.7.1893

Women in the U.S. state of Colorado are granted the right to vote.

1896

1.4.1896

Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.

1907

11.16.1907

Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory become Oklahoma and are admitted as the 46th U.S. state.

1912

1.6.1912

New Mexico is admitted as the 47th U.S. state.

2.14.1912

Arizona is admitted as the 48th U.S. state.

1919

2.25.1919

Oregon places a 1 cent per U.S. gallon tax on gasoline, becoming the first U.S. state to levy a gasoline tax.

1929

10.11.1929

JC Penney opens store #1252 in Milford, Delaware, making it a nationwide company with stores in all 48 U.S. states.

1933

12.5.1933

Prohibition in the United States ends: Utah becomes the 36th U.S. state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, thus establishing the required 75% of states needed to enact the amendment (this overturned the 18th Amendment which had made the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcohol illegal in the United States).

1935

9.30.1935

The Hoover Dam, astride the border between the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada, is dedicated.

1959

1.3.1959

Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. State.

7.4.1959

With the admission of Alaska as the 49th U.S. state earlier in the year, the 49-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1960

7.4.1960

Due to the post-Independence Day admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959, the 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania almost ten and a half months later (see Flag Act).

1964

3.12.1964

New Hampshire Lottery: New Hampshire becomes the first U.S. state to legally sell lottery tickets in the 20th century.

1965

11.9.1965

Several U.S. states and parts of Canada are hit by a series of blackouts lasting up to 13 hours in the Northeast Blackout of 1965.

1967

6.12.1967

The United States Supreme Court in ''Loving v. Virginia'' declares all U.S. state laws which prohibit interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.

1998

2.10.1998

Voters in Maine repeal a gay rights law passed in 1997 becoming the first U.S. state to abandon such a law.

1999

2.24.1999

The State of Arizona executes Karl LaGrand, a German national convicted of murder during a botched bank robbery, in spite of Germany's legal action to attempt to save him.

2008

5.15.2008

California becomes the second U.S. state after Massachusetts in 2004 to legalize same-sex marriage after the state's own Supreme Court rules a previous ban unconstitutional.

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