United States

Long before Europeans, Africans and Asians settled in North America, the lands that later became the United States were shared by many sovereign Indigenous societies, made up of diverse tribes and ethnic groups with distinct languages, customs and traditions. Archaeologists link early migrations to a land bridge some 13,000 years ago.⁠[1]

On December 6, 1606, three ships, the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery, began the journey to VirginiaVirginiaVirginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state whose capital is Richmond. It entered the Union on June 25, 1788, as the 10th state, and had a population of 8,631,393 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry; the settlement was funded by the Virginia Company. On May 13, 1607, the colonists chose Jamestown as the site of their settlement; 104 English men and boys arrived in North America that year. When food ran low, Chief Powhatan sent gifts of food, and the help of the Powhatan Indians in the early years was crucial to the settlement’s survival, but relations between the two sides were mixed and had soured by late 1609.⁠[2]

On July 30, 1619, newly appointed Governor Yeardley called the first representative legislative assembly. The same year, the first documented Africans were forcibly captured and brought to Virginia to work the tobacco fields; whether they were considered indentured servants or enslaved people remains contested.⁠[2]

On September 6, 1620, the Mayflower left for America with 101 passengers. On November 11 the passengers first sighted Cape Cod, and the same day they signed the Mayflower Compact aboard ship in Provincetown Harbor. After about a month of searching, they decided to settle at Plymouth.⁠[3]

After the Seven Years’ War ended in 1763, the British government was burdened by heavy debts and introduced a series of measures for the American colonies: the Currency Act of 1764 forbade the colonies to issue paper currency, the Stamp Act was passed in 1765, and new taxes were imposed under the Townshend Acts in 1767. An American boycott of British goods, together with a recession, led British merchants to lobby for repeal of the Stamp Act, and the British government decided it was easier to repeal the act than to enforce it.⁠[4]

On December 16, 1773, colonists disguised as Indians boarded East India Company ships in Boston Harbor and threw crates of tea overboard, a protest that came to be known as the Boston Tea Party. The British government ordered the port of Boston closed until the East India Company was compensated, and laws passed in 1774 attempted to place MassachusettsMassachusettsMassachusetts (officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States; its capital and largest city is Boston. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on February 6, 1788, the sixth state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 7,029,917.Open the full entry under direct British control; in the colonies these laws were called the “Intolerable Acts.” Colonial legislatures sent representatives to Philadelphia, and the First Continental Congress convened in September 1774.⁠[4]

General Thomas Gage sent about 700 soldiers on a secret mission to Concord, 18 miles northwest of Boston, to seize and destroy colonial arms and supplies. At 5:00 a.m. on April 19 the first shots were fired on Lexington Green; the British reached Concord at 7:00 a.m., fighting broke out at the North Bridge at 9:30 a.m., and from noon the British marched back to Boston under continuing attack until the battle ended at 7:30 p.m. The fighting stretched along about 16 miles of road and involved some 1,700 British regulars and more than 4,000 colonial militia; British casualties totaled 273 (73 killed, 174 wounded, 26 missing) and colonial casualties 95 (49 killed, 41 wounded, 5 missing). It was the first armed conflict of the American Revolution, and the Siege of Boston began the next day.⁠[5]

On June 10, 1776, the Continental Congress appointed a committee of five to draft a statement of independence; from June 11 to 28 Thomas Jefferson drafted the text, with some changes by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. On July 2 the Congress adopted the independence section of the Lee Resolution, and on July 3–4 it revised the draft Declaration. On July 5 the approved text was printed under the committee’s supervision; on July 19 the Congress ordered the Declaration engrossed on parchment and signed by every member, and on August 2 John Hancock signed the engrossed copy first.⁠[6]

On June 11, 1776, the Second Continental Congress appointed three committees, one of them to shape a confederation. On November 15, 1777, the Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, which required ratification by all 13 states; when MarylandMarylandMaryland is a Middle Atlantic state of the United States, deeply indented by Chesapeake Bay and bordered by Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, the District of Columbia and West Virginia; its capital is Annapolis and its largest city is Baltimore. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on April 28, 1788, as the seventh state to do so, and had a population of 6,177,224 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry ratified on March 1, 1781, the Congress of the Confederation came into being.⁠[7]

The Articles made the United States a “league of friendship” among 13 sovereign and independent states; each state kept every power not expressly given to the national government, and each state had one vote in Congress regardless of population. The central government could not regulate commerce, levy taxes or set an effective trade policy; it struggled to support the war effort with a depleted treasury, paper money flooded the country and caused severe inflation, and it had little power to settle disputes among the states over territory, war pensions, taxation and trade.⁠[7]

John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and John Jay for the United States and David Hartley for Great Britain signed the Treaty of Paris. Britain acknowledged the thirteen states as “free sovereign and Independent States” and gave up its claims to their government and territory. The treaty set boundaries running from the Atlantic coast and the St. Croix River in the east, through the Great Lakes, to the Mississippi River in the west, with a southern boundary at about 31 degrees north latitude; Article 8 declared that the MississippiMississippiMississippi is a state of the United States on the Gulf of Mexico; Jackson is both its capital and its largest city. It was admitted to the Union on December 10, 1817, as the 20th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 2,961,279.Open the full entry would remain forever open to British subjects and United States citizens.⁠[8]

The Federal Convention convened in the State House (Independence Hall) in Philadelphia on May 14, 1787, and obtained a quorum of seven states on May 25. By mid-June the delegates had decided to draft a new frame of government rather than amend the Articles of Confederation; the document was drafted in secret during the summer of 1787 and signed on September 17.⁠[9]

Fifty-five men from twelve states attended the Convention; when the final draft was read, 39 of the 42 delegates present signed it. On June 21, 1788, New HampshireNew HampshireNew Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by Quebec, Canada, to the north, Vermont across the Connecticut River to the west, Massachusetts to the south, and Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east; its capital is Concord. One of the original 13 colonies, it became the ninth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on June 21, 1788, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 1,377,529.Open the full entry became the ninth state to ratify, and the Constitution went into effect.⁠[10]

DelawareDelawareDelaware is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic region on the East Coast, with its capital at Dover and Wilmington as its largest city. On December 7, 1787, it became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, entering the Union as the 1st state, and it had a population of 989,948 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry was the first state to ratify, unanimously by 30 votes to 0 on December 7, 1787; Rhode IslandRhode IslandRhode Island (officially the State of Rhode Island) is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Ocean; its capital and largest city is Providence. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on May 29, 1790, the last of the original 13 to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 1,097,379.Open the full entry ratified by the narrowest margin, two votes, on May 29, 1790.⁠[11]

The Confederation Congress adopted the Northwest Ordinance, which set up a temporary government for the Northwest Territory and laid out three stages to statehood: Congress would first appoint a governor, a secretary and three judges; once there were 5,000 free adult male inhabitants, residents would elect an assembly and send a non-voting delegate to Congress; with 60,000 free inhabitants a territory could draft a constitution and seek admission. The ordinance declared that there would be “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude” in the territory, except as punishment for crimes, and provided for no fewer than three and no more than five states to be formed there.⁠[12]

In 1788 the Confederation Congress scheduled the first presidential inauguration for the first Wednesday in March of the following year. No official business could be conducted until both the House and the Senate had a quorum, and only on April 6, 1789, more than a month late, had enough members reached New York City to tally the electoral ballots.⁠[13]

Washington received notice of his election on April 14, 1789, left his home on the Potomac on April 16 and crossed the bay to New York City on April 23. On April 30 he took the oath of office and delivered his inaugural address at Federal Hall, on the corner of Wall and Nassau Streets.⁠[14]

The District of Columbia was established under Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Constitution on territory originally ceded by Maryland (legislative act of December 23, 1788) and Virginia (legislative act of December 3, 1789). Congress accepted the cessions by an act of July 16, 1790, and President Washington established the District’s lines and bounds by proclamation on March 30, 1791; Virginia’s cession was retroceded by an act of Congress on July 9, 1846.⁠[15]

On September 25, 1789, the First Congress proposed 12 amendments to the state legislatures; Articles 3 to 12 were ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures on December 15, 1791, becoming the first ten amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights.⁠[16]

The amendments had been proposed by James Madison; the original second article, rejected at the time, was later ratified as the 27th Amendment.⁠[17]

The 27th Amendment was ratified on May 7, 1992.⁠[18]

The United States and France signed the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, under which the United States acquired some 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million, doubling its size and expanding westward.⁠[19]

Spain had owned the territory of LouisianaLouisianaLouisiana is a state in the southern United States on the Gulf of Mexico, bordered by Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas; its capital is Baton Rouge and its largest city is New Orleans. It entered the Union on April 30, 1812, as the 18th state, and had a population of 4,657,757 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry since 1762; Napoleon Bonaparte offered the entire territory to the American negotiators James Monroe and Robert Livingston, and President Thomas Jefferson approved the purchase.⁠[20]

Because Britain continued to impress American seamen on the high seas into the Royal Navy and to blockade neutral commerce, President James Madison asked Congress for a declaration of war on Great Britain on June 1, 1812. During the war British forces attacked Washington and burned the White House and other government buildings. By 1814 neither side could claim a clear victory; negotiations began that summer, and on Christmas Eve the negotiators signed the Treaty of Ghent, which restored the prewar political boundaries in North America, set up a boundary commission and provided for peace with Indian nations on the frontier.⁠[21]

The Rush–Bagot Agreement of 1817 and the Convention of 1818 settled disputes with Britain over the Great Lakes and the border with Canada, which was extended westward along the 49th parallel to the Rocky Mountains. In 1819 the Adams–Onís Treaty with Spain, also called the “Transcontinental Treaty,” added FloridaFloridaFlorida is a U.S. state occupying mainly the Florida peninsula, with its capital at Tallahassee; its most populous city is Jacksonville. It entered the Union on March 3, 1845, as the 27th state, and had a population of 21,538,187 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry to the national domain and settled the boundary with Mexico on advantageous terms.⁠[22]

The Indian Removal Act was passed on May 28, 1830, and on December 6 of that year President Andrew Jackson delivered a message to Congress on Indian removal. His administration negotiated almost 70 removal treaties, which led to the relocation of nearly 50,000 eastern Indians. In the fall and winter of 1838–39 the Cherokees were forced from their homes to Indian Territory on the “Trail of Tears,” on which about 4,000 of 16,000 Cherokees died.⁠[23]

Another account puts the number of Cherokee people forced from their lands in 1838 at over 16,000, of whom nearly 5,000 perished during the relocation; between 1830 and 1850 about 100,000 people lost their homes.⁠[1]

TexasTexasTexas is a U.S. state in the south-central United States, with its capital at Austin and its largest city Houston. It was admitted to the Union on December 29, 1845, as the 28th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 29,145,505 residents.Open the full entry was admitted to the Union on December 29, 1845.⁠[24]

After the Mexican–American War (1846–48), the two countries signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848. Mexico ceded 55 percent of its territory, including present-day CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a U.S. state on the Pacific coast; its capital is Sacramento and its largest city is Los Angeles. California was admitted to the Union on September 9, 1850, as the 31st state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 39,538,223, the largest of any state.Open the full entry, NevadaNevadaNevada is a state in the western United States bordered by Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and California; its capital is Carson City. It was admitted to the Union on October 31, 1864, as the 36th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 3,104,614.Open the full entry, UtahUtahUtah is a U.S. state bordered by Idaho to the north, Wyoming to the northeast, Colorado to the east, Arizona to the south and Nevada to the west, with its capital at Salt Lake City. It was admitted to the Union on January 4, 1896, as the 45th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 3,271,616 residents.Open the full entry and New MexicoNew MexicoNew Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States. Its capital is Santa Fe and its largest city is Albuquerque. It was admitted to the Union on January 6, 1912, as the 47th state, and had a population of 2,117,522 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry, most of ArizonaArizonaArizona is a state in the southwestern United States; its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona was admitted to the Union on February 14, 1912, as the 48th state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 7,151,502.Open the full entry and ColoradoColoradoColorado is a U.S. state classified as one of the Mountain states, with Denver as its capital. It was admitted to the Union on August 1, 1876, as the 38th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 5,773,714.Open the full entry, and parts of OklahomaOklahomaOklahoma is a U.S. state whose capital is Oklahoma City. It was admitted to the Union on November 16, 1907, as the 46th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 3,959,353.Open the full entry, KansasKansasKansas is a state of the United States bordered by Nebraska to the north, Missouri to the east, Oklahoma to the south, and Colorado to the west; its capital is Topeka and its largest city is Wichita. It was admitted to the Union on January 29, 1861, as the 34th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 2,937,880.Open the full entry and WyomingWyomingWyoming is a U.S. state, the ninth largest by area, with its capital at Cheyenne. Wyoming was admitted to the Union on July 10, 1890, as the 44th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 576,851 residents.Open the full entry; the United States paid Mexico $15 million, and Mexico recognized the Rio Grande as its southern boundary with the United States. The Senate advised ratification with amendments on March 10, 1848, the President ratified the treaty on March 16, ratifications were exchanged at Querétaro on May 30, and the treaty was proclaimed on July 4.⁠[25]

The Oregon Territory stretched from the Pacific coast to the Rocky Mountains and included present-day OregonOregonOregon (officially the State of Oregon) is a state on the Pacific coast of the western United States; its capital is Salem and its largest city is Portland. It was admitted to the Union on February 14, 1859, as the 33rd state. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 4,237,256.Open the full entry, Washington StateWashington (state)Washington is a state on the Pacific coast of the northwestern United States; its capital is Olympia and its largest city is Seattle. Washington was admitted to the Union on November 11, 1889, as the 42nd state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 7,705,281 residents.Open the full entry and most of British Columbia; Spain, Great Britain, Russia and the United States had all once claimed it. In 1818 British and American commissioners set the boundary at the 49th parallel from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains; extending it to the Pacific was postponed, and in 1827 postponed indefinitely. Growing American migration on the Oregon Trail in 1843–1846 brought the issue before Congress; President James Polk proposed the 49th parallel to Britain, and the British Minister in Washington, Richard Pakenham, and Secretary of State James Buchanan negotiated a compromise that reserved Vancouver Island to Canada. On June 18, 1846, the Senate ratified the treaty by a vote of 41 to 14. A later dispute over the boundary in the Juan de Fuca Strait was settled by international arbitration in favor of the United States.⁠[26]

James Gadsden, the U.S. Minister to Mexico, authorized by President Franklin Pierce and instructed by Secretary of State William Marcy, negotiated with Mexican President Antonio de Santa Anna to obtain land for a southern transcontinental railroad and to settle disputes left over from the Mexican–American War. The first treaty, signed on December 30, 1853, called for the United States to pay $15 million for 45,000 square miles; on April 25, 1854, the Senate ratified a revised treaty that cut the payment to $10 million and the land to 29,670 square miles, and Santa Anna signed the revised treaty on June 8, 1854. The land later became part of Arizona and New Mexico; the treaty established the present-day southern border of the United States but did not fully resolve financial claims or border raids.⁠[27]

When Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States (1861–1865). Born to a frontier farming family in Kentucky, he had less than a year of formal schooling, taught himself law, and served in the Illinois legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives before winning the presidency as the Republican candidate in 1860. During the Civil War he preserved the Union, issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and pushed the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery through Congress. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington on April 14, 1865, and died the next day.Open the full entry took office, South CarolinaSouth CarolinaSouth Carolina (officially the State of South Carolina) is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Ocean bordering Georgia and North Carolina; its capital is Columbia and its most populous city is Charleston. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on May 23, 1788, the eighth state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 5,118,425.Open the full entry, Mississippi, Florida, AlabamaAlabamaAlabama is a U.S. state in the Southeast on the Gulf of Mexico, with its capital at Montgomery. It was admitted to the Union on December 14, 1819, as the 22nd state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 5,024,279 residents.Open the full entry, the State of GeorgiaGeorgia (U.S. state)The State of Georgia is a U.S. state in the Deep South whose capital and largest city is Atlanta. It ratified the U.S. Constitution on January 2, 1788, becoming the 4th state, and had a population of 10,711,908 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry, Louisiana and Texas had already seceded. The bombardment of Fort Sumter on April 12 and 13, 1861, was the opening engagement of the Civil War; at 2:30 p.m. on April 13, Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort.⁠[28]

On September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, promising freedom to enslaved people in Confederate-held states or parts of states if the rebellion there continued past January 1, 1863. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that “all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious areas were henceforward free.⁠[29]

On April 9, 1865, Union General Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate General Robert E. Lee met at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, where Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia. Only on August 20, 1866, 16 months later, did the President formally declare an end to the war.⁠[30]

The Homestead Act, passed on May 20, 1862, allowed eligible adults to claim 160 acres of surveyed public land after living on and cultivating it for five years. Of the roughly 500 million acres dispersed by the General Land Office between 1862 and 1904, only about 80 million acres went to homesteaders.⁠[31]

The Pacific Railway Act, approved on July 1, 1862, provided federal subsidies in land and loans for building a transcontinental railroad and authorized the Union PacificUnion PacificUnion Pacific Corporation is an Omaha-based U.S. railroad holding company whose Union Pacific Railroad runs freight trains in 23 western states. In 2025 it agreed to merge with Norfolk Southern.Open the full entry and Central Pacific railroad companies to construct the lines; Congress eventually authorized four transcontinental railroads and granted 174 million acres of public land for rights-of-way.⁠[32]

The 13th Amendment, passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, abolished slavery in the United States and banned involuntary servitude except as punishment for a crime.⁠[33]

The 14th Amendment, passed by Congress on June 13, 1866, and ratified on July 9, 1868, made citizens of “All persons born or naturalized in the United States” and barred the states from depriving any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law or denying any person the equal protection of the laws.⁠[34]

The 15th Amendment, passed by Congress on February 26, 1869, and ratified on February 3, 1870, provided that the right of citizens to vote could not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.⁠[35]

On March 30, 1867, the United States and Russia agreed that the United States would pay $7.2 million for AlaskaAlaskaAlaska is the largest U.S. state by area and borders Canada to the east; its capital is Juneau and its largest city is Anchorage. Alaska was admitted to the Union on January 3, 1959, as the 49th state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 733,391.Open the full entry, in a deal negotiated for the Americans by Secretary of State William H. Seward; the treaty records that it was ratified by the United States on May 28, 1867. The United States acquired nearly 600,000 square miles for less than 2 cents an acre, and a check for $7.2 million was issued on August 1, 1868.⁠[36]

At a ceremony at Promontory, in present-day Utah, the last rails were laid and the last spike was driven in.⁠[32]

Under the Act of Congress signed into law that day, Yellowstone became the first federally protected national park.⁠[37]

On January 17, 1893, a committee overthrew Queen Lili’uokalani of HawaiiHawaiiHawaii is a U.S. state consisting of a group of volcanic islands in the central Pacific Ocean; its capital is Honolulu, on the island of Oʻahu. Hawaii was admitted to the Union on August 21, 1959, as the 50th state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 1,455,271.Open the full entry in a bloodless coup. On July 7, 1898, a joint resolution to annex the Hawaiian Islands passed Congress and was signed into law by President William McKinley; Sanford Dole later became the first Governor of the Territory of Hawaii.⁠[38]

On February 9, 1898, a private letter in which the Spanish Ambassador to the United States, Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, criticized McKinley, intercepted by Cuban revolutionaries, was published by the Hearst press in the New York Journal. On April 11 McKinley delivered a war message to Congress asking for “forcible intervention” by the United States to establish peace in Cuba.⁠[39]

In April 1898 Senator Henry M. Teller proposed an amendment to the U.S. declaration of war against Spain, which the Senate adopted on April 19; the joint resolution was approved on April 20, 1898. The United States won the Spanish–American War of 1898, and the peace treaty compelled Spain to relinquish several overseas territories, including Cuba.⁠[40]

The 16th Amendment, passed by Congress on July 2, 1909, and ratified on February 3, 1913, gave Congress the power to tax incomes from whatever source derived. The 17th Amendment, passed by Congress on May 13, 1912, and ratified on April 8, 1913, provided that the Senate be composed of two senators from each state, chosen by the voters for six-year terms.⁠[18]

On December 23, 1913, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law. Before it, the country had no central bank and in the financial crisis of 1907 relied on private financiers such as J.P. Morgan. The Act created a Federal Reserve Board with supervisory authority over the Reserve Banks, all of whose members were presidential appointees, either ex officio cabinet members or appointees serving set terms; the final bills provided for between eight and twelve regional Reserve Banks and for a Federal Advisory Council of twelve bankers elected by the regional banks, which would meet with the Board from time to time. The House bill was drafted by a subcommittee of the House Banking and Currency Committee led by Representative Carter Glass, and the Senate measure offered by Senator Robert L. Owen of Oklahoma prevailed.⁠[41]

The attack on the Lusitania on May 7, 1915, killed 128 Americans. On February 1, 1917, Germany announced that it would renew unrestricted submarine warfare; on February 24 the British revealed the Zimmermann Telegram, and on March 1 President Woodrow Wilson released it to the press, shocking and angering Americans. On April 2 Wilson addressed a joint session of Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany, and the resulting congressional vote brought the United States into World War I.⁠[42]

The 19th Amendment, passed by Congress on June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, legally guarantees American women the right to vote.⁠[43]

On May 18, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, creating the Tennessee Valley Authority as a federal corporation.⁠[44]

Seeking to assist economic recovery during the Great Depression, the National Industrial Recovery Act was approved on June 16, 1933. In May 1935, in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, the Supreme Court held that the act improperly delegated legislative power to the executive and invalidated its compulsory-code system.⁠[45]

On January 17, 1935, Roosevelt sent Congress a message requesting social security legislation. The Social Security Act, approved on August 14, 1935, established a federal system of old-age benefits for workers, along with unemployment insurance and aid for victims of industrial accidents, dependent mothers and children, blind persons and persons with disabilities.⁠[46]

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor; in less than two hours the U.S. Pacific Fleet was devastated and more than 3,500 Americans were killed or wounded. At 12:30 p.m. on December 8, Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress and, by radio, the nation; the Senate voted unanimously for war, the only dissent in the House came from Jeannette Rankin of Montana, and Roosevelt signed the declaration of war at 4 p.m. that afternoon.⁠[47]

On February 19, 1942, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, under which approximately 122,000 men, women and children of Japanese ancestry were forcibly moved to “assembly centers” and incarcerated. In 1988 Public Law 100-383 acknowledged the injustice of the incarceration and apologized for it.⁠[48]

On December 2, 1942, a group of physicists in Chicago created the world’s first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.⁠[49]

On June 6, 1944, the Allies landed on the Normandy coast; the Order of the Day of the supreme commander, Dwight D. Eisenhower, was distributed to the 175,000-member expeditionary force on the eve of the invasion. By May 1944 more than 2,876,000 Allied troops were gathered in southern England.⁠[50]

On May 7, 1945, Germany signed an instrument of surrender at Eisenhower’s headquarters in Reims, under which German forces were to cease active operations at 23:01 Central European time on May 8; the Soviet command required a second signing in Berlin on May 8.⁠[51]

On August 6 and 9, 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.⁠[49]

On September 2, 1945, the Japanese envoys Mamoru Shigemitsu and Gen. Yoshijiro Umezu signed the instrument of surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.⁠[52]

Following the Moscow Declaration of October 30, 1943, the Dumbarton Oaks Conference of 1944 and the Yalta Conference of February 1945, representatives of 50 nations attended the founding conference in San Francisco, where the United Nations was formally established with the signing of the UN Charter on June 26, 1945. On October 24, 1945, the required number of nations ratified the Charter, a date now observed as United Nations Day.⁠[53]

Addressing a joint session of Congress, President Harry S. Truman asked for $400 million in military and economic assistance for Greece and Turkey. Approval of the aid by a Republican Congress marked the beginning of a long and enduring bipartisan Cold War foreign policy.⁠[54]

The 22nd Amendment, passed by Congress on March 21, 1947, and ratified on February 27, 1951, provides that “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”⁠[18]

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional, ending the “separate but equal” standard of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) in public education.⁠[55]

The Constitution consists of a preamble and seven articles. Article I assigns the making of laws to the legislative branch, Congress, made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate; Article II sets out the executive branch and the offices of President and Vice President, including election of the President through the Electoral College; Article III establishes the judicial branch, with the U.S. Supreme Court as the highest court of the federal court system. A system of checks and balances keeps any one branch from becoming dominant. Articles IV through VII describe the relationship of the states to the federal government, and Article VI makes federal law supreme over state and local laws. Amendments may be proposed by two-thirds of both houses of Congress or by a convention called by two-thirds of the state legislatures, and must be ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures or state conventions.⁠[56]

The Constitution has 4,543 words, including the signatures.⁠[17]

The Senate has 100 members.⁠[57]

The total of 435 representatives with full voting rights has been in effect since 1913; representatives are elected for two-year terms from congressional districts and must be at least 25 years old, U.S. citizens for at least seven years, and inhabitants of the state they represent. Besides the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands each have a delegate, and a resident commissioner represents Puerto Rico; these members may not vote when the House is meeting as the House of Representatives.⁠[58]

The Supreme Court consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and such number of Associate Justices as may be fixed by Congress; the number of Associate Justices is currently fixed at eight (28 U.S.C. § 1), for a court of nine justices.⁠[59]

Under the allocation based on the 2020 census, effective for the 2024 and 2028 presidential elections, there are 538 electoral votes, with 270 needed to elect; each state’s electoral votes equal its number of senators plus its number of representatives, and the District of Columbia is allocated three electors under the 23rd Amendment.⁠[60]

As of November 2026, the President is Donald Trump, the 47th President, who also served as the 45th.⁠[61]

On January 20, 2025, Trump took the presidential oath in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, administered by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.; JD Vance took the vice presidential oath the same day, administered by Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh.⁠[62]

The government of the District of Columbia is administered by a Mayor and a 13-member Council, all elected by the citizens of the District; all acts of the Council are reviewable by Congress (Public Law 93-198 of December 24, 1973). Under the District of Columbia Delegate Act of September 22, 1970, the District has a non-voting Delegate to the House of Representatives.⁠[15]

Appendix B of the U.S. Postal Service’s Publication 28 assigns two-letter abbreviations to the 50 states, the District of Columbia (DC) and possessions and territories including Puerto Rico (PR), Guam (GU), the Virgin Islands (VI), American Samoa (AS) and the Northern Mariana Islands (MP).⁠[63]

Each state has its own capital; for example, the capital of California is Sacramento, that of New York StateNew York (state)New York is a state in the eastern United States; its capital is Albany and its largest city is New York City. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on July 26, 1788, becoming the 11th state to join the Union, and its population in the 2020 census was 20,201,249.Open the full entry is Albany and that of Texas is Austin.⁠[64]

Based on boundaries as of January 1, 2010 (Census Bureau state area measurements), the 50 states and the District of Columbia have a total area of 3,796,742 square miles (9,833,517 km²), of which 3,531,905 square miles (9,147,593 km²) is land and 264,837 square miles (685,924 km²) is water. Water area includes only perennial water; intermittent water, glaciers and marsh or swamp are counted as land, and the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands are not included.⁠[65]

The highest point in the United States is Mount McKinley, Alaska, at 20,320 feet, and the lowest is Death Valley, California, at −282 feet (U.S. Geological Survey data, 1995 edition revised in 2001). The geographic center of the 50 states lies west of Castle Rock, Butte County, South DakotaSouth DakotaSouth Dakota is a U.S. state bordered by North Dakota to the north, Minnesota and Iowa to the east, Nebraska to the south, and Wyoming and Montana to the west. Its capital is Pierre and its largest city is Sioux Falls. It was admitted to the Union on November 2, 1889, as the 40th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 886,667 residents.Open the full entry (44°58′ N, 103°46′ W). The northern boundary of the conterminous United States is 3,987 miles long, its southern boundary 1,933 miles, and the boundary between Alaska and Canada 1,538 miles.⁠[66]

U.S. GDP in current dollars was $29,184,890 million (about $29.18 trillion) in 2024, and real GDP grew 2.8 percent (preliminary 2024 figures released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis on March 28, 2025).⁠[67]

U.S. real GDP increased at an annual rate of 3.4 percent in the third quarter of 2026 (advance estimate released on October 29, 2026), after 2.2 percent in the second quarter.⁠[68]

In the second quarter of 2026 real GDP increased in 44 states and the District of Columbia, with changes ranging from 4.0 percent in New York State to −2.3 percent in West VirginiaWest VirginiaWest Virginia is a U.S. state formed from the western counties of Virginia during the Civil War; its capital and largest city is Charleston. It became the 35th state on June 20, 1863. Its population was 1,793,716 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry; real estate and rental and leasing, information, durable goods manufacturing, and finance and insurance were the leading contributors to national real GDP growth. In 2025 current-dollar personal consumption expenditures increased 5.3 percent.⁠[69]

The Continental Congress approved the design of the Great Seal on June 20, 1782. Three committees had worked on it: the first, formed on July 4, 1776, with Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, introduced the motto “E Pluribus Unum” (“Out of Many, One”); a second was formed in 1780 and a third appointed in May 1782. Charles Thomson, the secretary of Congress, produced a fourth version from the earlier designs, which William Barton, a Philadelphia student of heraldry, then revised.⁠[70]

On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress resolved that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, with thirteen white stars in a blue field representing a new constellation. A resolution adopted in January 1794 expanded the flag to 15 stars and 15 stripes. On April 4, 1818, President James Monroe accepted a bill under which the 13 alternating red and white stripes would remain unchanged and one star would be added for each new state on the Fourth of July following its admission. President Dwight D. Eisenhower set the arrangement of 50 stars in Executive Order 10834 of August 21, 1959; the 50-star flag became the official flag of the United States on July 4, 1960, and was first raised at 12:01 a.m. that day at Fort McHenry.⁠[71]

On March 3, 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed a law making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the national anthem. Francis Scott Key wrote the song in 1814 during the British siege of Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor. The bill (H.R. 14) was introduced by Representative John Linthicum of Maryland on April 15, 1929, passed the House on April 21, 1930, and passed the Senate as one of the final acts of the 71st Congress (1929–1931).⁠[72]

A joint resolution approved on July 30, 1956 (Public Law 851), declared the national motto of the United States to be “In God we trust.”⁠[73]

The United States has 50 states. The table below lists them in the order in which they ratified the U.S. Constitution or were admitted to the Union, with each state’s two-letter United States Postal Service (USPS) abbreviation, date and capital.⁠[24][63][64]

USA.gov: Official website: https://www.usa.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[74]

The White House: Official website: https://www.whitehouse.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[75]

U.S. Census Bureau: Official website: https://www.census.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[76]

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration: Official website: https://www.archives.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[77]

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis: Official website: https://www.bea.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[78]