Statehood Of The Dakotas

 

Today, we raise three flags in honor of the statehood of North and South Dakota. Both states were admitted to the Union on this date in 1889 as the 39^th and 40^th states, although no one knows in which order they became states, as President Benjamin Harrison reportedly had the papers shuffled so no one would know which state could claim to be the first of the two admitted. The 43-star flag, first used on July 4, 1890, added five stars from the previous version, representing the Dakotas, Idaho, Montana and Washington.