On this day in 1816, President James Madison signed an act of Congress admitting Indiana to the Union as the 19th state. Its accession culminated a process that took nearly two decades. In 1800, Congress had carved out the Indiana Territory from the organic Northwest Territory, the first new subregion to be so designated.
From 1801 to 1812, William Henry Harrison, who went on to become the nation’s ninth president, served as the first governor of the Indiana Territory. In addition to present-day Indiana, it included Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota.
Kentucky and Ohio got in ahead of us at No. 15 and No. 17, but we made it before Illinois (No. 21) and Michigan (No. 26). That's us, stuck in the middle.
