Video: 'Maine - 50 States - US Geography'

(Wednesday, March 15, 1820) — As part of the Missouri Compromise between the North and South, Maine was admitted into the Union today as the 23rd state.

The Missouri Compromise, which geographically limited the spread of slavery and enabled the admission to statehood of Missouri the following year, was designed to keep a balance between slave and free states.

Maine had been administered as a province of Massachusetts since 1647.