Video: 'Ohio - The US Explained'
(Tuesday, March 1, 1803) — Ohio, located in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the west, and Michigan to the northwest, was admitted to the union today as the 17th state.
On Feb.19, 1803, U.S. President Thomas Jefferson signed an act of Congress that approved Ohio’s boundaries and constitution. However, Congress had never passed a formal resolution admitting Ohio as the 17th state.
Although no formal resolution of admission was required, when the oversight was discovered in 1953, as Ohio began preparations for celebrating its sesquicentennial, Ohio congressman George H. Bender introduced a bill in Congress to admit Ohio to the Union retroactive to March 1, 1803, the date on which the Ohio General Assembly first convened.
At a special session at the old state capital in Chillicothe, the Ohio state legislature approved a new petition for statehood which was delivered to Washington, D.C., on horseback, and approved that August.
