Historedia
Episode 1 of 2

Enactment of the Enabling Act

When
February 22, 1889
Where
Capitol Building
Part of
Cleveland signs the Enabling Act admitting four northwestern states

The 50th Congress passed the Enabling Act of 1889, authorizing four territories to form state governments and gain admission to the Union.

On February 22, 1889, the 50th Congress passed the Enabling Act, which permitted the entrance of Montana and Washington into the United States, as well as the splitting of the Territory of Dakota into North Dakota and South Dakota. This occurred ten days before President Cleveland left office.

Sources

  1. Enabling Act of 1889 Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-28
  2. Grover Cleveland Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-08
  3. North Dakota Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-07

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.