Kathy, Delaware was the first state to ratify our nation's Constitution, basically making it the first one to acknowledge the government.
You can see the whole list in date order
here.
The original 13 colonies were colonies of Britain and the borderlines of those colonies were kept for the 13 first states of the Union.
Hope this helps!
BoyzNMe, welcome to Family Corner!
I am from southern NJ (the third state!)