Let's see.
1. Lincoln (E.Washington) (51)
2. Upper Pennensula (upper Michigan) (52)
3. Jefferson (3 southern Oregon counties & 4 northern California counties) (53)
4. West Kansas (54)
5. Baja (Baja pennesula) (55)
6. Puerto Rico (56)
7. North Missouri (57)
8. Cascadia (Southern British Columbia) (58)
9. Cuba (59)
10. Virgan Islands (60)
1. Lincoln. This state was formed in 1898 when conflicts arouse between the people living on opposite sides of the Cascade mountains. The simplist solution was to spliot the territory and so when Washington became a state, on March 11, Lincoln followed on March 12th.
2. Upper Pennensula. This state is one of the newest in the union. It ws formed and approved back in 1992. In 1991 to help boost state incomes, a tax was put in place on game animals (fish & wildlife). Many folks on the Upper Pennensula got a larger portion of thier food (than the rest of the state), and as they made less money, they precived this as an undue hardship. With this argument, as well as being geograhically seperated from the rest of the state, the Upper Pennensula became a state on July 3rd, 1992.
3. Jefferson in OTL had the paperwork ready, and it was suppoed to go to congress on Dec 8th, 1941, but the war derailed this. In This TL, the Jefferson State movement got started a year earlier, and on June 8th 1940, Jefferson became a state.
4. West Kansas became a state in 1991. It was formed from the nine western, oil producing, counties in the state. Almsot all of the tax revenue from the oil, was going to eastern Kansas. The west objected. In OTL, they had two sets of paperwork ready to go. One was an appeal for statehood, the other to declare themselves their own country, and wanted to join OPEC. In this timeline, making new states is more accepted, and the State of West Kansas was created.
5. Baja was part of the spoils of the Mexican - American war, and became a state in 1912, along with Arizona & New Mexico.
6. Puerto Rico voted to become a state on July 4th, 1976.
7. North Missouri was formed as a state, ala West Virginia, in 1863.
8. Cascadia was formed after the "54 40 or fight" incident. The British Empire was having troubles and didn't want another fight on its hands at that time, so Southern British Coumbia was sold to the US, and became a state in April 4th, 1892.
9. Cuba was freed from Spanish rule in the Spanish-American war, in 1898. After a couple of elections as a territory, Cuba, voted to become a state in May 5th, 1913.
10. The Virgin Islands wanted to become a state once Puerto Rico was granted Statehood. They voted, and after a little congress wrangling, they were granted statehood on October 1st, 1978.
Hows that work?