President Thomas Jefferson signed an Act of Congress approving Ohio’s statehood in 1803, making it the 17th state. Congress had never passed a resolution formally admitting it as a state, however. While this has no real constitutional significance, this oversight was discovered in 1953, prompting a congressional joint resolution officially declaring that Ohio had been admitted into the Union one hundred and fifty years earlier. This joint resolution was signed into law by President Dwight Eisenhower.