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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta signed
Established a council of 25 barons to see King John kept to the clauses like protection from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, parliamentary assent for taxation, and scutage limitations. Still influences British government to this day. -
Jamestown, VA Founded
First settlement in the 'New World'. -
VA House of Burgesses
First legislative assembly of elected representatives in North America. Had 22 elected representatives, held in a church in Virginia. -
Bacon's Rebellion
Led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor William Berkeley. Virginians rose up with Bacon to make the Governor do something about the recent Native American attacks. -
English Bill of Rights
Ensured certain freedoms and ensure a Protestant political supremacy. -
Enlightenment Period
Intellectual movement that was heavily influenced by 17th-century philosophers such as Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Adam Smith.
Voltaire is pictured -
French and Indian War Begins
Started over land disputes in the Ohio River Valley between the French and English. -
French and Indian War Ends
Ended in the signing of the Treaty of Paris. -
Proclamation of 1763
Issued by the British that outlawed further colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains to prevent conflict with Native Americans. Angered the colonists who wanted to farm the land. -
Boston Massacre
A suposed miscommunication caused Einglish soldiers to open fire at colonial protesters. Many were killed. -
Boston Tea Party
Colonists responded to the high British taxes by dumping shiploads of British tea into the Boston Harbor. -
Intolerable Acts
In response to the Boston Tea Party, Britian punished the colonies by paeeing the Intolerable Acts, which supressed the colonist's freedoms. -
1st Continental Congress
In response to the British Parliament's enactment of the Coercive Acts in the American colonies, the first session of the Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia. Fifty-six delegates from all the colonies except Georgia drafted a declaration of rights and grievances. -
Lexington and Concord
First battle of the Revolutionary War. 'Shot heard round the world' -
2nd Continental Congress
Convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting in the summer of 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. -
Common Sense
Challenged the authority of the British government and the royal monarchy. The plain language that author Thomas Paine used spoke to the common people of America and was the first work to openly ask for independence from Great Britain. -
Declaration of Independence
Document that declared the colonies freedom from Britian. -
Battle of Guilford Courthouse
During the American Revolutionary War; 2,100-man British force under command of Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis defeated Major General Nathanael Greene's 4,500 Americans. The British Army sustained such heavy casualties that it was a strategic victory for the Americans. -
British Surrender at Yorktown
British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered his troops in Yorktown, Virginia; ending the Revolutionary War. -
Treaty of Paris signed
Ended the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain and the United States of America.
