-
Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
A famous document originally issued by King John of England. This document, which meant, “The Great Charter,” established the principal that everybody, including the King was subject to the law. Within ten years, a third of the text had been deleted or rewritten, but still remains an important document of the British constitution. -
1514
Nicolaus Copernicus
Wrote "Commentariolus," which was a 40-page manuscript that summarized his heliocentric planetary system. From this system, many mathematical formulas that would serve as proofs were established. -
Oct 31, 1517
Martin Luther: 95 Thesis
Also known as the "Disputation on the Power of Efficacy of Indulgences," was a list of questions written by Martin Luther which highlighted his objection to the corrupt practice of selling indulgences in a questioning manner. In the thesis was Luther’s central idea, that God wanted believers to seek repentance and that faith alone, not deeds, would lead to salvation. The thesis became the foundation of the Protestant Reformation. -
Mayflower Compact
A written agreement signed by 41 males settlers who arrived at New Plymouth from the Mayflower in November of 1620. The compact included fair and equal laws and determined authority within the settlement as well as stated that the colony would not include English Laws. John Adams and many historians have referred to the Mayflower Compact as the foundation of the U.S. Constitution written more than 150 years later. The Compact was honored until 1691. -
Peace of Westphalia
A series of treaties that ended the Thirty Years’ War in the Holy Roman Empire and the Eighty Years’ War between Holland and Spain for Dutch Independence. Out of the treaties came religious tolerance for Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists in the Holy Roman Empire and independence for Holland, Switzerland and other countries that were previously under the control of foreign powers. -
Committees of Correspondence
First formed in Boston in 1764, with the purpose of encouraging opposition to Britain’s strengthening of customs enforcement and prohibition of American paper money. New York established a committee the following year and then the Virginia House of Burgesses proposed that each colony should establish a committee. The committees were the American colonies first institutions for maintaining communication with one another. -
Inclosure Acts
A series of Acts passed by the Parliament, which led to the end of open fields and common land in England and Wales. These acts created legal and private property, which was previously free and common land. Between 1604 and 1914, 5200 individual acts were passes on 6.8 million acres. -
Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations
A work by Adam Smith, where he analyzed the relationship between work and wealth. He concluded that the best economic situation came from encouraging open competition in trade and business and no government control. This work was influential on later economic theories and also provided a template for the economic policies in Britain in the 1980s. -
Mary Wollstonecraft
Wrote "Thoughts on Education of Daughters: With reflections on female conduct, in the more important duties of life," which challenged traditional eighteenth-century attitudes towards women. The book argues that women can best contribute to society if they are brought up with a strong sense of morals and character instead of superficial social graces. Her writings formed a cornerstone of the battle for women's rights in the nineteenth and twentieth century. -
Federalist Papers
A series of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay that urged citizens of New York to ratify the new United States Constitution. The first essays were published under the name “Piblius,” in New york Newspapers between 1787 and 1788 and are considered one of the most important sources for understanding the original Constitution. -
Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy in America
Tocqueville was a French sociologist and political theorist who, after studying prisons in the United States in 1831, wrote the book, "Democracy in America," which was one of the most influential books in the 19th century. The book proposed that the United States offered an advanced example of equality in action. -
Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions
A document, written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, signed by 68 women and 32 men at the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. The declaration was modeled after the Declaration of Independence and aimed to gain civil, social, political, and religious rights for women. -
Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Women
One of the most famous abolitionist and women’s’ rights speeches in American History. The speech was given in 1851 at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. Sojourner Truth gave many speeches during and after the Civil War for women’s and African American rights. -
Gettysburg Address
A speech, given by President Abraham Lincoln, during the official dedication ceremony for the National Commentary of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. During the speech, Lincoln gave purpose to the sacrifices of the Civil War, saying they were for human equality. The speech is remembered as one of the most important speeches in American History. -
John Maynard Keynes
An early 20th-century British economist who addressed the cause of long-term unemployment. He wrote a paper, "The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money," which highlighted his support of full employment and government intervention as a way to halt recession. He was known as the father of Keynesian economics. -
Port Huron Statement
A document, written by Students for a Democratic Society in Port Huron, Michigan. The document highlighted the disappointment many college students were feeling during the 1960s and particularly in the way that college administrators attempted to control their personal lives. Tom Hayden was a leader of the document. Also in the document were student's feelings about their disappointment in mainstream liberals lack of support for student efforts in the Civil Rights movement. -
Martin Luther King: I Have a Dream
Delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. as part of the March in Washington. The speech honored President Abraham Lincoln, and called attention to how terrible things were during the Civil War and mostly how some things still hadn’t changed. It was a message of non-violence, and made Congress move faster in Passing the Civil Rights Act, which gave African Americans more equal treatment. -
Derrick Bell
In 1971, Bell became the first African American to become a tenured professor at Harvard Law School; there he established a course in civil rights law and wrote Race, Racism and American Law, which today is a standard textbook in law schools around the country. -
Eve Sedgwick
A professor of English at Duke University in Durham, N.C. She published the Epistemology of the Closet, which was a groundbreaking work in the academic field of queer studies. She said there were two understanding of homosexuality, a minoritizing view, in which there is a specific population of people who are really gay and a universalizing view, where heterosexual persons are marked by same-sex influences. -
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw
Crenshaw became the first woman of color to receive the Outstanding Scholar Award from The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation.
