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Stamp Act.
The Stamp Act was the first internal tax levied directly on American colonists by the British Parliament. The act imposed a tax on all paper documents in the colonies. This happen because the British Empire was in debt from the Seven Years' War. The colonists insisted that the act was unconstitutional. The Stamp Act was passed on March 22, 1765. -
Stamp Act Congress.
The colonists were not merely griping about the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act. One thing was clear, no colony acting alone could effectively convey a message to the king and Parliament. The Congress seemed at first to be an abject failure.The Congress humbly acknowledged Parliament's right to make laws in the colonies. -
1st meeting of Congress in NYC.
The Stamp Act Congress, also known as the Continental Congress of 1765, was a meeting held in New York. It was the first gathering of elected representatives from several of the American colonies to devise a unified protest against new British taxation. Parliament had passed the Stamp Act, which required the use of specially stamped paper for legal documents, playing cards, calendars, newspapers, and dice for virtually all business in the colonies starting on November 1, 1765. -
Boston Massacre.
The Boston Massacre was a deadly riot that occurred on March 5, 1770, on King Street in Boston. It began as a street brawl between American colonists and a lone British soldier, but quickly escalated to a chaotic, bloody slaughter. The conflict energized anti-British sentiment and paved the way for the American Revolution. -
Boston Tea Party.
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest that occurred on December 16, 1773, at Griffin’s Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. American colonists, frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing “taxation without representation,” dumped 342 chests of tea, imported by the British East India Company into the harbor. It showed Great Britain that Americans wouldn’t take taxation and tyranny sitting down, and rallied American patriots across the 13 colonies to fight for independence. -
2nd Continental Congress Convenes.
This congress added new members. Massachusetts added John Hancock; Virginia, Thomas Jefferson and Pennsylvania, James Wilson and Benjamin Franklin. Georgia, the only colony unrepresented in the First Congress, sent one delegate, Lyman Hall. Delegates appointed the same president, Peyton Randolph, and secretary, Charles Thomson. Randolph was summoned back to Virginia leaving the seat of president to election. John Hancock was elected president of congress on May 24th. -
Battles of Lexington & Concord.
Britain's General Gage had a secret plan. During the wee hours of April 19, 1775, he would send out regiments of British soldiers quartered in Boston. Their destinations were Lexington, where they would capture Colonial leaders Sam Adams and John Hancock, then concord where they would seize gunpowder. -
George Washington officially became president.
Born a British citizen and a former Redcoat, Washington had, by the 1770s, joined the growing ranks of colonists who were dismayed by what they considered to be Britain’s exploitative policies in North America. In 1774, Washington joined the Continental Congress as a delegate from Virginia. The next year, the Congress offered Washington the role of commander in chief of the Continental Army. -
Battle of Bunker Hill.
On June 17, 1775, early in the Revolutionary War (1775-83), the British defeated the Americans at the Battle of Bunker Hill in Massachusetts. Despite their loss, the inexperienced colonial forces inflicted significant casualties against the enemy, and the battle provided them with an important confidence boost. Although commonly referred to as the Battle of Bunker Hill, most of the fighting occurred on nearby Breed’s Hill. -
Adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
Declaration of Independence, in U.S. history, document that was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, and that announced the separation of 13 North American British colonies from Great Britain. Accordingly, the day on which final separation was officially voted was July 2, although the 4th, the day on which the Declaration of Independence was adopted, has always been celebrated in the United States as the great national holiday—the Fourth of July, or Independence Day. -
Adoption of the Articles of Confederation.
All of the states were represented in Congress when the signing of the Articles of Confederation took place, although never present at the same time. Congress approved the Articles of Confederation in 1777. The first signing began on July 9, 1778 with delegates from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and South Carolina involved in the process. -
Cornwallis Surrenders at Yorktown.
On this day in 1781, British General Charles Cornwallis formally surrenders 8,000 British soldiers and seamen to a French and American force at Yorktown, Virginia, bringing the American Revolution to a close.Previously, Cornwallis had driven General George Washington’s Patriot forces out of New Jersey in 1776, and led his Redcoats in victory over General Horatio Gates and the Patriots at Camden, South Carolina, in 1780. -
Treaty of Paris.
The Treaty of Paris of 1783 formally ended the American Revolutionary War. American statesmen Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and John Jay negotiated the peace treaty with representatives of King George III of Great Britain. In the Treaty of Paris, the British Crown formally recognized American independence and ceded most of its territory east of the Mississippi River to the United States, doubling the size of the new nation and paving the way for westward expansion. -
Constitution Approved.
On September 17, 1787, a majority of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention approved the documents over which they had labored since May. For 2 days, September 26 and 27, Congress debated whether to censure the delegates to the Constitutional Convention for exceeding their authority by creating a new form of government instead of simply revising the Articles of Confederation. -
Bill of Rights added to the Constitution.
The Bill of Rights is the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution. These amendments guarantee essential rights and civil liberties, such as the right to free speech and the right to a fair trial, as well as reserving rights to the people and the states. As a distinct historical document, drafted separately from the seven articles that form the body of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights has its own fascinating story.
