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Period: Jan 1, 1200 to
Chapter 2 Timeline
Chapter 2 Timeline -
Jan 1, 1215
Magna Carta
A charter of liberty and political rights obtained from King John of England by his rebellious barons at Runnymede, It came to be seen as the seminal document of English constitutional practice. -
Petition of Right
The Petition of Right is a major English constitutional document that sets out specific liberties of the subject that the king is prohibited from infringing. The Petition of Right was produced by the English Parliament in the run-up to the English Civil War. -
English Bill of Rights
An act passed by Parliament which limited the power of the monarch. This document established Parliament as the most powerful branch of the English government. -
Albany Plan of Union
The Albany Plan was proposed by Benjamin Franklin at the Albany Congress in Albany, New York. It was an early attempt at forming a union of the colonies "under one government as far as might be necessary for defense and other general important purposes" during the French and Indian War. -
Boston Massacre
A clash between British troops and townspeople in Boston, before the Revolutionary War. The British fired into a crowd that was threatening them, killing five, including Crispus Attucks. -
Boston Tea Party
A violent demonstration in 1773 by American colonists before the American Revolution. Colonists boarded vessels in Boston harbor and threw the cargoes of tea into the water in protest at the imposition of a tax on tea by the British Parliament, in which the colonists had no representation -
First Continental Congress
The meeting of representatives from the colonies in to plan a response to the Coercive/Intolerable Acts. The meeting was held in Philadelphia, and represents a key step in uniting the separate colonies to oppose British rule. -
Second Continental Congress
Meeting of colonial delegates in Philadelphia to decide, among other things, how to react to fighting at Lexington and Concord.The second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. -
Declaration of Independence
A document declaring the US to be independent of the British Crown, signed on July 4, 1776, by the congressional representatives of the Thirteen Colonies, including Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams. -
Articles of Confederation
A written agreement ratified by the thirteen original states. It provided a legal symbol of their union by giving the central government no coercive power over the states or their citizens -
Shay's Rebellion
Shays' Rebellion was an armed uprising in central and western Massachusetts from 1786 to 1787. The rebellion is named after Daniel Shays, a veteran of the American Revolution who led the rebels, known as "Shaysites" or "Regulators". -
Philadelphia Convention
Took place to address problems in governing the United States of America, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation following independence from Great Britain. The delegates elected George Washington to preside over the convention. -
Virginia Plan
Proposed at Constitutional Convention; recommended three branches of government, and that all state laws would be subject to the veto by national legislature. The plan was drafted by James Madison while he waited for a quorum to assemble at the Constitutional Convention -
New Jersey Plan
It was a proposal for the structure of the United States Government proposed by William Paterson at the Constitutional Convention on June 15, 1787. The plan was created in response to the Virginia Plan's call for two houses of Congress, both elected with apportionment according to population or direct taxes paid.
