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Period: Jan 1, 1215 to
Constitutional Timeline
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Sep 19, 1215
Magna Carta
A charter of liberty and political rights obtained from King John of England by his rebellious barons at Runnymede in 1215 -
Jamestown settled
The first successful English settlement on the mainland of North America. Named for King James I of England, Jamestown was founded in the Colony of Virginia on April 26, 1607 -
Mayflower Compact was Written
The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the colonists, later together known to history as the Pilgrims, who crossed the Atlantic aboard the Mayflowe -
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 -
English Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights is an act of the Parliament of England, whose title is An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown -
Albany Plan of Union
The Albany Plan was proposed by Benjamin Franklin at the Albany Congress in 1754 in Albany, New York. It was an early attempt at forming a union of the colonies -
Stamp Act
An act of the British Parliament in 1756 that exacted revenue from the American colonies by imposing a stamp duty on newspapers and legal and commercial documents -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was an incident that led to the deaths of five civilians at the hands of British troops on March 5, 1770 -
Boston Tea Party
A violent demonstration in 1773 by American colonists. 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 Parliamen -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve of the thirteen North American colonies that met on September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -
Intolerable Acts
A series of laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 to punish and make an example of Massachusetts for resisting parliamentary authority. -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that met beginning on May 10, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -
American Revolution begins
The revolution of the United States colonies started at Lexington when the U.S. began firing and killed 8 British soldiers before the British retreated. -
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 -
Articles of Confederation
The original constitution of the United States, ratified in 1781, which was replaced by the US Constitution in 1789 -
Philadelphia Convention
The United States Constitutional Convention (also known as the Philadelphia Convention, the Federal Convention, or the Grand Convention at Philadelphia) took place from May 25 to September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to address problems in governing the United States of America -
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 -
Connecticut Compromise
An agreement between large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that in part defined the legislative structure
