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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
The Magna Carta is one of the most famous documents in the world. The Magna Carta was signed in June 1215 between the barons of Medieval England and King John. It was an attempt by the barons to stop King John from abusing his power with the people in England suffering. -
Jamestown Settlement
the exact location of the first settlement and its fort indicates that the actual settlement site was in a more secure place, away from the channel, where Spanish ships could not fire point blank into the fort. Almost immediately after landing, the colonists were under attack from what amounted to the on-again off-again enemy, the Algonquian natives. As a result, in a little over a month's time, the newcomers managed to "beare and plant palisadoes" enough to build a wooden fort. -
Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact, signed by 41 English colonists on the ship Mayflower on November 11, 1620, was the first written framework of government established in what is now the United States. The compact was drafted to prevent dissent amongst Puritans and non-separatist Pilgrims who had landed at Plymouth a few days earlier. -
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 violating. The Petition contains restrictions on non-parliamentary taxation, forced billeting of soldiers, imprisonment without cause, and the use of martial law. This was passed on June 7, 1628. -
English Bill of Rights
Before William and Mary could be proclaimed king and queen they had to agree to accept the Bill of Rights, which they did in February, 1689. The Bill creates separation of powers, limits the powers of the king and queen, enhances the democratic election and bolsters freedom of speech. -
Albany Plan of Union
The Albany Plan of Union was a plan to place the British North American colonies under a more centralized government. This was suggested by Benjamin Franklin at the Albany Congress in July 1754 in Albany, New York. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament on March 22, 1765. The new tax was imposed on all American colonists and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. Ship's papers, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, other publications, and even playing cards were taxed. The money collected by the Stamp Act was to be used to help pay the costs of defending and protecting the American frontier near the Appalachian Mountains -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a street fight between a patriot mob and a squad of British soldiers. They were throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks. The riot began when about 50 citizens attacked a British sentinel. Tensions had been growing since Royal troops first appeared in Massachusetts to enforce the heavy tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts. 5 colonists were killed and 3 others were injured. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston on December 16, 1773. The demonstators, some disguised as American Indians, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Comapny, in defiance of the Tea Act of May 10, 1773. They got onto the ship and threw chests of tea into Boston Harbor, ruining the sea. This escalated into the American Revolution. -
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts was the American Patriots' name for a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea party. They were meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in throwing a large tea shipment into Boston harbor. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies that met on September 5 to October 26, 1774 at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was called in response to Intolerable Acts. The Intolerable Acts punished Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party. -
American Revolution Begins
At about 5 a.m., 700 British troops, on a mission to capture Patriot leaders and seize a Patriot arsenal, march into Lexington to find 77 armed minutemen under Captain John Parker waiting for them on the town’s common green. When the Battle of Lexington ended, eight Americans were dead or dying and 10 others were wounded. Only one British soldier was injured, but the American Revolution had begun. -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a 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. 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
The Declaration of Independence is the usual name of a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. They formed a new nation, the United States of America. -
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation was the first written constitution of the United States.The Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation on November 15, 1777. It established the functions of the natioinal government of the U.S. after it declared independence from Great Britain. It was ratified on March 1, 1781. -
Shay's Rebellion
Shays' Rebellion is the name given to a series of protests in 1786 and 1787 by American farmers against state and local enforcement of tax collections and judgments for debt. Although farmers took up arms in states from New Hampshire to South Carolina, the rebellion was most serious in Massachusetts, where bad harvests, economic depression, and high taxes threatened farmers with the loss of their farms. The rebellion took its name from its symbolic leader, Daniel Shays of Massachusetts. -
Philadelphia Convention
The Philadelphia Convention is often referred to as the Constitutional Convention. At first, the purpose of the convention was to address the problems the federal government was having ruling the states but what actually occurred at the Philadelphia Convention was the formation of a new plan of government, which was outlined in the newly-drafted U.S. Constitution. The convention took place in Philadelphia on May 14, 1787. -
Constitution Convention
The Constitution Convention is the same as the Philadelphia Convention. -
Connecticut Compromise
The Connecticut Compromise was an agreement that large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that in part defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution. Proportional representation in the lower house, but required the upper house to be weighted equally between the states.
