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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
King John agreed to a charter of liberties known as the Magna Carta that would place him and all of England’s future sovereigns within a rule of law. Served as the foundation for the English system of common law. -
jmaestown Settlemet
100 members of a joint venture called the Virginia Company founded the first permanent English settlement in North America on the banks of the James River. Famine, disease and conflict with local Native American tribes in the first two years brought Jamestown to the brink of failure, a period of peace followed the marriage of colonist John Rolfe to Pocahontas, the daughter of an Algonquian chief. -
Mayflower Compact
Signed by 41 English colonists on the ship Mayflower, 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. -
The Petition of Right
The Petition exhibited to his Majesty by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, concerning divers Rights and Liberties of the Subjects, with the King's Majesty's royal answer thereunto in full Parliament. -
English Bill of Rights
A British Law, passed by the Parliament of Great Britain that 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
A plan to place the British North American colonies under a more centralized government. The plan was adopted on July 10, 1754, although never carried out, it was the first important plan to conceive of the colonies as a collective whole united under one government. -
Declaration of Independence
A five-man committee including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin was tasked with drafting a formal statement of the colonies’ intentions. The Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, a date now celebrated as the birth of American independence. -
The Stamp Act
he new tax was imposed on all American colonists and required them to pay a taxes on 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 -
The Boston Massacre
A squad of British soldiers, come to support a sentry who was being pressed by a heckling, snowballing crowd, let loose a volley of shots. Three persons were killed immediately and two died later of their wounds. The British officer in charge, Capt. Thomas Preston, was arrested for manslaughter, along with eight of his men; all were later acquitted. The Boston Massacre is remembered as a key event in helping to galvanize the colonial public to the Patriot cause. -
Boston Tea Party
This famed act of American colonial defiance served as a protest against taxation. On the night of December 16, 1773, Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty boarded three ships in the Boston harbor and threw 342 chests of tea overboard. -
Intolerable Acts
a series of British Laws, passed by the Parliament of Great Britain 1774. Four of the Intolerable Acts were specifically aimed at punishing the Massachusetts colonists for the actions taken in the incident known as the Boston Tea Party. The fifth of the Intolerable Acts series was related to Quebec was seen as an additional threat to the liberty and expansion of the colonies -
First Continental Congress
The first Continental Congress met in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia, from September 5, to October 26, 1774. The colonies presented there were united in a determination to show a combined authority to Great Britain, but their aims were not uniform at all. Colo. George Washington, Richard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry, Edmund Pendleton, Colo. Benjamin Harrison, Richard Bland, and at the head of them Peyton Randolph — who would immediately be elected president of the convention. -
American Revolution Begins
At about 5 a.m. the "shot heard around the world" was fired from an undetermined gun, and a cloud of musket smoke soon covered the green. When the brief Battle of Lexington ended, eight Americans lay dead or dying and 10 others were wounded. Only one British soldier was injured, but the American Revolutionhad begun. -
Second Continental Congress
presided over by John Hancock, who replaced the ailing Peyton Randolph, and included some of the same delegates as the first, but with such notable additions as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Joseph Galloway, the Pennsylvania conservative, was not in attendance. As time passed, the radical element that included John Adams, Samuel Adams and Richard Henry Lee began to eclipse the more conservative faction represented by John Dickinson. Nonetheless, many of the delegates expected at the o -
Article of Confederation
Under these articles, the states remained sovereign and independent, with Congress serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes. Congress was also given the authority to make treaties and alliances, maintain armed forces and coin money. -
Philadelphia convention
Under the Articles of confederation, the Continental Congress had no courts, no power to levy taxes, no power to regulate commerce, and no power to enforce its resolutions upon individuals or the 13 states. The Articles of Confederation had purposely left the Congress weak, which resulted in a government that could not enforce a unified set of laws. -
Shay's Rebellion
Series of protests by American farmers against state and local enforcement of tax collections and judgments for debt. The rebellion took its name from its symbolic leader, Daniel Shays of Massachusetts, a former captain in the Continental army. -
The Constitution Convention
To address the problems of the central government that existed under the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution came into effect in 1789 and has served as the basis of the United States Government ever since. -
Connecticut Compromise
Resented by Roger Sherman the Connecticut Compromise, resolved issues of representation in Congress. It blended the Virginia and New Jersey Plans as a model for representation in the two houses of Congress: states would be represented equally in the Senate, and proportionately in the House of Representatives.
