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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
The Magna Carta was a document signed by King John of England at Runnymede. It established that everyone is subjected to the law, even the king, because the king abused his power by raising taxes without the barons approval, which was against feudal law. The Magna Carta guarantees the rights of individuals, the right of justice, and the right to free trial. -
Jamestown Settlement
The first permanent British settlement in North America was in Jamestown. The Virginia Company of London were all men, and they settled to search for economic opportunity. They were mainly looking for gold and riches, and didn't plan on staying in the New World. -
Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was signed by forty-one English colonists to establish a Civil Body Politic, a temporary government, in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The pilgrims escaped the monarchs and were able to set their own laws. -
Petition of Right
The people forced King Charles I to approve the petition of rights, a parliamentary document that established rights and liberties to the people of England. It also prohibited the King's non-parliamentary taxation and imprisonments without trial. -
English Bill of Rights
Before Mary, daughter of King James III, and her Dutch husband William of Orange became king and queen, they had to accept and sign the English Bill of Rights. The document limited the powers of the monarchs, increased the democratic election, and strengthened the freedom of speech. -
Albany Plan of Union
The Albany Plan of Union was a plan suggested by Benjamin Franklin to make a united government among the thirteen colonies. The plan was sent to the British government and American colonies , but it was rejected because the people that it was unnecessary to have a unified government. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament, and was an act to have everyone pay tax on paper. The act required many printed materials in the colonies to be produced on stamped paper produced in London and carrying an embossed revenue stamp.These printed materials were legal documents, magazines, newspapers and many other types of paper used throughout the colonies. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre, also known as the Boston riot, was an incident that led to the deaths of five civilians at the hands of the British redcoats. The aftermath helped spark the rebellion in some of the British American colonies, which peaked in the American Revolutionary War. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by colonists in Boston, Massachusetts. The colonists were against the British government and the monopolistic East India Company that controlled all the tea coming into the colonies. After officials in Boston refused to return 342 chests of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians and boarded the ships to dump every chest of tea into Boston Harbor. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a convention held at the Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and consisted of delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies, early in the American Revolution. It was called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts (also known as Intolerable Acts by the Colonial Americans) by the British Parliament. The Intolerable Acts had punished Boston for the Boston Tea Party. This convention was held from September 5, 1774 until October 26,1774. -
The American Revolution begins
The American Revolution was the political disruption during the last quarter of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America. They first rejected the authority of the Parliament of Great Britain to govern them from overseas without representation, and then expelled all royal officials. -
Second Continental Convention
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. The second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and inched towards independence. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson, and collaborated with Continental Congress which declared their freedom as a legitimate nation in 1776. This proclamation created a revolutionary movement in world history and was an inspiration to other struggling nations for their rights. John Locke, an English philosopher who presented the idea of natural rights, was the main influence for Jefferson to physically make America a state of democracy. -
Shay's Rebellion
The rebellion started on August 29, 1786, and by January 1787, over one thousand Shaysites had been arrested. A group of men that had been raised as a private army defeated an attack on the federal Springfield Armory by the main Shaysite force on February 3, 1787, and four rebels were killed in the action. -
The Connecticut Compromise
The Connecticut Compromise was an agreement between large and small states during the Constitutional Convention of 1787. This was established by the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution. It proposed two branches of legislature, resulting in the current United States Senate and House of Representatives. -
Philadelphia Convention
Although the Convention was allegedly intended only to revise the Articles of Confederation, the intention from the start of many of its supporters was to create a new government rather than fix the existing one. The delegates elected George Washington to preside over the convention. The result of the Convention was the United States Constitution.
