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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
a charter issued by King John of England at Runnymede. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between the unpopular King and a group of rebel barons, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons. -
Petition of Right
a major English constitutional document that sets out specific liberties of the subject that the king is prohibited from infringing. Passed on 7 June 1628, the Petition contains restrictions on non-Parliamentary taxation, forced billeting of soldiers, imprisonment without cause, and the use of martial law. -
English Bill of Rights
an Act of the Parliament of England passed on It was a restatement in statutory form of the Declaration of Right presented by the Convention Parliament to William and Mary in March 1689 - inviting them to become joint sovereigns of England. It lays down limits on the powers of the Crown and sets out the rights of Parliament and rules for freedom of speech in Parliament, the requirement for regular elections -
The Albany Plan of Union,
The Albany Plan of Union was a proposal to create a unified government for the Thirteen Colonies, The Plan represented one of multiple early attempts to form a union of the colonies. -
Boston Massacre
British Army soldiers killed five male civilians and injured six others. -
Boston Tea Party
a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, on December 16, 1773. The demonstrators, some disguised as American Indians, destroyed shipment of tea sent by the East India Company, in defiance of the Tea Act of May 10, 1773. They boarded the ships and threw the tea into Boston Harbor, ruining the tea. The British government responded harshly and the episode escalated into the American Revolution. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies that met at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. It was called in response to "The passage of the Coercive Acts" by the British Parliament. The Intolerable Acts had punished Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party. -
Second Continental Congress
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. -
Articles of Confederation
It was a document signed amongst the thirteen original colonies that established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states. An approved version was sent to the states for ratification in late 1777. The formal ratification by all thirteen states was completed in early 1781. -
Virginia Plan
was a proposal by Virginia delegates for a bicameral legislative branch.The plan was drafted by James Madison while he waited for a quorum to assemble at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. -
Philadelphia Convention
The Philadelphia Convention, now often referred to as the Constitutional Convention, was a meeting held in 1787 by delegates from the 13 states that then comprised the United States. At first, the purpose of the convention was to address the problems the federal government was having ruling the states and staying fiscally sound under the provisions of the Articles of Confederation. -
Nerw Jersey Plan
a proposal for the structure of the United States Government presented by William Paterson at the Constitutional Convention. The plan was created in response to the Virginia Plan, which called for two houses of Congress, both elected with apportionment according to population -
Shay's Rebellion
An armed uprising that took place in Massachusetts.Fueled by perceived economic terrorism and growing disaffection with State and Federal governments, Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays led a group of rebels in rising up first against Massachusetts' courts, and later in marching on the United States' Federal Armory at Springfield in an unsuccessful attempt to seize its weaponry and overthrow the government.
