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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
Originally issued by King John of England (r.1199-1216) as a practical solution to the political crisis he faced in 1215, Magna Carta established for the first time the principle that everybody, including the king, was subject to the law. -
Jamestown Settlement
The colony was sponsored by the Virginia Company of London, a group of investors who hoped to profit from the venture. The settlers had many conflicts with surrounding Indians and sickness. James Smith was mayor and main leader -
Mayflower Compact written
The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was drafted and signed aboard the Mayflower on November 21, 1620. The "plantation covenant" modeled after a Separatist church covenant, was a document that established a "Civil Body Politic" until one could be more permanently established. Written by pilgrims and puritans as an escape from religious freedom. Considered very first constitution ever. -
Petition of Rights
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. (like the Bill of Rights) -
English Bill of Rights
The English Bill of Rights is an act that the Parliament of England passed on December 16, 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 create a unified government for the Thirteen Colonies, suggested by Benjamin Franklin, then a senior leader (age 45) and a delegate from Pennsylvania, at the Albany Congress on July 10, 1754 in Albany, New York. -
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. Colonial opposition led to the act's repeal in 1766 and helped encourage the revolutionary movement against the British Crown. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre, known as the Incident on King Street by the British, was an incident on March 5, 1770, in which British Army soldiers killed five male civilians and injured six others. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, on December 16, 1773. The men threw the tea of British ship in protest because they didn't want to pay taxes on British tea. -
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts were the American Patriots' term 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, early in the American Revolution. -
Second Continental Congress
It succeeded the First Continental Congress, which met between September 5, 1774 and October 26, 1774, also in Philadelphia. 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 statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer under British rule. -
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation, formally the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement among all thirteen original states in the United. It was the original constitution of the US, ratified in 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. -
Philadelphia Convention
The meeting in Philadelphia had been called to discuss revising the Articles of Confederation, but the delegates quickly decided to scrap the articles and drafted a new governing document. -
Constitution Convention
In September 1786, at the Annapolis Convention, delegates from five states called for a Constitutional Convention in order to discuss possible improvements to the Articles of Confederation. -
Connecticut Compromise
The Connecticut Compromise was an agreement that large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787. It defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the U.S. Constitution. It retained the bicameral legislature, along with proportional representation in the lower house, but required the upper house to be weighted equally between the states. Each state would have 2 representatives in the upper house. -
American Revolution begins
By 1775, tensions between the American colonies and the British government approached the breaking point, especially in Massachusetts, where Patriot leaders formed a shadow revolutionary government and trained militias to prepare for armed conflict with the British troops occupying Boston.
