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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
A charter agreed to by King John of England. Regarded as the first set of laws to effect everyone in the land. -
Jamestown settled
The first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was established as a business venture by the Virginia Company of London. -
Mayflower Compact
The first governing document of Plymouth Colony, a very early North American settlement. It was signed aboard the Mayflower. -
Petition of Right
It contains restrictions on non-Parliamentary taxation, forced billeting of soldiers, imprisonment without cause, and the use of martial law. -
English Bill of Rights
It is an Act passed by the Parliament of England that deals with constitutional matters and lays out certain basic civil rights. -
Albany Plan of Union
It was a plan to create a unified government for the Thirteen Colonies, suggested by Benjamin Franklin. It represents one of multiple early attempts to form a union of the colonies. -
Stamp Act
It imposed a direct tax on the colonies of British America and required that most printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp. -
Boston Massacre
British Army soldiers killed five male civilians and injured six others. The incident was used to further growing tensions toward the British authorities. -
Boston Tea Party
A political protest perpitrated by a group of rebels called the Sons of Liberty wherein the protestors, some disguised as Native Americans, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company into the Boston Harbor. -
Intolerable Acts
A common term to label a series of laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774, to make more strict rules after the Boston Tea party. -
First Continental Congress
A meeting of delegates from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies that met in Philadelphia. It was called in response to the Intolerable Acts. -
American Revolution
A period of time during which colonists in the Thirteen Colonies rejected the British monarchy and aristocracy, overthrew the authority of Great Britain, and founded the United States of America. -
Second Continental Congress
A meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that met in Philadelphia. They declared the American Revolutionary War had begun. -
Declaration of Independence
A document adopted by the the Second Continental Congress which announced the thirteen American colonies as thirteen newly independent sovereign states. -
Articles of Confederation
An agreement among all thirteen original states in the United States of America that served as its first constitution. It was eventually replaced by the U.S. Constitution. -
Shays' Rebellion
An armed uprising in Massachusetts because of perceived economic injustices and suspension of civil rights. It consisted of four thousand rebels led by Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays. -
Philadelphia Convention
The convention was originally intended to revise the Articles of Confederation. Some wanted 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 creation of the United States Constitution. -
Connecticut Compromise
An agreement that large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Each state would have two representatives in the upper house.
