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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
Magna Carta was the first document forced onto a King of England by a group of his subjects in an attempt to limit his powers by law and protect their privileges. The charter was an important part of the extensive historical process that led to the rule of constitutional law in the English speaking world. Magna Carta was important in the colonization of America as England's legal system was used as a model for many of the colonies as they were developing their own legal systems. -
Jamestown Settled
Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 14, 1607 and considered permanent after brief abandonment in 1610, it followed several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke. Jamestown served as the capital of the colony for 83 years, from 1616 until 1699. -
Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the Separatists, also known as the "Saints", fleeing from religious persecution by King James of Great Britain. They traveled aboard the Mayflower in 1620 along with adventurers, tradesmen, and servants. The Mayflower Compact was signed aboard ship on November 11, 1620 by most adult men. -
Petition of Right
A major English constitutional document that sets out specific liberties of the subject that the king is prohibited from infringing.
the Petition contains restrictions on non-Parliamentary taxation, forced billeting of soldiers, imprisonment without cause, and restricts the use of martial law. -
English Bill of Rights
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. These ideas about rights reflected those of the political thinker John Locke and they quickly became popular in England. It also sets out certain constitutional requirements of the Crown to seek the consent of the people, as represented in Parliament. -
Albany Plan of Union
A proposal to create a unified government for the Thirteen Colonies, suggested by Benjamin Franklin, at the Albany Congress in July 1754 in Albany, New York. The Plan represented an early attempt to form a union of the colonies "under one government as far as might be necessary for defense and other general important purposes." -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act 1765 imposed a direct tax by the British Parliament specifically on the colonies of British America, and it required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, 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, was an incident in which British Army soldiers killed five civilian men and injured six others. a mob formed around a British sentry, who was subjected to verbal abuse and harassment. He was eventually supported by eight additional soldiers. They fired into the crowd, without orders, instantly killing three people and wounding others. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, against the tax policy of the British government and the East India Company that controlled all the tea imported into the colonies. On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. Colonists objected to the Tea Act because they believed that it violated their rights. -
Intolerable Acts
name for a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 relating to Massachusetts after the Boston Tea party. The acts stripped Massachusetts of self-government and historic rights, triggering outrage and resistance in the Thirteen Colonies. They were key developments in the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve colonies, that met at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Congress was attended by 56 members appointed by the legislatures of twelve of the Thirteen Colonies. The Congress met briefly to consider options, including an economic boycott of British trade; rights and grievances; and petitioned King George III for redress of those grievances. -
Second Continental Congress
The second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence. By raising armies, directing strategy, appointing diplomats, and making formal treaties, the Congress acted as the de facto national government of what became the United States. -
Decleration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the 13 American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. They formed a union that would become a new nation—the United States of America. -
Revolutionary War
The American Revolution was a political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America. The British responded by sending combat troops to re-establish royalist control. Through the Second Continental Congress, the Americans then managed the armed conflict in response to the British known as the American Revolutionary War. -
Article of Confederations
An agreement among the 13 founding states that established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution. The Articles provided domestic and international legitimacy for the Continental Congress to direct the American Revolutionary War, conduct diplomacy with Europe and deal with territorial issues and Native American relations. -
Shay's Rebellion
Shays' Rebellion was an armed uprising that took place in central and western Massachusetts in 1786 and 1787. The rebellion was named after Daniel Shays, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War and one of the rebel leaders. The rebellion started on August 29, 1786. It was precipitated by several factors: financial difficulties brought about by a post-war economic depression, a credit squeeze caused by a lack of hard currency, and fiscally harsh government policies instituted in 1785. -
Constitution Convection
The Constitutional Convention (also known as the Philadelphia Convention, the Federal Convention, or the Grand Convention at Philadelphia) took place from May 25 to September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The result of the Convention was the creation of the United States Constitution, placing the Convention among the most significant events in the history of the United States. -
Philadelphia Convention
Met to address problems in governing the United States of America, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation following independence from Great Britain. Although the Convention was intended to revise the Articles of Confederation, the intention from the outset of many of its proponents, was to create a new government rather than fix the existing one. -
Conneticut Comnpromise
was an agreement that large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that in part defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution. It retained the bicameral legislature as proposed by Roger Sherman, along with proportional representation in the lower house, but required the upper house to be weighted equally between the states. Each state would have two representatives in the upper house.
