-
Jan 1, 1215
Magna Carta
Magna Carta was the first document forced onto a King of England by a group of his subjects, the feudal barons, in an attempt to limit his powers by law and protect their privileges. -
Jamestown settled
A settlement in the Colony of Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. -
Mayflower Compact written
The first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the Separatists, also known as the "Saints", fleeing religious persecution from James VI and I. -
Petition of Right
A major English constitutional document that sets out specific liberties of the subject that the king is prohibited from infringing. -
English Bill of Rights
an Act of the Parliament of England passed on 16 December 1689.[3] It was a restatement in statutory form of the Declaration of Right presented by the Convention Parliament to William and Mary in March 1689 (or 1688 by Old Style dating), inviting them to become joint sovereigns of England. -
Albany Plan of Union
It was an early attempt at forming a union of the colonies "under one government as far as might be necessary for defense and other general important purposes"[1] during the French and Indian War. -
Stamp Act
A direct tax imposed by the British Parliament specifically on the colonies of British America -
Boston Tea Party
A political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, a city in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the tax policy of the British government and the East India Company that controlled all the tea imported into the colonies. -
Intolerable Acts
A series of laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 relating to Britain's colonies in North America. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve British North American colonies that met on September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting on May 10, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -
Declaration of Independence
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 independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. -
American Revolution
The political upheaval during the last half 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. -
Articles of Confederation
First constitution for the United States; replaced by the current United States Constitution on March 4, 1789 -
Shay's Rebellion
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. -
Constitutional Convention
Which proposed what became the Philadelphia Convention (1787) – Drafted the United States Constitution for ratification by the states. -
Philadelphia Convention
Took place from May 14 to September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to address problems in governing the United States of America, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation following independence from Great Britain. -
Connecticut Compromise
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.
