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507 BCE
Athenian democracy
Greek democracy created at Athens was direct, rather than representative: any adult male citizen over the age of 20 could take part, and it was a duty to do so. The officials of the democracy were in part elected by the Assembly and in large part chosen by lottery in a process called sortition. -
500 BCE
Representative democracy - Roman Republic
Representative democracy, also known as indirect democracy or electoral democracy, is a type of democracy where elected delegates represent a group of people, in contrast to direct democracy. The Roman Republic was the first known state in the Western world to have a representative government, despite taking the form of a direct government in the Roman assemblies. -
Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
Magna Carta was a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England and the first document to put into writing the principle that the king and his government was not above the law. It sought to prevent the king from exploiting his power, and placed limits of royal authority by establishing law as a power in itself. -
United States Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence, formally titled The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, is the founding document of the United States. Since then, it has become a well-known statement on human rights, particularly its second sentence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." -
Liberalism - France
Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private property and equality before the law. The events that marked the triumph of liberalism in France were the abolition of feudalism in France on the night of 4 August 1789, which marked the collapse of feudal and old traditional rights and privileges, as well as the passage of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in August. -
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a monument placed on Liberty Island, near New York City Harbor symbolising the United States. It was given to the United States by the people of France in 1886, to represent the friendship between the two countries established during the American Revolution. -
The Salt March
The Salt March is a direct action campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly, led by Mahatma Gandhi. "A man is but the product of his thoughts and what he thinks he becomes." - Mahatma Gandhi -
The Holocaust
The Holocaust was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population (1941-1945.). The Nazis developed their ideology based on racism and pursuit of "living space", and seized power in early 1933. In an attempt to force all German Jews to emigrate, the regime passed anti-Jewish laws and orchestrated a nationwide pogrom in November 1938. -
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. The Declaration is considered a milestone document for its universalist language, which makes no reference to a particular culture, political system, or religion. -
