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Sep 5, 1215
Magna Carta
This was the first document forced onto a King of England in an attempt to limit his powers by law and protect the people privileges. The Magna Carta was also important for many of the American colonies as they were developing their own legal systems. -
English Bill of Rights
This lays down limits on the powers of the crown and sets out the rights of Parliament and rules for freedom of speech in Parliament. It reestablished the liberty of Protestants to have arms for their defence within the rule of law, and condemned James II of England for "causing several good subjects being Protestants to be disarmed at the same time when papists were both armed and employed contrary to law". -
Albany Plan of Union
This was a proposal for the Thireen Colonies to create a unified government suggested by Benjamin Franklin. This inspired some aspects of the draft Articles of Confederation. -
Boston Massacre
This masacre was created by British Army soldiers who killed five civilian men and injured six others. These soldiers were to protect Parliamentary legislation. During this time, a mob formed around them and faced verbal abuse and harassment. These eight soldiers fired into the crowd to settle things down, but started a massacre instead. -
Boston Tea Party
It 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. 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. -
First Continental Congress
This was a convention of delegates from twelve colonies in response to the Boston Tea Party. Congress considered an economic boycott of British trade, rights and grievances, and petitioned King George III for redress of those grievances. -
Second Continental Congress
This was a convention of delegates from the thirteen colonies that started meeting on May 10, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence on July 4th. -
Declaration of Independence
This is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the 13 American colonies regarded themselves as independent states. Instead they formed a union that would become a new nation—the United States of America. -
Articles of Confederation
It was the first constitution of the United States on November 15, 1777. But ratification of the first thirteen states did not come together until March 1, 1781. This took a long time to make things work. -
Shays' Rebellion
This was an uprising that took place in central and western Massachusetts. 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 to solve the state's debt problems. -
Virginia Plan
This was a proposal by Virginia delegates for a bicameral legislative branch. The plan was drafted by James Madison while he waited for a quorum to assemble at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. It was notable for its role in setting the overall agenda for debate in the convention and for setting the idea of population-weighted representation in the proposed national legislature. -
Philadelphia Convention
Also known as The Constitutional Convention, this took place from May 25 to September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They addressed problems in governing the United States of America, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation following independence from Great Britain. -
New Jersey Plan
This was a proposal for the structure of the United States Government presented by William Paterson. The plan was created in response to the Virginia Plan, which called for two houses of Congress, both elected with apportionment according to population. The less populous states were adamantly opposed to giving most of the control of the national government to the more populous state. -
Petition of Right
The petition of right is a remedy available to subjects to recover property from the Crown. Before the Crown Proceedings Act 1947, the British Crown could not be sued in contract. However, as it was seen to be desirable that Crown contractors could obtain redress, lest they be inhibited from taking on such work, the petition of right came to be used in such situations, especially after the Petitions of Right Act 1860 simplified the process.
