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Period: Jun 15, 1215 to Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
A charter of liberties to which the English barons forced King John to give his assent in June 1215 at Runnymede. A document constituting a fundamental guarantee of rights and privileges. -
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Jamestown Settled
First successful English settlement on the mainland. Is in Virginia. -
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Mayflower Compact written
An agreement reached by the Pilgrims on the ship the Mayflower. The Mayflower Compact bound them to live in a civil society according to their own laws. -
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Petition of Right
The Petition of Right is a major English constitutional document that sets out specific liberties of the subject that the king is prohibited from infringing. -
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English Bill of Rights
Passed by the Parliament of Great Britain. A British law. -
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Albany Plan of Union
A plan to create a unified government for the Thirteen Colonies. More than twenty representatives of several northern and mid-Atlantic colonies had gathered to plan their defense related to the French and Indian War. -
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Stamp Act
An act of the British Parliament in 1756 that exacted revenue from the American colonies by imposing a stamp duty on newspapers and legal and commercial documents. Colonial opposition led to the act's repeal in 1766 and helped encourage the revolutionary movement against the British Crown. -
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Boston Massacre
Protest against British taxes on tea and against the monopoly granted the East India Company. The troops fired on the mob and killed several people. -
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Boston Tea Party
A raid on three British ships in Boston Harbor in which Boston colonists, disguised as Indians, threw the contents of several hundred chests of tea into the harbor. This occurred in a protest against British taxes on tea and against the monopoly granted the East India Company. -
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Intolerable Acts
The American Patriots' term for a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament. They were meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in throwing a large tea shipment into Boston harbor. -
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First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies. Took place at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. -
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American Revolution Begins
Was a political upheaval that took place between 1765 and 1783 during which colonists in the Thirteen American Colonies rejected the British monarchy and aristocracy. They overthrew the authority of Great Britain, and founded the United States of America. -
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Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting in the summer of 1775. Soon after warfare, declared the American Revolutionary War had begun. -
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Declaration of Independence
The formal statement written by Thomas Jefferson declaring the freedom of the thirteen American colonies from Great Britain. The document adopted at the Second Continental Congress. -
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Articles of Confederation
This was the original constitution of the U.S. It was replaced by the constitution in 1789. -
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Shay's Rebellion
An uprising led by a former militia officer, Daniel Shays, which broke out in western Massachusetts. Shays's followers protested the foreclosures of farms for debt and briefly succeeded in shutting down the court system. -
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Constitution Convention
The gathering that drafted the Constitution of the United States. The convention, meeting in Philadelphia, designed a government with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches. -
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Philadelphia Convention
The gathering that drafted the Constitution of the United States. Designed a government with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches. -
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Connecticut Compromise
Was an agreement that large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention. That in part defined the legislative structure and representation.