-
Declaration of Rights and Grievances is passed
The Declaration of Rights and Grievances was a document created and passed October 19, 1765 by the Stamp Act Congress, declaring that taxes imposed on British colonists without their formal consent were unconstitutional. This was especially directed at the Stamp Act, which required that documents, newspapers, and playing cards to be printed on special stamped and taxed paper -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a key event in the growth of the American Revolution. Also a direct action by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government and the monopolistic East India Company that controlled all the tea imported into the colonies. -
First Continental Congress meets
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, early in the American Revolution. It was called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts (also known as Intolerable Acts by the Colonial Americans) by the British Parliament. The Intolerable Acts had punished Boston for the Boston Tea Party. -
Revolutionary War begins
Massachusetts leaders, meeting as a Provincial Congress, voted to resist violation of colonial rights. This determination was secretly backed up by the formation of Committees of Safety in key communities of the colony. Their task was to collect munitions, persuade members of the militia to join the cause, and organize a force known as Minutemen to answer a call to arms at a minute's notice. -
2nd Continental Congress meets
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting on May 10, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. The second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. -
Declaration of Independence is signed
The Declaration of Independence was a 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 -
Articles of Confederation is signed
The Articles of Confederation, formally the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement among the 13 founding states that legally established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution.[1] Its drafting by the Continental Congress began in mid 1776 and an approved version was sent to the states for ratification in late 1777. The formal ratification by all 13 states was completed in early 1781. Even if not yet ratifi -
Revolutionary War ends
It effectively ended in October, 1781 in Yorktown, VA after George Washington forced General Cornwallis to surrender after the siege there. But the Revolutionary War didn't officially end until the Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783.
But the war ended in 1784. -
Constitutional Congress opens
This 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. -
Final Draft of the Constitution is signed
members of the Constitutional Convention signed the final draft of the Constitution. Two days earlier, when a final vote was called, Edmund Randolph called for another convention to carefully review the Constitution as it stood. This motion, supported by George Mason and Elbridge Gerry, was voted down and the Constitution was adopted.
