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Period: Jan 1, 1200 to
World History Timeline
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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
The Magna Carta is a charter agreed by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between the unpopular King and a group of rebel barons, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons. -
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. The Petition contains restrictions on non-Parliamentary taxation, forced billeting of soldiers, imprisonment without cause, and the use of martial law. -
English Bill of Rights
The English Bill of Rights is an Act of the Parliament of England passed in the wake of the Glorious Revolution. It was a restatement in statutory form of the Declaration of Right presented by the Convention Parliament to William and Mary in March 1689, inviting them to become joint sovereigns of England. -
Albany Plan of Union
The Albany Plan of Union was a plan to place the British North American colonies under a more centralized government. Although never carried out, the Albany Plan was the first important proposal to conceive of the colonies as a collective whole united under one government. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was the killing of five colonists by British regulars. It was the culmination of tensions in the American colonies that had been growing since Royal troops first appeared in Massachusetts in October 1768 to enforce the heavy tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston. The demonstrators, some disguised as American Indians, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company, in defiance of the Tea Act. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies that met on September 5 to October 26, 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. -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting in the summer of 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
The Declaration of Independence is the usual name of a statement adopted by the Continental Congress, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. Instead they formed a new nation—the United States of America. -
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Comfederation was the first constitution of the United States of America. The Articles created a loose confederation of sovereign states and a weak central government, leaving most of the power with the state governments. -
Shay's Rebellion
Shays ' Rebellion was an armed uprising that took place in Massachusetts (mostly in and around Springfield) during 1786 and 1787, which some historians believe "fundamentally altered the course of United States' [sic] history." Fueled by perceived economic terrorism and growing disaffection with State and Federal governments, Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays led a group of rebels (called Shaysites) in rising up against Massachusetts' courts. -
Philadelphia Convention
The Philadelphia Convention 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. Although the Convention was intended to revise the Articles of Confederation, the intention from the outset of many of its proponents, chief among them James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, was to create a new government rather than fix the existing one. -
Virginia Plan
The Virginia Plan (also known as the Randolph Plan, after its sponsor, or the Large-State Plan) 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. -
New Jersey Plan
The New Jersey Plan (also widely known as the Small State Plan or the Paterson Plan) was a proposal for the structure of the United States Government presented by William Paterson at the Constitutional Convention. The plan was created in response to the Virginia Plan, which called for two houses of Congress, both elected with apportionment according to population.
