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Declaration of Independence signed
The Declaration of Independence was signed in Pennsylavania by 56 people. It was wriiten mostly by Thomas Jefferson to declare independence from Great Britain. -
Constitution Ratified
The Constitution required nine states to ratify to begin operation. The New Hampshire and Virginia conventions were meeting at the same time. New Hampshire ratified June 21 to be the ninth. -
Articles of Confederation Ratified
The document could not become officially effective until it was ratified by all thirteen colonies. Virginia was the first state to ratify and more than three years later Maryland was the last state to ratify. -
Marbury v Madison
Marbury petitioned the Supreme Court to force Secretary of State James Madison to deliver documents of teh commission. It was the first time the Supreme Court declared something "unconsitutional." -
McCulloch v. Maryland
The state of Maryland had attempted to impode operation of a branch of the Second Bank of the United States by imposing a tax on all notes of banks not chartered in Maryland. The court determined that Congress had the power to charter the bank. -
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor was a U.S. deep water Naval base that was attacked by the Empire of Japan. This unexpected attack brought the U.S. into World War 2. -
Mapp v. Ohio
The U.S. Supreme Court decided that evidence obtained in violation of the fourth amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, may not be used in state or federal courts. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution Passed
The Gulf of Tonkin was a joint resloution of the U.S. Congress. It was in response to two allegeded Naval disputes off the coast of North Vietnam between U.S. destroyers and Vietnamese torpedo ships. The resolution gave President Lyndon Johnson authorization without a formal declaration of war by Congress for military force in Southeast Asia. -
Lemon v. Kurtzman
A case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Pennsylvania Nonpublic and Secondary Education Act violated the first amendment. -
New Jersey v. TLO
This was a case appealed to the Supreme Court that invovled the search of a high school student after she was caught smoking. She fought the search claiming it vialated her fourth amendement right. The Supreme Court held that the search was reasonable under the fourth amenedment. -
Iraq War Resolution Passed
Authorization was gone after by President Bush soon after his statement before the U.N. Gerneral Assembly on September 12, 2002. Sixty-one percent of Democrat Representatives voted against the resoultion only six out of two hundred twenty-tree Republican representatives voted against it.
