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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
Magna Carta was the first document forced onto an English King by a group of his subjects (the barons) in an attempt to limit his powers by law and protect their privileges -
Jamestown is Settled
The Jamestown Settlement Colony was the first successful English settlement on the mainland of North America. Named for King James I of England, Jamestown was founded in the Colony of Virginia on May 14, 1607. -
Mayflower Compact Written
The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the colonists, later together known to history as the Pilgrims, who crossed the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower. -
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. -
English Bill of Rights
An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown -
Albany Plan of Union
It was an early attempt at forming a union of the colonies under one government as far as might be necessary for defense and other general important purposes during the French and Indian War -
American Revolution Begins
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was a direct tax imposed by the British Parliament specifically on the colonies of British America. -
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 1768 to enforce the heavy tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a direct action by Boston colonists against the british government where the colonists boarded the british ship and dumped the tea into the harbor in anger of the new tax put on the tea. -
Intolerable Acts
Series of laws sponsored by British Prime Minister Lord North and enacted in 1774 in response to the Boston Tea Party. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve of the thirteen North American colonies that met on September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution -
Second Continental Congress
The second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence -
Declaration of Independence
The United States Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies that were then at war with Great Britain were now independent states, and were no longer a part of the British Empire. -
Articles of Confederation
The "first U.S. constitution" drafted in 1777 that established a firm league of friendship between and among the 13 states. -
Shays' Rebellion
Shays' Rebellion was an armed uprising in central and western Massachusetts (mainly Springfield) from 1786 to 1787. The rebellion is named after Daniel Shays, a veteran of the American Revolution who led the rebels -
Constitution Convention
The United States Constitutional Convention took place from May 25 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 -
Philadelphia Convention
took place from May 25 to September 17, 1787, to address problems in governing the the United States of America, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation following independence from Great Britain -
Connecticut Compromise
The Connecticut Compromise was an agreement between large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that in part defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution. It proposed a bicameral legislature, resulting in the current United States Senate and House of Representatives.
