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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
the “great charter” of English liberties, forced from King John by the English barons and sealed at Runnymede, June 15, 1215. -
Mayflower Compact Written
a written agreement composed by a consensus of the new Settlers arriving at New Plymouth in November of 1620 -
Petition of Right
a major English constitutional document that sets out specific liberties of the subject that the king is prohibited from infringing. The Petition of Right was produced by the English Parliament in the run-up to the English Civil War. -
English Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights was passed by Parliament in December 1689. It was a re-statement 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. It enumerates certain rights to which subjects and permanent residents of a constitutional monarchy were thought to be entitled in the late 17th century, asserting subjects' right to petition the monarch, as well as to have arms in defence. ( -
Albany Plan of Union
a meeting of delegates from seven American colonies, held in 1754 at Albany, new york, at which Benjamin Franklin proposed a plan (Albany Plan of Union) for unifying the colonies. -
Stamp Act
First direct British tax on American colonists. Instituted in November, 1765. Every newspaper, pamphlet, and other public and legal document had to have a Stamp, or British seal, on it. The Stamp, of course, cost money. -
Boston Massacre
Paul Revere rode a horse through the town saying, "The british are coming. The british are coming!" -
Intolerable Acts
Series of laws sponsored by British Prime Minister Lord North and enacted in 1774 in response to the Boston Tea Party. -
Boston Tea Party
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First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia's Carpenters Hall on September 5, 1774. The idea of such a meeting was advanced a year earlier by Benjamin Franklin, but failed to gain much support. -
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 then at war with Great Britain were now independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire. Written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration is a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary -
Articles of Confederation
the first constitution of the 13 American states, adopted in 1781 and replaced in 1789 by the Constitution of the United States. -
Shay's 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, known as "Shaysites" or "Regulators". Most of Shays' compatriots were poor farmers angered by crushing debt and taxes. Failure to repay such debts often resulted in imprisonment in debtor's prisons or the claiming of property by the government. -
Philadelphia Convention
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 purportedly intended only to revise the Articles of Confederation, the intention from the outset of many of its proponents -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was presided over by John Hancock, who replaced the ailing Peyton Randolph, and included some of the same delegates as the first
