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Sep 5, 1215
Magna Carta
It established the principle that no one, including the king or a lawmaker, is above the law. -
Petition of Right
Parliamentary declaration of the rights and liberties of the people -
English Bill of Rights
Article declaring the rights and liberties belonged to the colonists. -
Albany Plan of Union
Aimed to form a stronger union of the colonies under a single government and direction. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was one of a long series of conflicts between the American colonies and the English government after the British victory in the French and Indian War -
First Continental Congress
The assembly of delegates from the North American rebel colonies held during and after the War of American Independence. It issued the Declaration of Independence (1776) and framed the Articles of Confederation (1777) -
Second Continental Congress
A group of delegates that met to discuss breaking from British control. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the Second Continental Congress, states the reasons the British colonies of North America sought independence in July of 1776. -
Boston Massacre
Street fight that occured between a "patriot mob" and a group of british soldiers. Several colonists were killed. -
Articles of Confederation
An agreement made by the original 13 states in 1777 establishing a confederacy to be known as the United States of America: replaced by the constitution in 1788 -
Philadelphia Convention
Delegates from the various states met in the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia. Among the first orders of business was electing George Washington president of the Convention and establishing the rules--including complete secrecy concerning its deliberations--that would guide the proceedings. -
Shay's Rebellion
Demonstrators and rioters protested high taxation during a wave of farm forclosures. -
Virginia Plan
A plan, unsuccessfully proposed at the Constitutional Convention, providing for a legislature of two houses with proportional representation in each house and executive and judicial branches to be chosen by the legislature. -
New Jersey Plan
The plan offered the idea of a one house legislature in which all states would have an equal number of votes