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Jun 25, 1215
Magna Carta Signed
Magna Carta
It was signed (by royal seal) between the feudal barons and King John at Runnymede near Windsor Castle. The document was a series of written promises between the king and his subjects that he, the king, would govern England and deal with its people according to the customs of feudal law. Magna Carta was an attempt by the barons to stop a king - in this case John - abusing his power with the people of England sufferin -
Jamestown, VA Founded
Virgina Founded
The founding of Jamestown, America’s first permanent English colony, in Virginia in 1607 – 13 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in Massachusetts – sparked a series of cultural encounters that helped shape the nation and the world. The government, language, customs, beliefs and aspirations of these early Virginians are all part of the United States’ heritage today. -
VA House of Burgesses established
House of burgesses
The Virginia House of Burgesses was the first representative government in North America. -
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacons rebellion
Popular revolt in colonial Virginia in 1676, led by Nathaniel Bacon. High taxes, low prices for tobacco, and resentment against special privileges given those close to the governor, Sir William Berkeley, provided the background for the uprising, which was precipitated by Berkeley's failure to defend the frontier against attacks by Native Americans. -
Enlightment Period begins
Enlightment
The Enlightenment, sometimes referred to as the Age of Reason, was a confluence of ideas and activities that took place throughout the eighteenth century in Western Europe, England, and the American colonies. Scientific rationalism, exemplified by the scientific method, was the hallmark of everything related to the Enlightenment. -
English bill of rights
English bill of rights
The English Bill of Rights is an English precursor of the Constitution, along with the Magna Carta and the Petition of Right. The English Bill of Rights limited the power of the English sovereign, and was written as an act of Parliament. As part of what is called the “Glorious Revolution,” the King and Queen William and Mary of Orange acc -
French and Indian War begins
French war
The French and Indian War, as it was referred to in the colonies, was the beginning of open hostilities between the colonies and Gr. Britain. England and France had been building toward a conflict in America since 1689. -
Proclamaion of 1763
Proclamation of 1763
The end of the French and Indian War in 1763 was a cause for great celebration in the colonies, for it removed several ominous barriers and opened up a host of new opportunities for the colonists -
French and Indian war ends
French and indian
These efforts resulted in the remarkable growth of the colonies from a population of 250,000 in 1700, to 1.25 million in 1750 -
Intolerable Acts
Intolerable acts
The government spent immense sums of money on troops and equipment in an attempt to subjugate Massachusetts. British merchants had lost huge sums of money on looted, spoiled, and destroyed goods shipped to the colonies. -
Boston Massarce
Boston MassacreThe Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773, took place when a group of Massachusetts Patriots, protesting the monopoly on American tea importation recently granted by Parliament to the East India Company, seized 342 chests of tea in a midnight raid on three tea ships and threw them into the harbor -
Boston Tea Party
Boston tea party
The Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773, took place when a group of Massachusetts Patriots, protesting the monopoly on American tea importation recently granted by Parliament to the East India Company, seized 342 chests of tea in a midnight raid on three tea ships and threw them into the harbor -
1st Continental Congress
1st congress
The colonies presented there were united in a determination to show a combined authority to Great Britain, but their aims were not uniform at all. Pennsylvania and New York sent delegates with firm instructions to seek a resolution with England -
Lexington and Concord
Lexington and Concord
The first skirmish of the American Revolution took place here at dawn on April 19, 1775. -
2nd Continental Congress
2nd Congress
The Second Continental Congress started on May 10, 1775. The delegates of the 13 colonies gathered in Philadelphia to discuss their next steps. -
Common Sense published
Common Sense Published
Published in 1776, Common Sense challenged the authority of the British government and the royal monarchy. The plain language that Paine used spoke to the common people of America and was the first work to openly ask for independence from Great Britain. -
Declartion of Independance
Declaration of Independance
The Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence--written largely by Jefferson--in Philadelphia on July 4, a date now celebrated as the birth of American independence -
Battke of Guilford Courthouse
Battle of Guilford Courthouse
The largest, most hotly-contested battle of the Revolutionary War's Southern Campaign was fought at the small North Carolina backcountry hamlet of Guilford Courthouse. The battle proved to be the highwater mark of British military operations in the Revolutionary War. -
Treaty of Paris signed
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War between Great Britain and the United States, recognized American independence and established borders for the new nation. -
The British surrender at Yorktown
Surrender Yorktown
America declared its independence in 1776, but it took another five years to win freedom from the British. That day came on October 19, 1781, when the British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered his troops in Yorktown, Virginia.
