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Sep 3, 1215
Magna Carta
Magna Carta was the first document forced onto a King of England by a group of his subjects, the feudal barons, in an attempt to limit his powers by law and protect their privileges. The charter was an important part of the extensive historical process that led to the rule of constitutional law in the English speaking world. -
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. The Petition contains restrictions on non-Parliamentary taxation, forced billeting of soldiers, imprisonment without cause, and restricts the use of martial law. -
English Bill of Rights
It was a restatement in statutory form of the Declaration of Right presented by the Convention Parliament to William and Mary inviting them to become joint sovereigns of England.
It lays down limits on the powers of the crown and sets out the rights of Parliament and rules for freedom of speech in Parliament, the requirement for regular elections to Parliament and the right to petition the monarch without fear of retribution. -
Albany Plan
A proposal to create a unified government for the Thirteen Colonies, suggested by Benjamin Franklin, then a senior leader of 48 and a delegate from Pennsylvania, at the Albany Congress in Albany New York -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre, known as the Incident on King Street by the British. The British Army soldiers killed five civilian men and injured six others. -
Boston Tea Party
A political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, a city in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the tax policy of the British government and the East India Company that controlled all the tea imported into the colonies. -
First Continental Congress
A convention of delegates from twelve colonies (Georgia was not present). It was called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts (also known as Intolerable Acts by the Colonial Americans) by the British Parliament. -
Second Continental Congress
A convention of delegates from the thirteen colonies that started meeting on May 10, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress. It announced that the 13 American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. Instead they formed a union that would become a new nation—the United States of America. -
Articles of Confederation
An agreement among the 13 founding states that established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution. -
Shays' Rebellion
An armed uprising that took place in central and western Massachusetts. The rebellion was named after Daniel Shays, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War and one of the rebel leaders. -
New Jersey Plan
A proposal for the structure of the United States Government presented by William Paterson at the Constitutional Convention. The plan was created in response to the Virginia Plan, which called for two houses of Congress, both elected with apportionment according to population. -
Virginia Plan
A proposal by Virginia delegates for a bicameral legislative branch. The plan was drafted by James Madison while he waited for a quorum to assemble at the Constitutional Convention. -
Philadelphia Convention
Also known as the Constitutional Convention. It address problems in governing the United States of America, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation following independence from Great Britain.
