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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
This 1215 Charter required King John of England to proclaim certain liberties, and accept that his will was not arbitrary, for example by explicitly accepting that no "freeman" could be punished except through the law of the land, a right which is still in existence today. It later influenced countless others including the founding fathers. -
Dec 14, 1241
English Parliment Established
Legaslative body of englad during colonial times, limited monarchy. -
Jamestown
Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia. Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 14, 1607, it was the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States of America. -
House of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses was the first assembly of elected representatives of English colonists in North America. The House was established by the Virginia Company, who created the body as part of an effort to encourage English craftsmen to settle in North America -
Mayflower Compact
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. -
Mercantalism Enacted
Mercantilism is the economic doctrine that says government control of foreign trade is of paramount importance for ensuring the prosperity and security of a state. In particular, it demands a positive balance of trade. -
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion was an uprising in 1676 in the Virginia Colony in North America, led by a 29-year-old planter, Nathaniel Bacon.
About a thousand Virginians rose because they resented Virginia Governor William Berkeley's friendly policies towards the Native Americans. -
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution was the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III. -
Treaty of Paris
Was signed on 10 February 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. It ended the French and Indian War. The Treaty was made possible by the British victory over France and Spain, and marked the beginning of an era of British dominance outside Europe -
Stamp Act
Was a direct tax imposed by the British Parliament specifically on the colonies of British America. The act required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp. -
Declaratory Act
The Declaratory Act was an act made by the British Parliament that stated that Britain had supreme control over the American Colonies. It was made directly after Parliament had repealed the Stamp Act. -
Townshend Act
The Townshend Acts were a series of laws passed beginning in 1767 by the Parliament of Great Britain relating to the British colonies in North America. -
Boston Massacre
An incident on March 5, 1770, in which British redcoats killed five civilian men. British troops had been stationed in Boston since 1768 in order to protect and support crown-appointed colonial officials attempting to enforce unpopular Parliamentary legislation. -
Tea Act
An act of the British Parliament that created a monopoly unfair to American tea merchants: the chief cause of the boston tea party. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a direct action by colonists in Boston against the British government that controlled all the tea imported into the colonies. On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. The incident remains an iconic event of American history, -
Intolerable Acts
Issued in direct response to the Boston Tea Party of December 1773; the British Parliament hoped these punitive measures would, by making an example of Massachusetts, reverse the trend of colonial resistance to parliamentary authority that had begun with the 1765 Stamp Act. -
Quartering Act
The Quartering Act is the name of an act of the Parliament of Great Britain. The Quartering Act ordered the local governments of the American colonies to provide housing and provisions for British soldiers. -
1st 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. It was called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts by the British Parliament. The Intolerable Acts had punished Boston for the Boston Tea Party. -
Shot Heard 'Round The World
Refers to the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. This 1775 proverbial first shot was fired during an armed stand-off between British forces and local militia in Lexington, escalating into engagements at the Old North Bridge in the battles of Lexington and Concord. -
Battle of Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War.They were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington and Concord, near Boston. The battles marked the outbreak of open armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and its thirteen colonies in the mainland of British North America. -
2nd Continental Congress
The second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. By raising armies, directing strategy, appointing diplomats, and making formal treaties, the Congress acted as the de facto national government of what became the United States. -
Mecklenburg Resolves
The Mecklenburg Resolves was a list of statements reputed to have been introduced in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina to the Mecklenburg Committee of Safety on or after March 20, 1775 and adopted by the committee on May 31, 1775. The document may have proclaimed that all laws originating from the British King or Parliament are null and void, and that the only legitimate government over the -
Common Sense
Common Sense is a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine. It was first published anonymously on January 10, 1776, during the American Revolution. Common Sense, signed "Written by an Englishman", became an immediate success. In relation to the population of the Colonies at that time, it had the largest sale and circulation of any book in American history. -
Halifax Resolves
The Halifax Resolves empowered North Carolina's delegates to the Second Continental Congress to join with those from other colonies to declare independence from British rule. The 83 delegates present at the Fourth Provincial Congress unanimously adopted the resolves, which also encouraged delegates from all the colonies to the Continental Congress to declare independence. North Carolina became the first colony to explicitly permit their delegates to vo -
Declaration Of Independance
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. -
NC Gets First Governor
Richard Caswell was president of the provincial congress that wrote the first North Carolina Constitution in 1776. As the congress adjourned, it elected Caswell as acting governor. He took the oath of office on January 16, 1777. -
Massachusetts Constitution
The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the fundamental governing document of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one of the 50 individual state governments that make up the United States of America. It was drafted by John Adams, Samuel Adams, and James Bowdoin during the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention between September 1 and October 30, 1779. -
Articles of Confederation
Agreement among the 13 founding states that legally established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution. It was drafted by the Continental Congress in 1776-77, went into use in 1777 and was formally ratified by all 13 states in 1781. -
Common Law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action. A "common law system" is a based on the principle that it is unfair to treat similar facts differently on different occasions. *Date: Put the date here because this is when common law was established as part of the US judicial system because this is the date on which the Articles Of Confederation was adopted. -
Shay's Rebellion
Armed insurrection by farmers in Massachusetts against the state government. Debt-ridden farmers, struck by the economic depression that followed the American Revolution, petitioned the state senate to issue paper money and to halt foreclosure of mortgages on their property and their own imprisonment for debt as a result of high land taxes. -
Northwest Ordinance
An act of the Congress of the Confederation of the United States, passed July 13, 1787. The primary effect of the ordinance was the creation of the Northwest Territory as the first organized territory of the United States out of the region south of the Great Lakes, north and west of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi River.
