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Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a direct action by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government and the monopolistic East India Company 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, -
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Constitution
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The Declaration of Rights and Grievances
In March, 1774, the British Parliament passed a series of laws they referred to as the Coercive Acts. The Americans called them the Intolerable Acts. The Acts were primarily designed to punish the colony of Massachusetts for defying British policies; specifically, for the Boston Tea Party. Outrage in the Americas over the Intolerable Acts led to the calling of the First Continental Congress in September, 1774. During the First Congress, which included representatives from all of the colonies exc -
First Continental Congress meets
The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve British 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 (also known as Intolerable Acts by the Colonial Americans) by the British Parliament. The Intolerable Acts had punished Boston for the Boston Tea Party. The Congress was attended by 56 members appointed by the legis -
Revolutionary War begins
In February, 1775, Great Britain had virtually declared war against the colonies. "The time for reconciliation, moderation, and reasoning is over," General Gage wrote to Lord Dartmouth. Even the boys of Boston asserted their rights in the presence of the military governor. They had built some snow-hills on the Common, down which they slid on to a pond. The soldiers, to annoy them, frequently demolished these hills. They complained to the captain, but could not obtain redress. At length a large d -
2nd Continental Congress meets
The Second Continental Congress was 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. It succeeded the First Continental Congress, which met between September 5, 1774 and October 26, 1774, also in Philadelphia. The second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence -
Constitutional Congress opens
The year was 1787. The place: the State House in Philadelphia, the same location where the Declaration of Independence had been signed 11 years earlier. For four months, 55 delegates from the several states met to frame a Constitution for a federal republic that would last into "remote futurity." This is the story of the delegates to that convention and the framing of the federal Constitution. -
Declaration of Independence is signed
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. John Adams put forth a resolution earlier in the year which made a formal declaration inevitable. A committee was assembled to draft the formal declaration, to be ready when congress voted on independence. Adams persuaded the c -
Articles of Confederation is signed
The Articles of Confederation, formally the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an 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.[1] Its drafting by the Continental Congress began in mid 1776 and an approved version was sent to the states for ratification in late 1777. The formal ratification by all 13 states was completed in early 1781. Even if not yet ratifi -
Revolutionary War end
The American Revolution was fought from 1775 to 1783. It effectively ended in October, 1781 in Yorktown, VA after George Washington forced General Cornwallis to surrender after the siege there. But the Revolutionary War didn't officially end until the Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783.
the war ended in 1784 -
Frinal draft of the Constitution is signed