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Jun 15, 1215
The Magna Carta
The Magna Carta is one of the most important documents in history. It guaranteed the people certain rights, and bound the king to certain laws. -
The Settlement of Jamestown
The House of Burgesses was the first democratically-elected legislative body in the British American colonies. -
The Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. -
The Petition of Right
Document prepared by parliament and signed by King Charles I of England in 1628; challenged the idea of the divine right of kings and declared that even the monarch was subject to the laws of the land. -
The English Bill of Rights
The Endlish Bill of Rights, prohibited a standing army in peacetime, except with consent of Parliament, and required that all parliamentary elections be free. -
The Albany Plan of Union
The Albany Plan of Union was a proposal to create a unified government for the Thirteen Colonies. -
The Stamp Act Congress
The Stamp Act Congress was the first gathering of elected representatives from several of the American colonies to devise a unified protest against new British taxation. -
The First Continental Congress
This Congress is generally viewed as one of the first organized and coordinated political actions of the American Revolution, even though its participants were not at all interested in independence from Great Britain. -
The Second Continental Congress
By raising armies, directing strategy, appointing diplomats, and making formal treaties such as the olive branch petition, the Congress acted as the de facto national government of what became the United States.
