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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
England's Magna Carta was the first document to challenge the authority of the king, subjecting him to the rule of the law and protecting his people from feudal abuse. The Magna Carta's fundamental tenets provided the outline for modern democracies. -
Jamestown Settled
The founding of Jamestown, America’s first permanent English colony, in Virginia in 1607 – 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. -
Mayflower Compact Written
The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the male passengers of the Mayflower. The Mayflower Compact was signed aboard ship on November 11, 1620 by the Pilgrims. -
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. Passed on 7 June 1628, the Petition contains restrictions on non-Parliamentary taxation, forced billeting of soldiers, imprisonment without cause, and the use of martial law. -
English Bill of Rights
The English Bill of Rights is an act that the Parliament of England passed on December 16, 1689. The Bill creates separation of powers, limits the powers of the king and queen, enhances the democratic election and bolsters freedom of speech. -
Albany Plan of Union
The Albany Plan of Union was a plan to create a unified government for the Thirteen Colonies. This plan was suggested by Benjamin Franklin at the Albany Congress on July 10, 1754 in Albany, New York. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was an act issued by the British Parliament in 1756 that exacted revenue from the American colonies by imposing a stamp tax on newspapers and documents. Colonial opposition led to the act's repeal in 1766 and helped encourage the revolutionary movement against the British Crown. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was the killing of five colonists by British officers on March 5, 1770. It was due to the building of tensions in the American colonies that had been growing since Royal troops first appeared in Massachusetts in 1768 to enforce the heavy tax burden imposed by the Townsend Acts. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest in Boston, on December 16, 1773. The protest was by a group of Massachusetts colonists known as the Sons of Liberty. While disguised as Mohawks, Samuel Adams led the group in throwing government tea in the harbor to protest against “taxation without representation”, regarding the Tea Act. The Tea Act, passed by the British Parliament, withdrew tax on tea exported to the colonies. -
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts were the American Patriots' term for a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea party. They were meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in throwing a large tea shipment into Boston harbor. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies called in response to the Intolerable Acts issued by the British Parliament, which had punished Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party. They met on September 5 to October 26, 1774 at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. -
American Revolution Begins
In April 1775, the battle of Lexington occurred, closely followed by the battle of Concord. The shot at Lexington marked the first blood spilled in the war of the American independence. -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting in the summer of 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Soon after warfare, the Second Continental Congress declared the American Revolutionary War had begun.The second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is the statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies officially regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer under British rule. Instead they formed a new nation—the United States of America. -
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation was an agreement among all thirteen original states in the United States of America that served as its first constitution.
The Articles of Confederation contain a preamble, thirteen articles, a conclusion, and a signatory section. It was written in November 1777,ratified in March 1781, and replaced by the U.S. Constitution in 1789. -
Shays' Rebellion
Shays' Rebellion was an armed uprising in Massachusetts during 1786 and 1787. Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays led four thousand rebels in rising up against economic injustices and suspension of civil rights by Massachusetts, and in a later attempt to capture the United States' national weapons arsenal at the U.S. Armory at Springfield. -
Constitutional Convention
In September 1786, at the Annapolis Convention, delegates from five states called for a Constitutional Convention in order to discuss possible improvements to the Articles of Confederation. The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia on May 14, 1787. -
Philadelphia Convention
The Philadelphia Convention took place from May 25 to September 17, 1787, to address problems in governing the United States of America, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation following independence from Great Britain. Although the Convention was reportedly intended only to revise the Articles of Confederation, the true intention was to create a new government rather than to attempt to address the problems of the existing one. -
Connecticut Compromise
The Connecticut Compromise was an agreement that large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that in part defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution.
