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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
Who: King John of England & a group of rebel barons
Where: At Runnymede near Windsor
What: It was a charter written to create peace between the King & rebels by promising protection of church rights, protection from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, & limitations on feudal payments to the Crown. -
Jamestown Settlement
Who: Virginia Company of London sent an expedition
Where: Virginia
What: Jamestown was the first settlement of the Virginia Colony & home to James Fort. -
Mayflower Compact
Who: Male passengers of the Mayflower; separatist Congregationalists, "Saints", & adventures & tradesmen, "Strangers"
Where: Aboard the Mayflower in what is now called Province-town Harbor
What: This was a social compact in which the settlers consented to follow the compact's rules & regulations for the sake of order & survival. -
Petition of Right
This is a major English constitutional document that sets out specific liberties of the subject that the king is prohibited from infringing. -
English Bill Rights
This is an act that the parliament of England passed to create a separation of powers, limit the powers of the king & queen, enhance the democratic election & to bolster the freedom of speech. -
Albany Plan of Union
This was a plan to create a unified government for the Thirteen Colonies, suggested by Benjamin Franklin, at Albany Congress in Albany, New York. -
Stamp Act
This was an act of the British Parliament that exacted revenue from the American colonies by imposing a stamp duty on newspapers & legal & commercial documents. -
Boston Massacre
This was the killing of 5 colonists by British regulars. It was the culmination of tensions in the American colonies that had been growing since Royal troops first appeared in Massachusetts to enforce the heavy tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts. -
Boston Tea Party
This was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston. The participators, some disguised as Native Americans, were defying of the Tea Act of May 10, 1773. -
Intolerable Acts
These acts were the American Patriots' term for a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament after the Boston Tea Party. It was meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists. -
First Continental Congress
This was a meeting of delegates from 12 of the Thirteen Colonies that met at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia. It was called by the British Parliament in response to the Intolerable Acts by the American Colonists. -
Second Continental Congress
This was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Soon after warfare, it declared the American Revolutionary War had begun. It managed the the colonial war effort, & moved incrementally to independence, adopting the Untied States Declaration of Independence. -
Declaration of Independence
This was a document approved by representatives of the American colonies that stated their grievances against the British monarch & declared their independence. -
Beginning of American Revolution
Started when members of American colonial society rejected the authority of the British Parliament to tax them & to create other laws affecting them without colonial representatives in the government. -
Articles of Confederation
This was the first constitution of the Untied States & was adopted by Congress. It established a national legislature, the Constitutional Congress, but most authority rested with the state legislatures. -
Shay's Rebellion
This was a series of attacks on courthouses by a small band of farmers led by revolutionary Captain Daniel Shay to block foreclosure proceedings. -
Philadelphia Convention / Constitutional Convention
The convention was intended to revise the Articles of Confederation; however, the intention from the outset of many of its proponents, was to create a news government rather than fixing the old one. The result was the creation of the Untied States Constitution
