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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
The purpose of the Magna Carta was to curb the King and make him govern by the old English laws that had prevailed before the Normans came. The Magna Carta was a collection of 37 English laws - some copied, some recollected, some old and some new. The Magna Carta demonstrated that the power of the king could be limited by a written grant.The Magna Carta was signed by King John -
The Mayflower Compact Written
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. -
Petition of Right
This is a statement of the objectives of the 1628 English legal reform movement that led to the Civil War and deposing of Charles I in 1649. It expresses many of the ideals that later led to the American Revolution. -
English Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights was passed by Parliament on December 16 1689. It was a re-statement in statutory form of the Declaration of Right presented by the Convention Parliament to William and Mary in March 1689 (or 1688 by Old Style dating), inviting them to become joint sovereigns of England. -
Albany Plan of Union
The British and French were in a rivalry over who would control North america. This became heated and then became known as the French and Indian wars. Post-war, Benjamin Franklin drafted a document that would bring peace into the colonies and reduce the strains of was on them. -
The American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America. The American revolutionary era began in 1763, after a series of victories by British forces at the conclusion of the French and Indian War ended the French military threat to British North American colonies. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act of 1765 was a direct tax imposed by the British Parliament on the colonies of British America. Americans in all 13 colonies protested strongly and the British retreated part way, but insisted on the right of Parliament to tax the colonies. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a street fight that occurred on March 5, 1770, between a "patriot" mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and a squad of British soldiers. The Boston Massacre was a signal event leading to the Revolutionary War. It led directly to the Royal Governor evacuating the occupying army from the town of Boston. It would soon bring the revolution to armed rebellion throughout the colonies. -
The Boston Tea Party
King George III and his government looked to taxing the American colonies as a way of recouping their war costs. In May of 1773 Parliament concocted a clever plan. Tea was a staple of colonial life - it was assumed that the colonists would rather pay the tax than deny themselves the pleasure of a cup of tea. -
First Continental Congress
On May 27, 1774, the Virginia House of Burgesses proposed a continental congress. A special convention was held on August 1 to elect delegates to the meeting in Philadelphia the following month. -
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts or the Coercive Acts are names used to describe a series of laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 relating to Britain's colonies in North America. The acts triggered outrage and resistance in the Thirteen Colonies that later became the United States, and were important developments in the growth of the American Revolution. -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress meeting started with the battle of Lexington and Concord fresh in their memories. The New England militia were still encamped outside of Boston trying to drive the British out of Boston. The Second Continental Congress established the militia as the Continental Army to represent the thirteen states. They also elected George Washington as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. -
Declaration of Independence
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. -
Articles of Confederation
The Articles supported the Congressional direction of the Continental Army, and allowed the states to present a unified front when dealing with the European powers. -
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Shay's Rebellion
Shays' Rebellion was an armed uprising in central and western Massachusetts (mainly Springfield) from 1786 to 1787. The rebellion is named after Daniel Shays, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War. The rebellion started on August 29, 1786, over financial difficulties and by January 1787, over one thousand Shaysites had been arrested. -
Philedelphia Convention
This document was also knows as the Constitutional Convention of Philedelphia. took place from May 14 to September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to address problems in governing the United States of America, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation following independence from Great Britain. -
Constitution Convection
The Constituion Convection was a meeting in Philadelphia where the Constitution was written by the founding fathers. On September 17, 1787 what we now know as the original United States Constitution was completed. It was then approved by the Congress of Confederation and voted upon by the people in the 13 original states. -
Connecticut Compromise
The Connecticut Compromise (also known as the Great Compromise of 1787 or Sherman's Compromise) was an agreement between 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. -
Jamestown Settled
Jamestown is a city in Russell County, Kentucky, United States. The area was first settled in 1826 and named Jacksonville in honor of General Andrew Jackson. By 1827 the settlement was incorporated and renamed Jamestown in honor of James Wooldridge who had donated the land for the town.
