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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
A charter agreed by King John of England. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between the King and a group of rebel barons, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown. Forced the King to sign. -
Jamestown Settled
America's first permanent English colony in Virginia. The colony was sponsored by the Virginia Company of London. The Virginia Company of London was chartered in 1606 by King James I, the company supported English national goals of counterbalancing the expansion of other European nations. -
Mayflower Compact
Was the first governing document of Plymouth colony. It was signed on the ship by the pilgrims. -
Petition of Right
A major English constitutional document that sets out specific liberties. Contains restrictions on non-parliamentary taxation, forced billeting of soldiers, imprisonment without cause and the use of martial law. -
English Bill of Rights
An act on the Parliament of England passed. Creates separation of powers, limits the power of the King and Queen, enhances democratic election and boosts freedom of speech. -
Albany Plan of Union
A plan to create a unified government for the thirteen colonies. Represented one of the multiple attempts to form a union of the colonies "under one government as far as might be necessary defense and other general important purposes." -
Stamp Act
An act on the British Parliament that exacted revenue from the American colonies by imposing a stamp duty on newspaper and legal and commercial documents. The stamp tax had to be paid in valid British currency not in colonial paper money. -
Boston Massacre
Was the killing of five colonists by British colonists. It was the growing tensions in the American colonies that had been growing since the Royal troops appeared in Massachusetts to enforce the heavy tax burden. -
Boston Tea Party
A political protest by the Sons of Liberty. They boarded the ships and threw the crates of tea into the Boston Harbor. The British government responded harshly and the episode escalates into the American Revolution. -
Intolerable Acts
A series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament after the Boston Tea Party. They were meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in throwing the large tea shipment into the Boston Harbor. -
First Continental Congress
A meeting of delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies that met at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia. It was called in response to "The passage of the Coercive Acts" by the British Parliament. The Intolerable Acts punished Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party. -
American Revolution Begins
700 British troops, on a mission to capture Patriot leaders and seize a Patriot arsenal, marched in Lexington to find 77 armed minutemen under Captain John Parker waiting for them. A shot was fired and a cloud of smoke covered the green. -
Second Continental Congress
Like the First Continental Congress meeting; the second congress managed the colonial war effort and moved incrementally towards independence. By raising armies, directing strategy, appointing diplomats, and making formal treaties. -
Declaration of Independence
The formal statement written by Thomas Jefferson declaring the freedom of the thirteen American colonies from Great Britian. -
Articles of Confederation
The first written constitution of the United States. Under these articles, the states remained sovereign and independent, with congress serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes. -
Shay's Rebellion
The name was given to a series of protests by American farmers against state and local enforcement of tax collections and judgments for debt. The rebellion was most serious in Massachusetts, where bad harvests, economic depression, and high taxes threatened farmers with the loss of their farms. -
Constitution (Philadelphia) Convention
The convention faced a daunting task: the peaceful overthrow of the new American government (the Articles of Confederation). -
Connecticut Compromise
An agreement that large and small states reached during the Constitution Convention defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would be under the United States constitution.
