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Jun 15, 1297
Magna Carta
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. Although most of the ideas were revised or have since been repealed, the Magna Carta's fundamental tenets provided the outline for modern democracies. -
Jamestown Settled
13 years before the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts, a group of 104 English men and boys began a settlement on the banks of Virginia's James River. The community suffered terrible hardships in its early years, but managed to endure, earning the distinction of being America's first permanent English colony. -
Mayflower Compact was Written
The document was drawn up in response to "mutinous speeches" that had come about because the Pilgrims had intended to settle in Northern Virginia, but the decision was made after arrival to instead settle in New England. Since there was no government in place, some felt they had no legal obligation to remain within the colony and supply their labor. -
Petition of Right
a statement of civil liberties sent by the English Parliament to Charles I. Refusal by Parliament to finance the king's unpopular foreign policy had caused his government to exact forced loans and to quarter troops in subjects' houses as an economy measure. -
English Bill of Rights
An English Act of Parliament with the full title An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown and also known by its short title, the Bill of Rights. It is one of the basic documents of English constitutional law, alongside Magna Carta, the 1701 Act of Settlement and the Parliament Acts. It also forms part of the law of some other Commonwealth nations, such as New Zealand. -
Albany Plan of Union
The Albany Plan of Union was a plan to place the British North American colonies under a more centralized government. The plan was adopted on July 10, 1754, by representatives from seven of the British North American colonies. -
Stamp Act
The new tax was imposed on all American colonists and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. Ship's papers, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, other publications, and even playing cards were taxed. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was the killing of five colonists by British regulars on March 5, 1770. It was the culmination of tensions in the American colonies that had been growing since Royal troops first appeared in Massachusetts in October 1768 to enforce the heavy tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773, took place when a group of Massachusetts Patriots, protesting the monopoly on American tea importation recently granted by Parliament to the East India Company, seized 342 chests of tea in a midnight raid on three tea ships and threw them into the harbor. -
Intolerable Acts
Series of laws sponsored by British Prime Minister Lord North and enacted in 1774 in response to the Boston Tea Party. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress brought together representatives from each of the colonies, except Georgia, to discuss their response to the British "Intolerable Acts." -
American Revolution Begins
At about 5 a.m., 700 British troops, on a mission to capture Patriot leaders and seize a Patriot arsenal, march into Lexington to find 77 armed minutemen under Captain John Parker waiting for them on the town's common green. British Major John Pitcairn ordered the outnumbered Patriots to disperse, and after a moment's hesitation the Americans began to drift off the green. -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress started on May 10, 1775. The delegates of the 13 colonies gathered in Philadelphia to discuss their next steps. -
Declaration of Independence
In 1776, soon after the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, the leaders of the war got together to write a letter to the King of England. They wanted to explain why they were fighting to be their own country, independent of England. -
Articles of Confederation
The first document detailing a framework for a federal government gave the states enormous power over the federal government. These links give you the text of the Articles of Confederation and stories of how they were supposed to work an, ultimately, why they didn't work. -
Constitution Convection
Convention called in 1787 to discuss problems with the current government document, the Articles of Confederation. The result was a new form of government, the Constitution. Delegates from all over the colonies attended, and they struggled with competing concerns of large-population states and small-population states. George Washington presided over the Convention, and James Madison took detailed notes. Once the Constitution was approved at the Convention, it still had to be ratified by a certai -
Shay's Rebellion
Movement by New England farmers desperate to be paid for the service in the Revolutionary War. Farmer Daniel Shays took charge of the group and led an attack on a federal arsenal in Springfield, Massachusetts, in January 1787. Federal troops under Revolutionary War General Benjamin Lincoln came from Boston. Four men were killed and 20 wounded. Shays disappeared into the wilds of Vermont, not yet a state. Other men were arrested and imprisoned. Soon after, John Hancock was elected governor of Mas -
Connecticut Compromise
A major contingency of the ratification of the Constitution of the United States on the part of each individual State was their collective acceptance of a viable process of the selection of legislative representation. -
Philadelphia Convention
Americans recognized that the Articles of Confederation, the foundation document for the new United States adopted in 1777, had to be substantially modified. The Articles gave Congress virtually no power to regulate domestic affairs--no power to tax, no power to regulate commerce.
