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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
A great charter placed King John under the law. It is summarised in Chapter 39: No free man shall be taken or imprisoned, or dispossessed or outlawed or extiled or in any way ruined, nor will we go or send against him except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land. It was supposed to make peace between the King and the rebels. -
Jamestown Settled
Jamestown was the first permanant English colony. It was settled in Virginia. The Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery, carrying 105 passengers departed from England in December 1607 and reached the Virginia coast April 1607. After travelling for two weeks they settled in Jamestown. -
Mayflower Compact Written
The Mayflower Compact was an attempt to establish a temporary, legally-binding form of self-government until the Company could get formal permission from the Council of New England. -
Petition of Right
A statement of civil liberties sent by the English Parliament to Charles I. The Petition of Right, initiated by Sir Edward Coke, was based upon earlier statutes and charters and asserted four principles: no taxes may be levied without consent of Parliament; no subject may be imprisoned without cause shown no soldiers may be quartered upon the citizenry; martial law may not be used in time of peace. -
English Bill of Rights
The 1689 English Bill of Rights was a British Law declared the rights and liberties of the people and settling the succession in William III and Mary II.
A frequently summoned Parliament and free elections
Members should have freedom of speech in Parliament
No armies should be raised in peacetime
No taxes could be levied, without the authority of parliament
Laws should not be dispensed with, or suspended, without the consent of parliament
No excessive fines should imposed, nor cruel and unusual -
Albany Plan of Union
A plan to placethe British North American colonies under a more centeralized government. July 10th, 1754, representatives from the seven of the British North American colonies adopted the plan. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was a 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 playing cards were taxed. The money collected by the Stamp Act was to be used to help pay the costs of defending and protecting the American frontier near the Appalachian Mountains. -
The Boston Massacre
it was not called the “The Boston Massacre” until many years after it occurred in 1773. The first popular name popularized by Paul Revere was The Bloody Massacre in King Street. A squad of British soldiers let loose a volley of shots.Several colonists were killed. -
Boston Tea Party
A group of colonists protest thirteen years of increasing British oppression by attacking merchant ships in Boston Harbor. It took nearly three hours for more than 100 colonists to empty the tea into Boston Harbor. The chests held more than 90,000 lbs. (45 tons) of tea, which would cost nearly $1,000,000 dollars today. -
First Continental Congress
All of the colonies except Georgia sent delegates. These were elected by the people, by the colonial legislatures, or by the committees of correspondence of the respective colonies. The colonies presented there were united in a determination to show a combined authority to Great Britain. -
American Revolution Begins
The war of independence waged by the American colonies against Britain influenced political ideas and revolutions around the globe. The nation won its freedom from the greatest military force of its time, England. -
Second Continental Congress
When things took a turn for the worse, with the Redcostd once again storming Boston, the second continential congress convened in Philadelphia. They discussed how would the colonist meet the military threat of the British. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is the nation's most cherished symbol of liberty. A five-man committee, including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, was tasked with drafting a formal statement of the colonies’ intentions for independence. The Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia on July 4, a date now celebrated as the birth of American independence. -
Articles of Confederation
This was the first constitution of the United States. the Articals created a loose confederation of sovereign states and a weak central government. -
Shays' Rebellion
A series of protests in 1786 and 1787 by American farmers against state and local enforcement of tax collections and judgments for debt. The rebellion took its name from its symbolic leader, Daniel Shays of Massachusetts. -
Philadelphia Convention
Congress called a convention to revise the Articles of Confederation into a more powerful document. Delegates appointed by each state attended the meeting in Philadelphia to develop a more effective, and unified, constitution. A total of 55 delegates from 12 states were present. -
Intolerable Acts
After the French and Indian War the British Government decided to reap greater benefits from the colonies. The colonies were pressed with greater taxes. This eventually lead to the Boston Tea Party. In retaliation the British passed several acts aimed at bringing the colonies back into submission of the King. These acts included: The Boston Port Act, Massachuetts Government Act, Administration of Government Act, and The Quebec Act. -
Connecticut Compromise
The Connecticut Compromise proposed a solution to the heated debate between larger and smaller states over their representation in the newly proposed Senate. The Compromise was proposed by Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth, Connecticut’s delegates to the Constitutional Convention, and established a two-house legislature.
