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King George III ascends to the throne of England.
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reaty signed between England and France ending the French and Indian War.
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Parliament passes The Stamp Act as a means to pay for British troops on the American frontier. Colonists violently protest the measure.
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Stamp Act repealed, but on the same day parliament passes the Declaratory Act asserting its right to make laws binding on the colonies.
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British troops arrive in Boston to enforce customs laws.
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Four workers shot by British troops stationed in Boston. Patriots label the killings "The Boston Massacre."
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Massachusetts patriots dressed as Mohawk Indians protest the British Tea Act by dumping crates of tea into Boston Harbor.
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he Privy Council reprimands Benjamin Franklin in London for leaking letters damaging to the Royal Governor of Massachusetts.
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Shots fired at Lexington and Concord. "Minute Men" force British troops back to Boston.
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Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence ratified by the Congress
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Washington crosses the Delaware River and captures a Hessian force at Trenton, New Jersey.
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A British force led by John Burgoyne takes Fort Ticonderoga in a devastating loss to the Americans. The Marquis de Lafayette arrives in America
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France signs a treaty of alliance with the United States and the American Revolution becomes a world war.
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Americans "lose" series of engagements in the south, but exact a heavy toll on the British army.
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A miraculous convergence of American and French forces traps Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. He surrenders his British army.
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A peace treaty is signed between Great Britain and the United States.
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George Washington gives up command of the Continental Army and, to the astonishment of foreign observers, returns to private life.
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Treaty talks with Spain for rights to navigate the Mississippi fail because of regional conflicts between northern and southern states.
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Shay's Rebellion, an armed insurrection of debt-ridden farmers in Massachusetts, quashed by the state militia.
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. The Constitutional Convention adjourns having passed a National Constitution that needs ratification from 3/4 of the states
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The crucial states of Virginia (June 25) and New York (July 26) become the 10th and 11th states to pass the Constitution.
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A Bill of Rights passed by the 1st Congress of the United States.