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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
The Magna Carta was a written document signed by King John in 1215. It was a series of new promises and laws designed to stop the king from abusing his power over his people. It became a baseline for English Common Law in years to come. -
Jamestown Settled
It was the first city that was settled into by British colonists in 1607. The location was not very ideal because it's unclean water caused disease and the settlers pooped themselves. -
Mayflower Compact Written
Signed by English colonists aboard the ship Mayflower. It was written in order to shut out any dissent from Puritans who had arrived at Plymouth before them. -
English Bill of Rights
An Act that assigned limits to the amount of power the king of England could weild. It stated that parliment had specific and un negotiable rights regarding rules for freedom of speech, regular elections for parliment and the right to petition for monarch. -
Albany Plan of Union
A proposal to the thirteen colonies suggested by Benjamin Franklin to create a unified government. It was a plan to create a sort of temporary unified government in order to defend the colonies during the French and Indian war. -
Stamp Act
The British Parliment forced a direct tax on the thirteen colonies by passing this act. It also gave them no other choice but to produce many of their printed documents on paper made in London. -
Boston Massacre
A famous incident in which five civilian men were slaughtered and six were injured in a fued between the British Army soldiers and the crowd in Boston. Eight Soldiers, one officer, and for civilians were charged with murder. -
Boston Tea Party
A political protest against the British taxation policy on tea. After British officials refused to return three ships of tea back to England, several groups of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed all of the tea by dumping it into the harbor. The British Government responded to this protest with the Intolerable Acts. -
Intolerable Acts
A set of laws put into place by the British Parliment partially in response to the Boston Tea Party incident. These acts took away Massachuset's self government and historic rights. These acts enraged the thirteen colonies and fanned the flame that eventually broke out into the revolutionary war. -
First Continental Congress
A group of 56 representatives from each of the 13 colonies except Georgia. The congress assembled in Philadelphia to discuss options regarding the Intolerable Acts imposed by the British Empire. -
American Revolution Begins
British and American soldiers met in Lexington on the 19th of April in 1775. The opposing forces lined up and faced each other. Someone fired the first shot, and the battle of Lexington began. This marked the beginning of the Revolutionary War. -
Second Continental Congress
Succeeding the first Continental Congress, the Second took charge of the colonial war effort, moving the colonies steadily towards independence. The representatives in the Second Continental Congress appointed diplomats and organized formal treaties. It served as a national government for what would become the United States. -
Declaration of Independence
A written document declaring the thirteen colonies as independant states and no longer a part of the British Empire. It was a declaration stating that the thirteen colonies had taken enough of King George's tyranny. It jump started the Revolutionary War. -
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation was a written document that recognized the agreement between all thirteen founding states that the United States of America was a confederation of sovereign states. The Articles of Confederation served as our first Constitution. -
Shay's Rebellion
Shay's Rebellion was a weapon brandishing protest spearheaded by mostly revolutionary war veterans. The protesters shut down county courts to prevent hearings for tax collections. This uprising was brought upon mostly by post war economic hardships, and harsh government tax policies. -
Constitutional Convention
George Washington resided over a meeting of Delegates in order to discuss a plan for a structured government. -
Conneticut Compromise
The Conneticut Compromise was an agreement reached between the larger and smaller states during the Constitutional Convention that clarified what kind of representation each state would have under the constitution. Because the larger states had more people, a vote based off of population would always favor the larger states. With the compromise everything was evened out so that the smaller states would be more equally represented. -
Philadelphia Convention
A convention that took place in Philadelphia and was centered around trying to adress the problems the delegates were facing in governing the United States of America which had been running under the Articles of Confederation.
