1217 – Magna Carta (English Legal Charter limiting King’s
powers)
1492 – Columbus discovers the New Land
1517 – Martin Luther and the Reformation (95 Theses)
1543 – Copernicus publishes heliocentric theory
1607 – First 100 settlers arrive at Jamestown, Virginia
1651 – Thomas Hobbes (wrote Leviathon… Social Contract
Theory: strong central authority is necessary to avoid the evil of discord
and civil war. Abuses of authority are accepted as the price of peace)
1679 – John Locke (wrote Two Treatises of Government…Argues
against an absolute monarchy, individual consent, and the right to life,
liberty, and property)
1688 – Glorious Revolution (King James II is overthrown,
England declares itself a constitutional monarchy)
1748 – Montesquieu writes The Spirit of the Laws
(advocates constitutionalism and the separation of powers, the abolition
of slavery, the preservation of civil liberties and the rule of law, and the
idea that political and legal institutions ought to reflect the social and
geographical character of each particular community)
1762 – Voltaire
(a champion of civil liberties including religious
freedom. In 1762, he began to defend those accused of religious
persecution)
1764 – Sugar Act: (taxessugar, certain wines, coffee, pimiento,
cambric and printed calico, and further, regulated the export of lumber
and iron )
1764 – Currency Act (Parliament abolishes colonial currency,
favoring a hard system based on the pound sterling)
1765 – Stamp Act (British application of stamp duties, and other
duties, against American colonies and plantations, justified as
a need to further defray the expenses of defense, security )
1765 – Quartering Act (billet and quarter British officers/soldiers)
1765 – Declaratory Act Act (laws binds America as subjects of
the Crown of Gr. Britain)
1767 – Townshend Revenue Act (taxes on glass, paint, oil,
lead, paper, and tea )
1770 – Boston Massacre (British soldiers fire into an angry mob
who had attacked them first, killing three colonists)
1773 – The Tea Act (to prop up E. India Co., cargos not unloaded)
1773 – Boston Tea Party (radical townspeople storm ships in
Boston Harbor, dumping 342 chests of tea into the water)
1774 – Intolerable Acts (5 punitive laws made against colonies
in retaliation to the Tea Party)
1774 – First Continental Congress (group of statesmen hoping
a unified voice would urge London to acknowledge grievances)
1775 – Rides of Paul Revere (Minutemen and Redcoats clash at
Lexington and Concord – “the shots heard around the world”)
1775 – Second Continental Congress (a continental army
was created, George Washington commissioned as its leader)
1776 – Virginia Declaration of Rights
1776 – Virginia Contitution
1776 – Congress adopts Declaration of Independence
1776 – British occupy New York
1777 – British occupy Philadelphia
1778 – US and France sign the French Aliance
1779 – Spain declares war on Britain
1781 – Mutiny of unpaid Pennsylvania soldiers
1781 – Articles of Confederation adopted
1782 – Britain and US sign preliminary Articles of peace
1783 – Congress ratifies Articles of Peace
1783 – British troops leave NY City
1783 – Washington resigns as commander
1787 – US Constitution signed
1788 – US Constitution adopted (after New Hampshire ratifies)
1789 – George Washington becomes the first President