1217 – Magna Carta (English Legal Charter limiting King’s powers)

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)

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

1762 – Voltaire (a champion of civil liberties including religious freedom. In 1762, he began to defend those accused of religious persecution)

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)

1764 – Sugar Act: (taxessugar, certain wines, coffee, pimiento, cambric and printed calico, and further, regulated the export of lumber and iron )

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 )

1764 – Currency Act (Parliament abolishes colonial currency, favoring a hard system based on the pound sterling)

1765 – Quartering Act (billet and quarter British officers/soldiers)

1767 – Townshend Revenue Act (taxes on glass, paint, oil, lead, paper, and tea )

1765 – Declaratory Act Act (laws binds America as subjects of the Crown of Gr. Britain)

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)

1774 – Intolerable Acts (5 punitive laws made against colonies in retaliation to the Tea Party)

1773 – Boston Tea Party (radical townspeople storm ships in Boston Harbor, dumping 342 chests of tea into the water)

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 Contitution

1776 – Virginia Declaration of Rights

1776 – Congress adopts Declaration of Independence

1776 – British occupy New York

1777 – British occupy Philadelphia

1778 – US and France sign the French Aliance

1781 – Mutiny of unpaid Pennsylvania soldiers

1779 – Spain declares war on Britain

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

1787 – US Constitution signed

1783 – Washington resigns as commander

1788 – US Constitution adopted (after New Hampshire ratifies)

1789 – George Washington becomes the first President