What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 1:9 NIV
I am of the opinion that history is ever important today. Our Founding Fathers were extraordinarily wise in their drafting of our Vital documents. It is OUR responsibility as citizens to have some understanding of the documents and the unique string of events that lead to the birth of the American nation. For this reason, I’m posting a simple list, with at least one informative website for each event or document. Please, take advantage of all that is America and educate yourself.
1. Jamestown Colony (1607) – America’s first colony
2. St Augustine – the city that was never conquered
3. Plymouth Colony (1620) – first “American Literature” came from here: Bradford’s journal called Of Plymouth Plantation is the earliest piece of literature written on the American continent. Other great literature came from these early settlers.
4. FRENCH and INDIAN WAR (1754–1763) and MORE INFO HERE
5. Boston Massacre (1770): On the cold, snowy night of March 5, 1770, a mob of American colonists gathers at the Customs House in Boston and begins taunting the British soldiers guarding the building. The protesters, who called themselves Patriots, were protesting the occupation of their city by British troops, who were sent to Boston in 1768 to enforce unpopular taxation measures passed by a British parliament that lacked American representation. CONTINUE
6. Boston Tea Party (1773): Group of colonial patriots disguised as Mohawk Indians board three ships in Boston harbor and dump more than 300 crates of tea overboard as a protest against the British tea tax (Dec. 16).
7. First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia, with 56 delegates representing every colony except Georgia. Delegates include Patrick Henry, George Washington, and Samuel Adams (Sept. 5–Oct. 26)
8. American Revolution (1775–1783): War of independence fought between Great Britain and the 13 British colonies on the eastern seaboard of North America. Battles of Lexington and Concord, Mass., between the British Army and colonial minutemen, mark the beginning of the war (April 19, 1775). Battle-weary and destitute Continental army spends brutally cold winter and following spring at Valley Forge, Pa. (Dec. 19, 1777–June 19, 1778). British general Charles Cornwallis surrenders to Gen. George Washington at Yorktown, Va. (Oct. 19, 1781). Great Britain formally acknowledges American independence in the Treaty of Paris, which officially brings the war to a close (Sept. 3, 1783).
9. Continental Congress (1776) adopts the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia (July 4).
10. Continental Congress (1777) approves the first official flag of the United States (June 14). Continental Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation, the first U.S. constitution (Nov. 15).
11. Shays’s Rebellion (1786) erupts (Aug.); farmers from New Hampshire to South Carolina take up arms to protest high state taxes and stiff penalties for failure to pay.
12. Constitutional Convention, (1787)made up of delegates from 12 of the original 13 colonies, meets in Philadelphia to draft the U.S. Constitution (May–Sept.).
13. George Washington is unanimously elected president of the United States in a vote by state electors (Feb. 4, 1789). U.S. Constitution goes into effect, having been ratified by nine states (March 4). U.S. Congress meets for the first time at Federal Hall in New York City (March 4). Washington is inaugurated as president at Federal Hall in New York City (April 30).
14. U.S. Supreme Court meets for the first time at the Merchants Exchange Building in New York City (Feb. 2). The court, made up of one chief justice and five associate justices, hears its first case in 1792. The nation’s first census shows that the population has climbed to nearly 4 million.
15. First ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, are ratified (Dec. 15, 1791).
Obviously, there is much info on these topics to be found online and at your local library (thank you, Ben Franklin!) Please take the time to learn this stuff. Errors are made in ignorance, so let’s not be ignorant!