| 1215 |
Magna Carta (UK, June 15) |
| 1600 |
East India Company founded (UK, Dec. 31) |
| 1773 |
Tea Act (UK) |
| 1776 |
Declaration of Independence (U.S.) |
| 1777 |
Articles of Confederation (November 15) |
| 1783 |
Treaty of Paris - end of American Revolutionary War
Treaties of Versailles |
| 1788 |
Constitution, George Washington elected first president |
| 1791 |
Bill of Rights (First ten amendments to the constitution, December 15) |
| 1798 |
11th Amendment, January 8 (Judicial power) |
| 1798 |
Alien and Sedition Acts (U.S.) |
| 1803 |
Marbury v Madison (Supreme Court can declare acts of Congress and the president unconstitutional, and became arbiter of the Constitution) |
| 1804 |
12th Amendment, September 25 (voting, succession) |
| 1865 |
13th Amendment, December 18 (slavery) |
| 1868 |
14th Amendment, July 23 (citizens, representatives, debt) |
| 1870 |
15th Amendment, March 30 (right to vote) |
| 1871 |
Ku Klux Klan Act (U.S.) |
| 1873 |
Bradwell v. Illinois - woman who wanted to be a lawyer |
| 1886 |
Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad - corporate personhood. Bribery no longer felony, corporations "artificial persons". |
| 1890 |
Sherman Anti-Trust Act |
| 1896 |
Plessy v. Ferguson ("separate but equal") |
| 1907 |
Tillman Act (campaign finance) |
| 1913 |
16th Amendment, February 25 (income taxes) |
| 1913 |
17th Amendment, April 8 (senators) |
| 1914 |
Clayton Anti-Trust Act, October 15. |
| 1919 |
18th Amendment, January 29 (prohibition) |
| 1919 |
Dodge v. Ford Motor Co. (shareholder value) |
| 1920 |
19th Amendment, August 26 (women's rights) |
| 1925 |
Scopes Monkey Trial |
| 1930 |
Smoot-Hawley Act, June 17, raised U.S. tariffs |
| 1933 |
20th Amendment, January 23 (terms, presidents elect) |
| 1933 |
21st Amendment, December 5 (prohibition, repeals 18th) |
| 1935 |
Wagner Act, July 5 (gave workers the right to form unions and bargain collectively with their employers) |
| 1939 |
Hatch Act, August 2 (prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity) |
| 1947 |
Taft-Hartley Act, (qualified or amended much of the 1935 Wagner Act) |
| 1951 |
22nd Amendment, February 26 (president term limits) |
| 1955 |
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (end of legalized racial segregation in the schools) |
| 1957 |
Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act |
| 1961 |
23rd Amendment, March 29 (D.C. electors) |
| 1964 |
24th Amendment, January 30 (primary votes & taxes) |
| 1967 |
25th Amendment, February 10 (succession, presidential inability) |
| 1971 |
26th Amendment, June 30 (voting age 18) |
| 1973 |
Roe v. Wade (abortion) |
| 1974 |
United States v Nixon (Nixon had to hand over Watergate tapes) |
| 1976 |
Buckley v. Valeo (federal campaign contributions limits, & spending money to influence elections is a form of constitutionally protected free speech.) |
| 1978 |
Boston v. Bellotti (corporate personhood) |
| 1990 |
Americans with Disabilities Act |
| 1992 |
27th Amendment, May 7 (Senators' & Representatives' pay) |
| 1996 |
Telecommunications Act |
| 2000 |
United States v. Porter Township, (sludge, corporate personhood) |
| 2000 |
Bush Vs. Gore, December 12 |
| 2001 |
Patriot Act, October 24 |
| 2002 |
Help America Vote Act (HAVA) |
| 2004 |
Hamdi v. Rumsfeld |
