 |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Select > Who • What • When • Where • Which • Widgets |
| |
|
|
|
|
| Timeline |
|
 |
|
Item |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Declaration of Independence, 4th of July > 
The Declaration of Independence has been described as the most important document in human history. Here, in the memorable language of the famous preamble, a hundred and ten words fatally undermined the political basis of the old order and proclaimed a new era in which free peoples would henceforth govern themselves.
By the spring of 1776 a series of astonishing events - the Boston Tea Party, the closing of Boston Harbor, the hostilities at Lexington and Concord, the Gunpowder Incident in Williamsburg, and the Battle of Bunker Hill - had transformed the political landscape. George III proclaimed the colonies to be in open rebellion, and Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense, published in January 1776, attacked monarchical government and called upon the American colonies to declare themselves free and independent. A battle had been fought and won in Virginia, and the port city of Norfolk had been fired on by the British fleet with nine hundred houses destroyed by the fires started by the cannonballs. After the defeat of Lord Dunmore at Gwynn's Island on July 9, before Virginia had received notification of the Declaration of Independence, the British left Virginia.
|
| |
|
|
|
More on this Website >
• http://research.history.org/pf/declaring/
• The text of the Declaration of Independence • Edit
• General information on the Fourth of July holiday • Edit
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Locke
John Locke was a British philosopher, Oxford academic and medical researcher, whose association with Anthony Ashley Cooper (later the First Earl of Shaftesbury) led him t... |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father USA
Benjamin Franklin stands tall among a small group of men we call our Founding Fathers. Ben used his diplomacy skills to serve his fellow countrymen. His role in the Ame... |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
George Washington, 1st US President
On April 30, 1789, George Washington, standing on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York, took his oath of office as the first President of the United St... |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Adams, 2nd US President
John Adams was the second President of the United States of America. He was President from 1797 until 1801. His Vice-President was Thomas Jefferson. Adams belonged to the... |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thomas Paine, Founding Father USA
Thomas Paine, intellectual, scholar, revolutionary, and idealist, is widely recognized as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A radical pamphleteer, Paine a... |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
George III, King of Great Britain
Britain's King George III was the 18th century monarch who lost the fight to keep control over the American colonies. The third monarch of the Hanover house and the first... |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thomas Jefferson, 3rd US President
Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, third president of the United States 1801-1809, and founder... |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The American Revolutionary War
The British defeated the French and their Indian allies in the French and Indian War (1754-1763). The result was British control over much of North America. But the war h... |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Constitution, USA
"We, The People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the g... |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The French Revolution
The French Revolution was one of the most influential and significant events in world history; it continues to fascinate people two centuries after the people of France r... |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Statue of Liberty, New York
"Wouldn't it be wonderful if people in France gave the United States a great monument as a lasting memorial to independence and thereby showed that the French government... |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
 |
|
•
: double-click any word
|