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a document that King John of England was forced to sign in 1215, limiting the power of the monarchy and establishing the principle that everyone, including the king, is subject to the law -
the first permanent English settlement in North America, established in 1607 by the Virginia Company of London -
The Mayflower Compact was an agreement signed by 41 male passengers on the Mayflower in 1620, establishing a "civil body politic" for the newly established Plymouth Colony -
The Royal Proclamation of 1763, issued by King George III, aimed to organize Britain's newly acquired North American territories after the French and Indian War -
The Sugar Act, officially known as the American Revenue Act of 1764, was a British law that imposed taxes on sugar, molasses, and other goods imported into the American colonies. -
The French and Indian War,[b] 1754 to 1763, was a conflict in North America between Great Britain and France, along with their respective Native American allies. -
The Boston Tea Party was an act of protest on December 16, 1773 during the American Revolution. Initiated by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, the capital of Massachusetts -
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence,
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The Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, is the foundational U.S. document declaring the 13 American colonies independent from Great Britain, asserting universal rights like "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness," and listing grievances against King George III to justify separation, serving as the philosophical basis for the new nation. Drafted primarily by Thomas Jefferson as part of a "Committee of Five,"
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The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787.[1] While the convention was initially intended to revise the league of states and the first system of federal government under the Articles of Confederation,[2] l
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On September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the United States proposed 12 amendments to the Constitution. The 1789 Joint Resolution of Congress proposing the amendments is on display in the Rotunda in the National Archives Museum.
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The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, requiring that government officials obtain a warrant based on probable cause to search a person's body, home, papers, or property.
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The Sixth Amendment guarantees the rights of criminal defendants, including the right to a speedy and public trial, a lawyer, an impartial jury, and the right to be informed of the charges. It also grants the accused the right to confront witnesses and compel favorable witnesses to testify on their behalf. This amendment ensures fair and transparent legal proceedings for those facing criminal charges.
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The Eighth Amendment prohibits excessive bail, excessive fines, and cruel and unusual punishments, protecting individuals from excessive and inhumane penalties in the U.S. legal system
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The Fifth Amendment is a part of the U.S. Constitution that protects individuals from certain legal injustices. It includes the right to a grand jury indictment for serious crimes, protection from double jeopardy being tried twice for the same crime, the right to avoid self-incrimination pleading the Fifth, the guarantee of due process of law, and the requirement for just compensation when private property is taken for public use.
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The 11th Amendment, ratified in 1795, establishes state sovereign immunity by ruling that the U.S. federal judiciary does not have the power to hear lawsuits against a state government brought by citizens of another state or foreign citizens.
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The 7th Amendment protects the right to a jury trial in federal civil cases where the dispute is over a certain dollar amount. It also prevents judges from overturning the facts found by a jury in these cases, except according to common law rules. The right to a jury trial is for civil cases, as opposed to criminal cases, and applies specifically to federal courts, not state courts.
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The Ninth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights, declares that the enumeration of specific rights in the Constitution does not mean that other rights retained by the people are denied or disparaged. It acts as a constitutional safety net to protect unenumerated, or unlisted, rights.
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The Tenth Amendment is a part of the U.S. Bill of Rights that reserves powers to the states or the people that are not delegated to the federal government by the Constitution.
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The 11th Amendment, ratified in 1795, establishes state sovereign immunity by ruling that the U.S. federal judiciary does not have the power to hear lawsuits against a state government brought by citizens of another state or foreign citizens.
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Ratified in December 1865, its text explicitly states that such conditions cannot exist, except as a punishment for a crime for which a person has been convicted.
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The First Amendment was written by James Madison and adopted by Congress on September 25, 1789, as part of the Bill of Rights. It was ratified on December 15, 1791 and states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise there for or abridging the freedom of speech.
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The Second Amendment protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms, a right that has been interpreted by the Supreme Court to include an individual's right to possess firearms for self-defense. Originally rooted in the need for state militias to counter a possible federal overreach, the amendment was influenced by English common law and the English Bill of Rights 1689.
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The Third Amendment prohibits the government from quartering soldiers in private homes without the owner's consent during peacetime. During times of war, it states that quartering must follow a method prescribed by law
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The Louisiana Purchase (French: Vente de la Louisiane, lit. 'Sale of Louisiana') was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803.
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The Trail of Tears was the forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of about 60,000 Native Americans of the "Five Civilized Tribes", including their black slaves,[3][4][5] between 1830 and 1850 by the United States government.[6]
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The Republic of Texas was the only state to enter by treaty into the United States and admitted to the Union as the 28th state on December 29, 1845.
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The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union[e] ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve African American slavery, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North.[
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granted U.S. citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and guaranteed that all citizens have "equal protection of the laws" and "due process
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increases our use in housing such as electricity, water and other stuff we need and want.
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Grants Congress the power to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the states based on population.
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On September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk, an American right-wing political activist, was assassinated while addressing an audience on the campus of Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem, Utah, United States. The outdoor event was the first stop of the Fall 2025 season for the American Comeback Tour, a speaking and debate series planned by Turning Point USA, a conservative youth organization he co-founded.