US History timeline and Government

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Sure! Here’s a nicely formatted summary with headings and bullet points:

Early Settlements

Mid-to-late 1580s: Roanoke Island, North Carolina
- Mysterious and sudden demise
1607: Trading outpost at Jamestown, Virginia
1620: New colony in New England
- Puritans crossed the Atlantic and landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts
- Before America, Puritans were in Holland from 1606 to 1620 but Dutch language was a problem
- Received grant to land in the Virginia territory but missed the destination and arrived first at Cape Cod and finally Plymouth Bay

1732: Original 13 colonies were established - technically governed by London
- Royal colonies
- Proprietary colonies
- Charter colonies
1684: Massachusetts changed from charter colony to royal colony

Parliament decided to replenish Britain’s treasury by taxing the colonies
- Sugar Act
- Townshend Acts
- Quartering Act
- Stamp Act

Around the idea “no taxation without representation”
- All taxes repealed except for taxes on tea

Sons of Liberty protesting the tax on tea dumped 342 chests into Boston Harbor
- King George III quarantined Boston Harbor

September 4, 1774: First Continental Congress in Philadelphia
1775: Second Continental Congress in the spring
- George Washington appointed commander-in-chief of the ragtag militia

1776: Thomas Paine pamphlet “Common Sense”
Spring 1776: Thomas Jefferson assigned the task of drafting the document which he presented to the full Congress in late June
- Congress adopted Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence
July 4, 1776: Declaration of Independence signed in Philadelphia
- The delegates of the Second Continental Congress didn’t sign until August 2 except John Hancock who signed on July 4

October 19, 1781: George Washington defeated British General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, VA after six long years of war