Definitions

The Constitutional Convention was held at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 25 May to 17 September 1787. Spurred on by economic troubles left over from the American Revolution and compounded by the weak Articles of Confederation...

Aethelred ruled as Lord of the Mercians from c. 881 to 911 and was a key military leader in the fight against Viking conquest and settlement in England. To defend Mercia, he allied himself to the powerful Kingdom of Wessex under the leadership...

The Treaty of Paris, signed on 3 September 1783 by representatives from Great Britain and the United States, was the peace agreement that formally ended the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) and recognized the United States as an independent...

The American Revolution (1765-1789) was a period of political upheaval in the Thirteen Colonies of British North America. Initially a protest over parliamentary taxes, it blossomed into a rebellion and led, ultimately, to the birth of the...

The Amphictyonic League was an early form of religious council in ancient Greece. It was typically composed of delegates from several tribes or ethnes living in the vicinity of a major, prosperous sanctuary, who then collaborated in supervising...

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was an American essayist as well as the foremost representative of the transcendentalist movement of the early to mid-19th century. Known mostly for his essays Self-Reliance, The American Scholar, and Nature...

The Desert Rats was the nickname of the 7th Armoured Division of the British Eighth Army, which first fought in North Africa during the Second World War (1939-45). Fighting in the Western Desert Campaigns and the North Africa Campaign, the...

The Northwest Ordinance was enacted by the Confederation Congress of the United States on 13 July 1787. It created the Northwest Territory – comprised of the modern-day states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota...

The Sand Creek Massacre (29 November 1864) was a slaughter of citizens of the Arapaho and Cheyenne nations at the hands of the Third Colorado Cavalry of US Volunteers under the command of Colonel John Chivington, resulting in casualties estimated...

The US presidential election of 1789 was the first presidential election to take place after the ratification of the United States Constitution. Held on 4 February 1789, it resulted in the unanimous election of George Washington (l. 1732-1799...