General Knowledge Questions

The Magna Carta has long been cited as the original source for such documents as the United States Constitution. It was a document that presented ideas that were progressive beyond its time, one that still bears relevance today.

The Magna Carta primarily established the rights of 13th-century English citizens. It granted protection from unlawful imprisonment and swift justice, which established the idea that everybody, including the king, was subject to the letter of the law.

Before the shots were fired at Lexington and Concord, the colonies made an attempt to settle the concerns and frustrations raised with the Intolerable Acts through debate and discussion. Thus, the First Continental Congress was called to order on September 5th, 1774.

The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies early in the American Revolution. It was called in response to the Intolerable Acts passed by the British Parliament, which the British referred to as the Coercive Acts, with which the British intended to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party.

Thomas Carlyle attributed the origin of the term to Edmund Burke, who used it in a parliamentary debate in 1787 on the opening up of press reporting of the House of Commons of Great Britain.

Britain