During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the American, French, and Haitian revolutions. By the eighteenth century, as the American colonists began to think of freedom from England, they thought of other freedoms as well. In 1777, Thomas Jefferson drafted the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. In 1789, freedom of religion became the law of the land with the passage of the First Amendment to the Constitution.
1700-49 | 1750s | 1760s | 1770s | 1780s | 1790s
***************
2020s | 2010s | 2000-09 | 1990s | 1980s | 1970s | 1960s | 1950s | 1940s | 1930s | 1920s | 1910s | 1900-09 | 1800s | 1700s | 1600s | 1500s | 1400s | 1300s | 1200s | Full Timeline | Top 100 Conspiracies
The Modern Era of Freemasonry Begins when Four Freemasonic Lodges in London United into One Grand Lodge
On June 24, 1717, the four freemasonic lodges in London were united into a Grand Lodge (sometimes called the Grand Mother Lodge) by three members who met at the Apple Tree Tavern, thus beginning the era of modern Freemasonry. Rather than being a guild of stone masons and builders, they ...
Yale Founded to Further Christianity by Ministers Unhappy with the Liberalism at Harvard
It may come as surprise that when Yale University was founded on this day, October 16, 1701, it was by Congregationalist ministers unhappy with the growing liberalism at Harvard. It wasn't called Yale then, of course, but rather the Collegiate School. The ministers donated forty books and declared their objective, ...
“The Selling of Joseph: A Memorial” is Published by Judge Samuel Sewall (One of Jefferson’s Sources for an Early Draft of the Constitution)
One of the overlooked sources for Jefferson’s early draft was a now largely forgotten pamphlet written by Judge Samuel Sewall in 1700 titled , “The Selling of Joseph: A Memorial.” It is a remarkable document, one of the earliest antislavery declarations published in the American colonies. It’s very much a ...
