Art, obsession, and identity
Created in England in 1215, this medieval royal charter was the first official document to broach the subject of human rights. The liberties granted by King John included a famous clause that, for the first time, gave all "free men" the right to justice and a fair trial.
Named after its creator, Johannes Gutenberg (1400–1468), the Gutenberg Bible, published c. 1455, was the first major book printed with a movable type printing press. Gutenberg's invention allowed the mass production of books for the first time and changed the world.
By issuing the Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, the 13 American colonies severed their political connections to Great Britain. Thomas Jefferson composed the original draft of the document.
Proposed on September 17, 1787 and effective from March 4, 1789, the Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. Not all states ratified the Constitution immediately: many were calling for greater constitutional protection for individual liberties. This eventually led to the passing of the Bill of Rights.
The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution. Ratified in 1791, the document spells out Americans' rights in relation to their government.
An edict issued by US President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves of the Confederate states in rebellion against the Union. The proclamation also allowed black soldiers to fight for the Union— soldiers that were desperately needed. In addition, the document tied the issue of slavery directly to the civil war.
The Treaty of Versailles, the peace accord that ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers, was signed on June 28, 1919, and officially ended the First World War. Signatories included Woodrow Wilson for the US and David Lloyd George for Great Britain.
On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, a move that officially extended the right to vote to women. This was the single largest extension of democratic voting rights in US history, a milestone that had taken over 70 years to achieve.
On May 17, 1954, the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. The landmark decision became one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement of the 1950s. Image: The U.S. National Archives
On August 26, 1789, the French National Constituent Assembly issued the Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen ("Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen"), which defined individual and collective rights at the time of the French Revolution. An early human civil rights document, it had a major impact on the development of popular conceptions of individual liberty and democracy in Europe and worldwide.
The Treaty of Paris was signed by US and British representatives on September 3, 1783, officially ending the American Revolutionary War.
The Slavery Abolition Act was given royal ascent on August 28, 1833 and came into force on August 1, 1834. The act provided for the immediate abolition of slavery in most parts of the British Empire. Pictured with the document is English abolitionist Thomas Clarkson (1760–1846), a leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire.
A simple pamphlet written in 1848 by the German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels became the Communist Manifesto. It was later recognized as one of the world's most influential political documents. Pictured is the title page of the first edition published in London in 1848.
Adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 10, 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a document that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Pictured is Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, holding up a poster-sized copy of the declaration. Eleanor Roosevelt was chair of the draft committee tasked with drawing up the articles of the Declaration.
This shameful act is what made apartheid work in South Africa. It required that each inhabitant of South Africa be classified and registered in accordance with their racial characteristics as part of the system of apartheid. The act was only repealed in June 1991. Pictured is a certificate issued in 1988 by the South African government in terms of the Population Registration Act indicating the registration and racial classification of a newborn on the Population Register. Image: Government of South Africa
Attributed to the ancient Chinese general and military strategist Sun Tzu ("Master Sun," also spelled Sunzi), 'The Art of War' is one of the first documents on military strategies. The text continues to influence both Far Eastern and Western military thinking.
The Cyrus Cylinder is a 2,600-year-old clay cylinder inscribed with a Babylonian account of the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus in 539 BCE. It's one of the most famous surviving icons from the ancient world and indicates the establishment of Persian rule by Cyrus the Great, with the defeat of Babylon, the restoration of shrines, and the return of deported peoples and their gods.
The documents that international non-profit organization WikiLeaks has published since its launch in 2006 include military operating procedure manuals, war diaries, and highly sensitive cables and emails. The scores of documents WikiLeaks has released will very likely be pored over by historians and scholars for many years to come. Pictured is the founder of the WikiLeaks website, Julian Assange, displaying text from a page on October 23, 2010.
Sources: (British Museum) (National Geographic) (Smithsonian Magazine) (NASA)
The famous treaty ending the war with Japan and by extension the Second World War was signed in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. Signatories included Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers Douglas MacArthur and Japanese foreign affairs minister Mamoru Shigemitsu.
The document marking Nazi Germany's surrender to the Allies signed by General Jodl at Reims, France, on May 7, 1945, and countersigned by Walter Bedell Smith, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, and General Ivan Susloparov on behalf of the Soviet High Command, ended the war in Europe.
British social economist William Beveridge (1879–1963) was responsible for a report titled 'Social Insurance and Allied Services,' which later became known as the Beveridge Report. Published in November 1942, it provided the blueprint for social policy in post-war Britain and has since formed the basis for much social legislation.
Drawn up in 1867 and fully enacted on January 1, 1869, the Second Great Reform Act expanded upon the First Reform Act, passed in 1832, by increasing the number of men who could vote in elections. By the end of 1868, all male heads of household were enfranchised, effectively doubling from one million to two million the numbers of adult men eligible to vote in England and Wales.
The best-known work of Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274), but only published in 1485, 'Summa Theologica' is a compendium of all of the main theological teachings of the Catholic Church. Key points include the principles of a just war.
Sappho (c. 630–c. 570 BCE) is known to have composed around 10,000 lines of lyric poetry. However, fewer than 70 complete lines of her work exist. A fragment of the 'Brothers Poem' (pictured), written on papyrus and attributed to the Greek poet, is one of the most important ancient documents in existence.
The address US President Abraham Lincoln delivered on November 19, 1863 during the American Civil War at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is one of the best-known speeches in American history. The document is usually displayed in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House.
The Apollo 11 flight plan essentially guided Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the moon and the historic July 20, 1969 lunar landing. The document is preserved in the National Archives. Pictured is astronaut Michael Collins studying the flight plan during simulation training at the Kennedy Space Center.
The notes English naturalist, geologist, and biologist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) scribbled down in his notebook in 1837 provided him with vital source material for his 1859 book 'On the Origin of Species,' considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology.
Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, seen here with the annotated manuscripts for his seminal 1899 work, 'The Interpretation of Dreams.' His theory of the unconscious with respect to dream interpretation would later become the theory of the Oedipus complex.
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech at a civil rights rally in Washington, D.C. The address was a defining moment of the civil rights movement and among the most famous speeches in American history. The historic document is preserved at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.
Some of the most defining moments in world history have been recorded in reports, acts, and manifestos—documents that serve as written proof of the changes or actions that have influenced society and the way we live. This evidence ranges from ancient ink on papyrus to digital transcripts published on the internet, with much of it signed off by individuals of enormous power and influence.
Click on and read through the historical documents that changed the world.
Historical documents that changed the world
The reports, acts, charters, and manifestos that helped define the way we live
LIFESTYLE History
Some of the most defining moments in world history have been recorded in reports, acts, and manifestos—documents that serve as written proof of the changes or actions that have influenced society and the way we live. This evidence ranges from ancient ink on papyrus to digital transcripts published on the internet, with much of it signed off by individuals of enormous power and influence.
Click on and read through the historical documents that changed the world.