Signing of the Magna Carta (Revised Edition)

Can one document really change the world? In June, 1215 King John of England met with a group of nobles in a meadow on the banks of the Thames River.

There, John affixed his royal seal to a document designed to bring about peace between the king and a group of rebellious nobles.

This attempt failed miserably, and the two parties were soon at war again.

Yet the ideas laid out in the document-which would later be called Magna Carta-lived on, and would become the foundation for many of the freedoms people enjoy in modern times.

They include the right to a fair trial and the requirement that the punishment fit the crime.

The signing of the Magna Carta is truly one of history's most pivotal moments.