Remarkable that the English-speaking world remembers Magna Carta. The product of a struggle between King John and his barons, it was sealed on the bank of the Thames 800 years ago, on June 15, 1215. But in a sense, the most valuable thing about Magna Carta is precisely that it is remembered. Other charters were issued across medieval Europe, but they were rapidly forgotten.
Perry's expedition led to an establishment of trade relations between Japan and the United States. This was just a part of the downfall of the Tokugawa Shogunate and led to the Meiji restoration when the country started opening up to the United States even more and it started modernizing itself to be more like the foreign countries.
