There have been many, many revolutions in the past. This page discusses only two of those examples, which are possibly the best known revolutions in the United States.
The American Revolution
One major example of a historic revolution is the American revolution. The revolution actually began the second the colonials landed on American soil. The colonials were always a revolutionary force, even if they didn't necessarily want to be (Kennedy). Americans did not want to go to war with Britain at first, because some of them still felt loyal to the crown, and even protected by the King to some extent. As time passed, the colonists felt that Britain was stifling their economic independence and realized that they wanted change (Kennedy). When Britain realized that the colonies were trying to become more independent in economics and government, Parliament passed a multitude of acts and taxes in order to keep America under Kind George III's rule. As you can imagine, these new laws enraged Americans. They wanted a semi-home-ruled government, and thought that it was unjust for the British Parliament to tax them. In response to the Parliament's rulings the Americans instituted a number non-importation agreements and boycotts on British goods. This worked for a while, and even helped the American economy to strengthen (Kennedy), but then Britain got feisty. Once British officials caught wind of who was instigating the boycotts, they sent troops to America to try to capture these so-called "rebel leaders". This was how the war started, and it was largly by accident. At the time that the battles of Lexington and Concord happened, the British soldiers weren't there to start a war. Their orders were to capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock (the "rebel leaders"), and to procure arms and munitions from American stores. When the British troops got close to the city of Lexington the militia met them, and there was a short standoff. The militia men decided that it was in their best interest to back off, so they started to disperse. The British army didn't think that the Americans were retreating fast enough, so shots were fired - even though no one gave the command to shoot (Kennedy). The beginning of the war was in 1775, and nothing extremely interesting happened until half way through 1776. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a Continental Congress met and after much debate decided that America should be its own separate and independent county. There was much thought and deliberation was put into the document that we call The Declaration of Independence, and on July 4th, 1776, fifty-six delegates from 13 colonies adopted it. Although the document was adopted on the fourth of July, it was not actually signed until August 2nd ("Delegates Sign Declaration of Independence."). The war did not end with the signatures however; quite the opposite. King George III did not like that his colonies were trying to separate themselves, so on went the war. Finally, after nearly ten years of fighting, the two countries decided to make peace. In the Treaty of Paris of 1783, Britain formally recognized America as a free and independent country (Kennedy), ending the war and any doubts that the rest of the world had about the strength of the United States of America.
If you would like to learn more about the American Revolution, here is a lovely Crash Course by John Green.
The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial revolution began in the late 18th century with the arrival of the cotton mill in America. In 1791, first textile mill went into operation in the United States (Kennedy). You might ask why there were no mills in America before 1791. The answer is simple; American engineers couldn't figure out how to make one work. Samuel Slater had the solution to this unfortunate problem. Slater was a young British mechanic, and he wanted to be a part of the growing textile business and bring it back to America. When Slater was in Britain, he sneaked a look at the blueprints for a cotton mill, and memorized every detail needed to make one run. Then he disguised himself, took a ship to America, and reconstructed a working and, more importantly, efficient mill (Kennedy). Now that there was a machine to work the cotton fibers into textiles, the factories were going to need massive amounts of raw cotton, but where to get it? Handpicking cotton was not providing nearly enough raw materials for the Northern mills. Another mechanical genius saw the answer to this latest setback. Eli Whitney was a Yale graduate that heard tell that southern poverty would shrink if only someone could invent an efficient machine to pick and separate the cotton (Kennedy), so what did he do? He invented the cotton gin. The gin (short for engine) was fifty times more effective than handpicking (Kennedy), which meant that the northern factories could now be well supplied. During the Industrial Revolution new inventions were not the only changes being made. There were plenty of changes in the way business was run, as well as legal changes pertaining to patent protection and copyrights. The idea of limited liability also made its first appearance, along with investment capital companies (Kennedy). The changes that were made in business and in legal protection for inventors and business owners made the whole revolution possible. In many cases, business owners would worry about going bankrupt and inventors about their ideas being stolen. With these new ideas about business and law, people no longer worried about such things, and were free to pursue their dreams. Without these important steps, technology would not be what it is today.
This YouTube video discusses the assembly line, which was a huge step in the Industrial Revolution.