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May 4, 750
Beowulf
Survivng version of Beowulf was composed. -
May 4, 1066
Normans defeat Saxtons
William the Conqueror becomes King of England -
May 4, 1215
Magna Carta
King John is forced to sign the Magna Carta -
May 4, 1348
Plague
The Black Death begins sweeping through England. -
May 4, 1375
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Surviving version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight written -
May 4, 1381
Bible
Bible first translated to English -
May 4, 1386
Canterbury Tales
Chaucer begins writing the Canterbury Tales. -
May 4, 1470
Mort d'Arthur
Thomas Malory writed Mort d'Arthur -
Period: May 4, 1484 to
English Renaissance
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May 4, 1516
Utopia
Thomas More publishes Utopia -
May 4, 1564
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare is born. -
May 4, 1582
Astrophel and Stella
Sir Philip Sidney writes Astrophel and Stella -
Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare writes Romeo and Juliet -
Globe
Globe Theater opens -
Faerie Queen
Faerie Queen by Edmund Spenser is published in its entirety. -
Bible
King James version of the bible is published -
Period: to
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
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John Donne
John Donne's Songs and Sonnets published -
Civil War
English Civil War begins. -
Quakers
George Fox founds the society of frinds (Quakers). -
Wigs
Full-bottomed wigs become the fashion. -
Fire
Great frie of london -
Paradise Lost
John Milton's Paradise Lost is published. -
Principia
Sir Isaac Newton publishes Principia -
Rape of the Lock
Alexander Pope publishes Rape of the Lock -
Gulliver's Travels
Jonathon Swift publishes Gulliver's Travels -
"Elegy in a Country Churchyard"
Thomas Gray publishes "Elegy in a Country Churchyard." -
Dictionary
Samuel Johnson publishes Dictionary of the English Language -
Lyrical Ballads
William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge publish Lyrical Ballads. -
Period: to
The Romantic Period
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Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen publishes Pride and Prejudice -
Frankenstein
Mary SHelley publishes Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. -
"Ode to the West Wind"
Percy Bysshe Shelley writes "Ode to the West Wind" -
"Ode on a Grecian Urn"
John Keats publishes his poem. -
Period: to
The Victorian Period
-
Victoria becomes Queen
-
William Wordsworth becomes poet laureate
-
Sonnets from the Portuguese
Elizabeth Barett Browning publishes Sonnets from the Portuguese -
Charles Darwin
Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species -
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carrol publishes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland -
The Ring and the Book
Robert Browning publishes The Ring and the Book -
Dictionary
First book (A-ant) of Oxford English Dictionary published -
First Sherlock Holmes tale published
-
Queen Victoria dies
-
Period: to
Modern and Postmodern Periods
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Joseph Conrad publishes Heart of Darkness
-
T.S. Eliot publishes The waste Land
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James Joyce publishes Ulysses
-
Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister
-
George Orwell publishes Animal Farm
-
Doris Lessing publishes The Golden Notebook
-
V. S. Naipaul publishes A Bend in the River
-
Nadine Gordimer wins Nobel Prize for Literature
-
Canterbury monestary
St. Augustine founded Canterbury monestary. -
Exeter Book
Monks copy poems into the Exeter Book -
Period: to May 4, 1485
Old English and Medieval Periods
