British Literature

By kelsey_loub
  • Celtic church begins to spread Christianity among people living in Severn Valley.
    May 3, 653

    Celtic church begins to spread Christianity among people living in Severn Valley.

  • May 3, 664

    Synod of Whitby establishes Roman church in England.

  • May 3, 731

    Bede completes A History of the English Church and People.

  • May 3, 750

    surviving version of Beowulf composed.

  • Macbeth kills Duncan 1.
    May 3, 1040

    Macbeth kills Duncan 1.

  • May 3, 1042

    Edward the Confessor becomes king of Saxons.

  • May 3, 1066

    Normans defeat Saxons at Hastings;

  • May 2, 1073

    Canterbury becomes England's religious center

  • Nov 25, 1130

    Oxford becomes a center for learning

  • May 3, 1170

    Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered.

  • King John forced to sign Magna Carta.
    Jun 15, 1215

    King John forced to sign Magna Carta.

  • Jan 5, 1233

    First coal mined at Newcastle.

  • May 3, 1258

    First commoners allowed in parliament.

  • Edward 1 becomes king.
    May 3, 1272

    Edward 1 becomes king.

  • May 3, 1277

    Edward conquers Wales

  • May 3, 1295

    Edward 1 assembles Model Parliament.

  • May 3, 1337

    Beginning of the Hundres Years' War with France.

  • May 3, 1348

    Black Death begins sweeping through England.

  • May 3, 1375

    Surviving version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight written.

  • Bible first translated into English.
    May 3, 1381

    Bible first translated into English.

  • May 3, 1381

    Peasants' Revolt.

  • May 3, 1386

    Chaucer begins writing The Canterbury Tales.

  • May 3, 1455

    The Wars of the Roses.

    It went on from 1455-1485
  • May 3, 1470

    Thomas Malory writes Morte d' Aruthur.

  • May 3, 1485

    Henry Vll becomes the first Tudor king.

  • May 3, 1500

    Everyman first performed.

  • May 3, 1512

    First masque performed.

  • Thomas More publishes Utopia.
    May 3, 1516

    Thomas More publishes Utopia.

  • Church of England established.
    May 3, 1534

    Church of England established.

  • May 5, 1534

    Henry Vlll issues Act of Supremacy.

  • May 3, 1535

    thomas More executed.

  • May 3, 1541

    John Knox leads Calvinist reformation in Scotland.

  • May 3, 1547

    Henry Vlll dies.

  • May 3, 1549

    The Book of Common Prayer issued.

  • May 3, 1558

    Elizabeth l becomes queen.

  • May 3, 1563

    More than 20,000 Londoners die in plague.

  • May 3, 1564

    William Shakespeare is born.

  • May 3, 1582

    Sir Philip Sidney writes Astrophel and Stella.

  • Edmund Spenser publishes The Faerie Queene, Part l.

  • Shakespeare writes Romeo and Juliet.

  • Globe theater opens.

  • Elizabeth l dies; James l becomes king.

    Elizabeth l dies; James l becomes king.

  • King James Bible published.

    King James Bible published.

  • First patent laws passed.

  • James l dies.

  • John Donne's Songs ad Sonnents published.

  • Public mail service established.

  • John Milton publishes Lycidas.

    John Milton publishes Lycidas.

  • English Civil War begins.

  • Puritans close theaters.

  • John Suckling publishes Fragmenta Aurea.

  • Robert Herrick publishes Hesperides.

  • Charles l beheaded.

  • Early newspaper ads appear.

  • Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector.

    Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector.

  • Theaters reopened.

  • Royal Society chartered.

  • Drury Lane Theater opens.

  • Great fire of London.

    Great fire of London.

  • John Milton's Paradise Lost published.

  • James ll becomes king.

  • Glorious Revolution.

  • Bill of Rights becomes law.

  • First daily newspaper begins publication.

  • Great Britain created by Act of Union.

  • George l becomes king.

  • First organized cricket match takes place.

  • Johnathan Swift publishes Gulliver's Travels.

  • Thomas Gray publishes " Elegy in a Country Churchyard"

  • Samuel Johnson publishes Dictionary of the English Language.

  • Britain enters Seven Years' War.

  • England goes to war with France.

  • John Keats publishes ''Ode on a Grecian Urn.''

  • Horse-drawn buses begin operating in London.

  • Edward Vll becomes king.

  • Britaon enters World War l.

  • Women over thirty achieve right to vote.

  • James Joyce publishes Ulysses.

  • Britain enters World War ll.

  • Winston Churchill becomes prime minister.

  • George Orwell publishes Animal Farm.

  • Elizabeth ll becomes queen.

  • Margaret Thatcher becomes first woman prime minister.

    Margaret Thatcher becomes first woman prime minister.

  • Celebration of New Year's Eve in the Millennium Dome.

  • Anglo-Saxon invasion.

  • St. Augustine founds Christian monastery at Canterbury, Kent

  • Vikings attack Lindisfarne.

  • Alfred the Great becomes King of Wessex.

    Alfred the Great becomes King of Wessex.

  • Saxon monks copy Old English poems into The Exeter Book.

  • English defeated by Danes at Battle of Maldon.

  • Period: to May 3, 1485

    British Literature

  • Period: to

    British Literature